En Passant

A Critical Analysis
On
THE ODYSSEY
By Homer





Introduction

In the destruction of Troy and ending of the Iliad, Homer the poet had made another of his second magnum opus that being the Odyssey in which he had continued where the Iliad had left off.

After the burning of Troy it centers through the life of Odysseus which speaks to how he became such a boisterous and yet brave person in the Odyssey and what he had done to bring victory to the Greek’s during the war and his story after bringing said victory and his journey after.

There we can begin the story and journey of Odysseus towards his return to Ithaca in the story of The Odyssey
where he sets off angering gods and monsters alike.

In occasions you’d have loved to see in the Iliad be more
entrancing and feel more at heart with the protagonist, Odysseus with his journey The Odyssey.

Summary

Enter Odysseus angering Poseidon as he boasts as to how he can return home to Ithaca unharmed and unhindered this had made the god Poseidon angry, As to how Poseidon had planned to delay his journey he had started by sending his fleet adrift and causing his journey home to be extended, at a time when he had found land he and his men met the Lotus Eaters who gave them drug like finger foods or known as the Lotus Flower many of them immediately fell victim to it causing them to feel high and lose any desires to leave and continue on with the journey ; Such as in the hit blockbuster movie “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” to where Percy and his friends had fallen victim to the Lotus Flower and had lost their goal which is to return the Thunder bolt of Zeus; And so Odysseus and his men losing many of them to the Lotus Flower via making them high and causing most of them to stay in the island.

Later on in the Odyssey he and his men had journeyed to an island where the cyclopean Polyphemus had stayed; Polyphemus was hungering and bellowing his anger as his daily meal only consisted of sheep had finally encountered a fresh batch of humans, those being Odysseus and his men – tricked the giant by offering him wine and getting him drunk, the drunken Cyclops then asked who their strongest was and that being Odysseus cunningly tricked him and told his name “Nobody” and had forged a plan to blind the giant by morning with a sharpened log, dawn came the giant had been blinded lifted the rock he used to block the entrance with had been opened with the Cyclops yelling “Nobody has hurt me!” to his fellow Cyclops them thinking it was a foresight from the gods had ignored him, with the plan in action Odysseus had left the island with his fleet with the agonizing Cyclops yelling out what Odysseus’s real name is and him being boastful had led to consequences ( his fleet being ravaged by an angered Poseidon who’s son was blinded by the hero”) .

From then on Odysseus had a short streak of luck by being given the “Troublesome Winds” and a few months left to Ithaca but was revised because of how his greedy men opened his leather bag to see treasure but had unknowingly released the winds causing their ships to once more set adrift, having visited the king of the winds and being rejected to be given the winds once more Odysseus had hoped the tides carry his fleet to good fortune only to find his entire fleet destroyed upon entering the Laestrygonian’s Island and only having his ship saved, having only his men left they wandered the sea’s to find a very odd island as it had no inhabitants, later on they had met Circe the witch as she had turned Odysseus’s men into pigs as she had hated Men, but Odysseus heeding the warning of Hermes had prevented being turned into one and having outwitted Circe, she began a feast in honor of Odysseus, but to him his longing to return home was top priority, he had been told to travel the Underworld by Circe to find a prophet to aid him in his return to Ithaca, his journey to the Underworld was perilous yet he prevailed to return back to his kingdom Ithaca with a stout heart, to his surprise his wit and wile had worked with him through his journey  as Athena had aided him all the way back home.
Yet there was still one obstacle he had to face and that being Calypso who had her first encounter with a man that being Odysseus, Calypso had easily fallen in love with him but to Odysseus treated her as a sister for 7 long and painful unrequited love-related years, until his arrival at Ithaca he began plotting as to how to kill the 108 suitors that came to leech off his prizes and winnings alongside with Athena who came to help him, and later on gets reunited with his wife and son.

Analysis

In the Odyssey the main protagonist Odysseus would greatly display his wit, bravery, valor and more heroic like traits one would find in a hero.
 In such occasion he had shown it in the blinding of Polyphemus the giant where he displays wit and bravery,
quickly defeats the giant but showed pride in his retreat and yells his name.
 At a time when he displays Valor would be his visit to the underworld where he meets his mother and fallen allies he faced them with valor and did not break down and was still persevering towards the ; he wept when he had learned of the reason to why his mother had died.

 Leadership is one of his prowess in the Odyssey, as he would lead his fleet and men he would always consider the best course of action and think the situation through clearly, an example would be where he and his crew had landed in Circe’s island as he had started to give orders to his men, such as telling them to setup camp and begin scouting the area.
In several of his temptations all of which he had successfully averted but all ended in a bind, a strong bind that left him stranded in Ogygia for 7 long years after he had rejected Calypso’s feelings for him as he had been loyal to his wife and family which portrays him as a loyal man be it what cost.

Once he had reached Ithaca he displayed his wraith to the suitors who had come to “Wed” his wife but only to leech off his prizes in the Trojan war, his return not only bring back hope for his people but justice to what has been done to his pride, seeing his riches, wife and country be sullied by the leeches of what you’d call suitors.
· Lotus Eaters
- There we would find the first bump in Odysseus’s adventure and tempting him to stay.
· Polyphemus’s Island
- Where the man wiles was tested and where his men would be tested in strength and bravery.
· Circe’s Island
- Circe had turned Odysseus’s men into pigs and how he defeated Circe and enlisted her help to travel the underworld.

· Ogygia
- He was tempted by Calypso who was an innocent flower who knew nothing about
men and had asked Odysseus to stay with her but declined, heart broke Calypso imprisoned him for 7 years in the island.

A theme to remember for the Odyssey would be ‘No Place like Home’ as it talks about the return of Odysseus to Ithaca.

Conclusion

  Odyssey is set out on a journey for a man to fix what he has done wrong and find things he lacks for himself meanwhile learning to where his limits can catch his end; similar to the movie Wizard of Oz, where the protagonist gets whirled away into a tiring journey to return home and learn along values that later Dorothy said protagonist would use in the end of her journey;,

Life would sooner return to normalcy if Odysseus had not bickered out to the gods and only stuck to returning home and having less to deal with after finishing the Trojan War.

 Ending the journey of Odysseus would be where he meets his family back in Ithaca and exterminating the suitors which had fed on his sources for as long as 7 years to which he quickly pits them all with his bow and weaponry.

Ergo; Odysseus the main protagonist willed away into a grandiose adventure with ups and downs that would lead anyone fueled with emotions, yet he stood strong and faced it all with his might, as such the Odyssey would be the Greek equivalent of the “Wizard of Oz” and would be given a lesson at the end of the book.