Who is Odysseus?
ho is Odysseus?
Odysseus is a hero from the world of Ancient Greece, who may have lived over 2000 years ago. He is believed to have been the King of Ithaka – a Greek island on the west coast of the mainland of Greece. As a great hero and warrior, he joined the war against the city of Troy, with the aim of recapturing Helen of Sparta, the wife of the King Menelaus.
He is the protagonist of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’, a work that narrates the adventures of Odysseus on his way back home. His departure is from the sacked and destroyed city of Troy – after the Greeks had won the long war. His destination – of course his home island of Ithaka.
What should have taken him perhaps a few weeks to get back to his home, back to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, took some ten years. His journey back home is filled with adventure, anguish, and insurmountable obstacles. These obstacles take on ‘mythical’ form, whether they are the one-eyed giants – the Cyclops (see image) – or the enchanting witch Calypso who has him ‘imprisoned’ on her paradisiacal island.
No doubt Odysseus was a great warrior, but in the tale that describes his journey, his most enduring characteristic is his ‘cleverness’ or ‘cunning’ – which he must display time and time again if he is to make it back to his beloved home.
Odysseus' journey home is one of the most famous and loved stories of western civilization, and scholars have researched in great detail its major influence on our culture. Some writers see Odysseus’ journey as a spiritual and emotional journey, the battles he is in fact fighting are the demons within himself – the demons we all have. His destination is none other than achieving ‘wholeness’ and ‘wisdom.’ Hence, Ithaka itself takes on symbolic meaning and becomes more than an island but a ‘home’ that takes on a unique meaning for each individual in their own journeys.
The idea of Odysseus’ journey encapsulating the journey we all, in some shape or form, take in our lives is reflected in the brilliant poem by the Greek poet Cavafy called Ithaka:
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
The rest of the poem can be found here: www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=74&cat=1
A good introduction to this fascinating character can be found at:
www.sparknotes.com/lit/odyssey/character/odysseus/
Odysseus is a hero from the world of Ancient Greece, who may have lived over 2000 years ago. He is believed to have been the King of Ithaka – a Greek island on the west coast of the mainland of Greece. As a great hero and warrior, he joined the war against the city of Troy, with the aim of recapturing Helen of Sparta, the wife of the King Menelaus.
He is the protagonist of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’, a work that narrates the adventures of Odysseus on his way back home. His departure is from the sacked and destroyed city of Troy – after the Greeks had won the long war. His destination – of course his home island of Ithaka.
What should have taken him perhaps a few weeks to get back to his home, back to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, took some ten years. His journey back home is filled with adventure, anguish, and insurmountable obstacles. These obstacles take on ‘mythical’ form, whether they are the one-eyed giants – the Cyclops (see image) – or the enchanting witch Calypso who has him ‘imprisoned’ on her paradisiacal island.
No doubt Odysseus was a great warrior, but in the tale that describes his journey, his most enduring characteristic is his ‘cleverness’ or ‘cunning’ – which he must display time and time again if he is to make it back to his beloved home.
Odysseus' journey home is one of the most famous and loved stories of western civilization, and scholars have researched in great detail its major influence on our culture. Some writers see Odysseus’ journey as a spiritual and emotional journey, the battles he is in fact fighting are the demons within himself – the demons we all have. His destination is none other than achieving ‘wholeness’ and ‘wisdom.’ Hence, Ithaka itself takes on symbolic meaning and becomes more than an island but a ‘home’ that takes on a unique meaning for each individual in their own journeys.
The idea of Odysseus’ journey encapsulating the journey we all, in some shape or form, take in our lives is reflected in the brilliant poem by the Greek poet Cavafy called Ithaka:
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
The rest of the poem can be found here: www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=74&cat=1
A good introduction to this fascinating character can be found at:
www.sparknotes.com/lit/odyssey/character/odysseus/
