Explicatory Essay on Homer’s 'Odyssey'

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Pride

Passage 1, Odysseus & Calypso (book 5 lines 201-224)

In this passage, Odysseus is taking his destiny in his own hands by leaving Calypso to head to his home, wife and son in Ithaca. Despite Calypso’s powerful and emotional persuasive argument, her pleas have no chance as Odysseus has decided that a life with his family carries more weight and he forges forward with the additional understanding that he is losing the opportunity to become immortal. Odysseus saw himself as choosing the path of living his life as of a man with honor – a master over himself and his household. Pride is the driving force behind his desire to go home. If he stays with Calypso, he loses any opportunity to have control over his own life and household and will be destined to live a life “frozen in the role of the weak dependent survivor of a shipwreck”1.

Passage 2 Odysseus & Cyclops (book 9 lines 364-370, 475-481, 491-506)

In this passage, Odysseus’s ill-considered actions in entering the cave of the cyclops was clearly ruled by his hubris or excessive pride. Arrogance and hubris prevented him from seeing the situation with Polyphemus for what it really was and leaving the cave at the insistence of his men. This in turn had deadly consequences for those men and resulted in Odysseus being kept from his family and home an additional 10 years and ended in the disastrous death of his men. The demonstration of wit and cleverness that saved his life by blinding the cyclops and then making his way out of the cave by attaching to the animals was overshadowed by the complete arrogance of hubris that was shown when capriciously Odysseus decided to taunt Polyphemus by shouting his actual name, and place of residence. Hubris removed the ability of Odysseus to see the consequences of his actions and words.

Comparison of passages 1 and 2

In these passages, pride affects the leave-taking in some paradoxical ways. Odysseus’s approach to the cyclops Polyphemus was risky, and pushing the limits of his mastery of or ability to retain control over himself. It shows how the mistake he made by entering the cave give insight into his humanness as well as the kind of self control he was unable to display at the time. In this case, hubris undermined his attempt at self mastery. When Odysseus goes too far he finds himself at the mercy of his own mistakes. By the time Odysseus was leaving Calypso to head home, one can argue that he may have learned how to check his own pride. This is demonstrated in the beautiful way in which he approached his response to Calypso when being given the chance to leave the island. The difference in the leave taking of the cyclops vs Calypso is based on pride. In the leave-taking with the cyclops, Odysseus shows no humility or self control, and his emotional state was one of one of anger and defiance. When the leave-taking occurs with Calypso, both Odysseus and Calypso are emotionally open and truthful with each other. One can conclude that Odysseus has learned that humility is part of the self mastery that comes with pride.

1 The Odyssey – translated by Emily Wilson (page 65 introduction)

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Explicatory Essay on Homer’s ‘Odyssey’

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