Stories about Odysseus - Ancient Greek Culture - Essay Example

Stories about Odysseus Among the stories written about Odysseus is Odyssey, an ancient Greek poem that is part of the sequel known as Iliad attributed to Homer. The story centers on the life of Odysseus especially on his return home after the Trojan War, a battle that resulted in the fall of Troy. Odyssey, a warrior in the Greek army took part in the war and after the fall of Troy had to find his way back home to Ithaca. As fate had it, Odyssey faced myriad challenges thereby resulted in him taking ten years to get back to Ithaca. The story therefore centers on the activities and challenges he faced for the ten years until he eventually got to Ithaca after ten years in the jungle. In doing this, the author portrays strategic literary features and thematic issues that help portray the development of literature in the early Greek society as the discussion below portrays. The story portrays various cultural features of the ancient Greek societies coupled with the beliefs of the time. Among the most conspicuous cultural features in the story is the relationship that existed between the people and their gods among other spiritual transcendental orders. The characters in the story interact with their gods and goddesses at personal level with the spiritual beings influencing the social features in the early Greek societies. Additionally, the literary is a fundamental portrayal of the early civilization in the Greek society. The existence of the poem coupled with the literary techniques used in its composition shows the development of literature at the time. The author of the poem uses strategic literary techniques in his attempt to narrate the story thereby aiding the visualization of the action in the poem a feature that enhances comprehension of the story. The author divides the story into three sections thereby obtaining an opportunity to serialize the plot. The sections include escape to the Phaeacians, Odyssey’s account of the adventure, return to Ithaca and slaying the suitors. In each of the above sections, the author narrates the experiences of Odyssey as he finds his way back home. Just as the title of each sections portray, every section centers on particular events that influenced the life and experiences of Odyssey. Segmentation of the story is a stylistic strategy that contributes to the narration of the story since the techniques heightens the conflict in the story. Suspense for example is a strategic feature that the author employs whose success relies on the segmentation of the plot. The author succeeds in building a conflict in one section with the promise of solving such in the next segment of the story. The action in the story begins ten years after the Trojan War. Back in Ithaca, the society enjoys some calm with the locals continuing with their lives after forgetting the events of the war. At the home of Odyssey, one hundred and eight energetic young compete to woo Odyssey’s wife in accordance to the customs. Apparently, the people believe that Odyssey died in the war and after the lapse of the formal mourning duration, the society expects the woman to remarry. The numerous suitors therefore seek to fulfil the societal norms by finding an appropriate husband for the wife (Homer 09). Additionally, the fact that Odyssey was a hard working person and had succeeded in amassing great wealth has contributed to the influx of the higher number of suitors. The second part of the story begins with Odyssey escaping a jail in Calypso. Odyssey was a captive of war and had been for the past seven years since the war ended. He therefore succeeds to escape the prison thereby launching his journey back to Ithaca. The daunting journey takes Odyssey three more years. when he eventually reaches Ithaca only to fund his home full of energetic suitors, Odyssey pretends to be yet another suitor but later engages the other suitors which with the aid of his son, Telemachus he ins thereby regaining his home. Just as is the case with such legends, the story ends in a happy mode with Odyssey reuniting with his family. The simplistic plot espouses heightened action and portrays the relationship between the people of ancient Greek and their gods and goddesses thereby succeeding in portraying a conflict between fate and freewill. While the plot narrates the story of Odysseys and his predicament, the same story runs yet another complementary and parallel narration of the conflict among the gods and goddesses. At the beginning of the story, Odysseys’ goddess discusses Odyssey’s fate with the king of gods. The gods influenced the lives of humans with the people believing that the gods determined an individual’s fate. Odyssey’s goddess, Athena, portrays a strong resolve to save and protect Odyssey against his numerous enemies as a way of portraying her strength and agility among the kingdom of the gods. Her greatest enemy, Poseidon, the god of the sea is for example absent while he discusses Odyssey’s fate with the king of gods at the beginning of the story. This portrays Athena as one of the protagonists in the story alongside Odyssey, her human representation while Poseidon is one of the many antagonists. Besides the relationship between humans and the gods, other fundamental thematic issues that the narrative portrays include warfare. Warfare is the embodiment of conflict in the narrative as the author develops and sustains numerous conflicts all of which result in wars. The story begins with activities that happen after the greatest war at the time, the Trojan War. Another eminent war the author develops strategically happens in the last section of the story when Odyssey faces the numerous suitors who had invaded his home to woo his wife. Power struggles were rampant in the early civilizations with most of such struggles resulting in regional and civil wars. Literature as a type of art seeks to represent the society through the common media. The author achieves this through the systematic thematic issues he addresses in his story key among which is warfare. The strategic inclusion of the numerous wars in the narrative is a portrayal of the extent of warns and conflicts in the society. Another equally important cultural feature that the author espouses as a thematic issue is love and marriage. Family has remained one of the most essential units in a society. As such, a society often developed effective laws to govern the creation and maintenance of a family. The early Greece society had effective laws to govern the creation and maintenance of the institution including an effective way of wife inheritance in order to quell wrangles that would arise after the death of a family member. The relationship between Odyssey and his wife, Penelope is intimate with the two having a son. Unlike many other men who died, Odyssey’s case was different since the society did not find and burry his body after the war. As such, the society had an effective way of ensuring that the wife remarried in a manner that minimized conflicts. This explains the succession process that takes place ten years after Odyssey’s disappearance since such a time would only imply that Odyssey had died in the war. Love, family and relationships help sustain a society. Love and relationships are varied. Additionally, they exist at different levels. The narrative strives to capture many of these aspects in the plot. Besides the love between Odyssey and his wife Penelope, there exists a different type between Odyssey and his goddess, Athena, different type of love exists between Penelope and her son Telemachus. The numerous categories help explain the relationship among the numerous institutions in the society. The gods for example are supernatural and therefore manipulate the fate of the people. The love between Odyssey and his god therefore explains his fate as Athena as the goddess protects and defends him throughout the tedious journey. The affection that exists between father and son enhances their relationship as they unite to defeat the numerous suitors who had colonized their home. Justice is yet another thematic issue that the author addresses in the narration. The early Greece society had systematic ways of ensuring justice in their societies. Such ways included warfare, which the author portrays. Additionally, the gods oversaw the relationship among the people thereby ensuring peaceful coexistence among the people. While they did appear physically to the people, the author portrays them as instrumental features in the society that helped influence an individual’s fate. This way, the help influence justice in the society by punishing arrogance while rewarding loyalty and obedience. Odyssey was a humble and righteous man. Additionally, he was prayerful and related well with his gods. The gods therefore adored him and often protected him. After surviving the numerous years in captivity, he succeeds to escape the prison thereby making his way home. Once home, the fight against the numerous suitors was a way of obtaining social justice thereby remaining as the only eligible suitor. His god helped him thereby enhancing his defeat, a feature that handed him back his family. Religions have remained a fundamental cultural aspect throughout the history of humans. The early Greek society is therefore not an exception as the people maintain dedicated relationships with their supernatural beings. The societies have myriad gods who perform different functions. To portray the close relationship between the gods and the people, the author deliberately provides Athena, Odyssey’s god a fundamental part of the plot thereby making her among the essential influencers of the plot in the narrative. The characters especially Odyssey maintains a personal interaction with the gods. Athena disguises herself as Telemachus, Odyssey’s son on several occasions thereby aiding Odyssey escape from captivity, guides and protects him all the way home. Through the interpersonal relationship between the humans and the gods, portray the role of each in developing a peaceful society. Additionally, this helps portray the role of the gods among other supernatural spirits n the development of a peaceful and stable society especially according to the mundane social structures. Among the biggest arguments that the story presents is the relationship between free will and fate, the lives of the characters in the story seem to depend on either fate or free will with the difference between the two being significant. Free will refers to the ability of an individual to act independently; fate on the other hand alleges a divine intervention with either the gods or the spirits being among the fundamental beings that account for occurrences in the society. Odyssey, the key character in the story portrays a conflict between the two thereby presetting the contemporary reader with the dilemma in the determination of the source of authority in the narrative. The people believe in the existence of the gods with their roles being significant. Athena for example plays fundamental role in the life of the key character. He influences his life by guiding him from captivity and ensuring that he wins the war against the several suitors in order to win back his family. Odyssey therefore portrays a strong and dedicated will coupled with a supportive god who guides him through the wilderness thereby contributing to his success. However, while the author portrays a great influence of the gods in the life of Odyssey, the scenario differs in the lives of the other characters in the narrative most of who lack a god of their own. Additionally, the author does not portray other characters as being spiritual as Odyssey is in the narrative. This invokes a conflict and a literary dilemma on the mechanism of choosing a god and developing a relationship with them. Athena protected Odyssey throughout the narrative. As his protector, Athena disguises himself in several occasions thereby aiding Odyssey to complete specific tasks in the novel. However, Odyssey acts oblivious of the influence of his protector. The goddess reveals herself in few occasions where she strategically helps him overcome some challenges. In most of the cases, the author portrays Odyssey as acting alone thereby escaping from the captive without any help and finding his way back home with little assistance from the goddess. While this is the case, the audience understands the role that Athena plays in rescuing Odyssey and the favor Odyssey enjoys from his protector, Athena. At the beginning of the novel for example, Athena talks to the king of the gods about Odyssey. The discussion centers on how to help him owing to the affection that the goddess has for him. Evidently missing from the discussion between Athena and the king of gods is Poseidon, a sworn enemy of Odyssey and the god of the sea. Odyssey’s life and victories reflect the victories of his protector. Whenever Poseidon seeks to harm Odyssey, Athena steps in to counter her influence thereby stabilizing the life of Odyssey. This therefore presents a major dilemma on the relationship between free will and fate since the author makes the audience understand the role of the gods in determining the fate of an individual while leaving the rest of the characters oblivious of the role of the gods in influencing the actions in the plot. The characters therefore strive to create a fair and normal society in which they are free to make decisions. However, the gods punish defiance while rewarding loyalty a feature that helps influence the course of action in the plot. As with any other literature, the author if the narrative employs strategic grammatical and literary features in order to enhance communication. Among the most conspicuous stylistic devices is suspense. Suspense is an effective stylistic device that helps sustain readership of a story. The author for example segments the story strategically in order to heighten suspense. This way, the author introduces conflicts in prior paragraphs and leaves them unresolved. Through such, the audience reads the other successive paragraphs in order to find the solution to such conflicts. The author for example introduces a segment he entitles as Odyssey’s account of his experience in which Odyssey further recounts stories that the audience must have known. This portrays the effectiveness of the tactic as the author seeks to sustain his readership since he keeps the problem unresolved until the final segment. The author further maintains a simplistic plot as he uses clear and simple sentences in his story. The use of language helps improve the target audience; the author’s choice of words therefore helps most of the audience understand the plot since the use of jargons often discriminate against the audience group. The author strategically employs simple sentences owing to the fact that such expands the boundaries of the target audience besides enhancing the understanding of the plot. Additionally, the author employs vivid description as a way of retelling the story. The action pact plot requires vivid description of both the setting and the action in order to enhance the audience’s understanding of the plot. Unlike films that provide the audience with actual images, literature relies on the mental images that the audience creates while they read the plot. Vivid description helps the audience develop such mental images that therefore enhance their visualization of the story. Tis way, the plot of the narrative becomes realistic. Blocky texts make narration dull and boring. The author therefore employs effective tools that readily break the monotony of ready blocky paragraphs. The author for example uses dialogues as a way of adding interactivity in the plot. Dialogue refers to the inclusion of discussion among the characters in a narrative. The author employs the technique as a way of breaking boredom and overcoming confusions that are likely to arise in reading successive paragraphs. Additionally, the use of dialogues and monologues in the narrative helps portray the features of the characters besides their role in portraying the magnitude of a conflict in the plot. In retrospect, Odyssey is among the great literary works on ancient Greek cultures. The poem does not only succeed in portraying the cultural features of the early society but also helps portray fundamental literary features that easily exhibit the development of literature. Among the vital conflicts in the plot of the narrative is the conflict between free will and fate. The author provides a lasting relationship between the by placing the audience at a vantage point to observe the relation between the two. While the characters conduct themselves in the narrative oblivious of either the existence or the role of the gods, the audience observes the input of the gods as they influence the action in the plot. This helps develop an understanding of the two thereby influencing the behavior of the audience. Work cited Homer. The Odyssey. New York: Digireads.com Publishing, 2004. Print Read More