Skip to main content

What is the theme of The Odyssey?

One theme of this epic poem is that there is no place like home.  Odysseus spends almost twenty years trying to get back to Ithaca and to his family, not content to be anywhere else (even if he's basically been in paradise twice with Circe and Calypso).  He says, "Nothing more sweet than home [...] can there be, however rich one's dwelling far in a foreign land [...]." 


Another theme addresses the value of life.  When Odysseus is in the Underworld, he speaks with Achilles, telling him not to be sad about being dead because he is so incredibly respected by all the living.  However, Achilles says, "'Mock not at death, glorious Odysseus.  Better to be the hireling of a stranger, and serve a man of mean estate whose living is but small, than be the ruler over all these dead and gone."  In other words, it is better to live a life of no consequence than it is to be powerful among the dead.  Life is to be cherished.


Penelope's and Odysseus's commitment to one another and emotional fidelity (one might argue he didn't have a choice about sleeping with Circe and Calypso), at least, also says something about the importance of loyalty for a member of either sex.  This constitutes another theme.


Further, Odysseus's interactions with Polyphemus, the Cyclops who ignores the gods' rules about hospitality because he believes he is more powerful than they, teaches the importance of humility.  Polyphemus says, "'The Cyclops pay no heed to aegis-bearing Zeus, nor to the blessed gods; because we are much stronger than themselves.'"  This proud belief comes back to hurt the Cyclops in the end when Zeus allows Odysseus to blind him.  Odysseus calls the monster an "'audacious wretch'" for his pride.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more