Eurylochus runs off to alert his leader, Odysseus. His eyes swollen and red, and his heart-beating with all the epinephrine that can be pumped into one's blood, Eurylochus hesitates once more either to tell his leader or to run away, due to the fact that it was technically his fault that what happened had happened. This is another internal conflict regarding Eurylochus, which is resolved by him when he finally decides to alert Odysseus to attempt to save his men. After Odysseus is warned and alerted of the incident, he takes off, determined to rescue his men.
During the journey of Odysseus to the palace of Circe in Aeaea, he is faced with an internal conflict that may drastically affect the future of his journey home. Odysseus encounters the messenger of the gods, Hermes. Hermes offers Odysseus a plant known as the molly to help counter the treacherous techniques of Circe. After wondering whether the plant is to be useful or is to be useless or even to be a trap, Odysseus takes the risk and finally accepts the plant from Hermes and eats it. The plant proves itself worthy against the dangers of Circe, helping Odysseus rescue his men and escape the horrid island Aeaea of Circe.
Other than that, there were also some minor internal conflicts that occurred during the entire journey on the island of Aeaea. One of these internal conflicts occurred when Odysseus was thinking of amputating Eurylochus's head due to his criticism of Odysseus and how he was ordering his men to do. The conflict ended with Odysseus rejecting that thought and not cutting off Eurylochus's head.
Moving on from the topic of worrying and hesitation in decision making, Odysseus also encounters many different internal conflicts regarding his lusts and temptations, due to the fact that he has been away from his wife Penelope for a long time and other than the fact that he misses, she has not pleasured him and satisfied his sexual needs for a long period of time.
One of the internal conflicts regarding Odysseus's temptations and lust regards the nymph Calypso. Calypso inhabited the island Ogygia and lived there where she seduced and charmed many victims. When Calypso encountered Odysseus in her home island of Ogygia she fell in love with him and trapped him on her island for several years. Calypso offered to marry him and make him her immortal husband and give him eternal youth. Although, this was an offer that cannot be decline being proposed by a beautiful nymph Odysseus rejected the offer. Odysseus went through and internal conflict with himself regarding his temptation, but he ended the conflict with the decision of rejection. Odysseus rejected the offer due to the fact that he wanted to return to his homeland of Ithaca and go back to his wife Penelope and his son Telemakhos.
Moving on and disregarding the internal conflicts, an observation can be made that there were way more external conflicts that there were internal conflicts. These external conflicts not only include a one-on-one conflict or problem, but there are also some one-on-many and many-on-many conflicts. The external conflicts can be summarized mostly as battles and acts of violence either physical or verbal. There are even some conflicts that include both internal and external factors between Odysseus and other characters of the Odyssey.
The first external conflict that will be analyzed and discussed is on the island of Cyclopes between Odysseus and his men versus the mentally challenged and retarded Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of the god, Poseidon. The conflict summarized is that Polyphemus feeds on a several men from Odysseus's crew after he traps them in his dark and gloomy cave. Odysseus counters this conflict not only with power and strength but also with guile and wisdom and cleverness. Odysseus tricks Polyphemus into drinking many cups of wine offered by Odysseus, so he gets drunk and sleeps. During Polyphemus's snooze, Odysseus makes a spear with the help of his men and uses the combined strength of himself and of some of his men to drive the spear into the Cyclops's eye. After success in doing so, Odysseus and his men escape the horrid cave leaving the Cyclops in pain. They also manage to escape due to the fact that Polyphemus thought that Odysseus's real name was 'nobody'; Polyphemus calls out "nobody attacked me" to his brothers, so they disregard him.
Another external conflict that was of great significance regarding this particular epic, is not only classified as an external conflict but can also be classified as an internal conflict. During the period of time when Odysseus was in Ithaca and was disguised as a beggar, he is hosted in his own home by Telemakhos, his son, which knew his true identity. The external part of this particular conflict is how the suitors offend and regard Odysseus as inferior compared to them. This can be portrayed as a verbal external conflict. The internal factor regarding this conflict is how Odysseus uses his patience and wisdom to maintain his disguise and disregard their offenses towards him and keeps quiet. This is both an external conflict and internal conflict because the suitors externally offend Odysseus and attempt to hurt him while Odysseus internally maintains his temper and calms himself using his patience to maintain his secret identity and his disguise to manage to take revenge on the suitors later on in the epic.
The last but not least external conflict within this phantasmagorical piece of Greek literature is the final battle between the suitors and Odysseus and his son. After locking the door of Odysseus's home and giving a speech about how the suitors came into his home and consumed a lot and tried to marry his Penelope and steal her from him, he took his bow and started hunting the suitors like deer a closed room one by one. With the help of Telemakhos, his son, not one life of any suitor was spared. All was gone.
In conclusion, there were many internal and external conflicts in this mesmerizing piece of Greek literature by the one and only Homer. Both internal and external conflicts were regarding both Odysseus ad other characters in the Odyssey, but obviously, the focus was mainly on the hero of the epic, Odysseus. Odysseus has portrayed great decision making skills, and breathtaking strength through all of the conflicts he was regarded in either internal or external. The guile illustrated by Odysseus through cannot be disregarded as well, for he used his skill and cleverness to overcome many conflicts and obstacles.
