From the books that you have read, what do you think is the most daunting obstacle facing Odysseus on his return back to his home land and whilst he is reclaiming his home land from rival hands?

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Miles Beardsley

GCSE Course work

From the books that you have read, what do you think is the most daunting obstacle facing Odysseus on his return back to his home land and whilst he is reclaiming his home land from rival hands?

 

There are many obstacles in the Odyssey that Odysseus has to face on his way home; the Cyclops, Circe, the Suitors to name but a few.  They all pose a different threat to Odysseus and his men.  Some episodes cause Odysseus little trouble as he just loses some of his men, for example the Laestrygonians; during some events Odysseus’ life is actually endangered, for example the Cyclops incident; and some of the other obstacles which face Odysseus are emotional as well as physical.  An emotional obstacle could be described as an obstacle that hurts Odysseus in a way that will make him depressed or irritated, for example when his men open the bag of winds Odysseus wants to commit suicide.  During the course of this essay I will touch on a number of different elements from the books of the Odyssey that I have read related to this title.  I will comment on what obstacles hurt Odysseus most and whether they are emotional or physical obstacles.

Firstly on his way home from Troy, Odysseus goes to the land of the Cicones.  Here, he and his men sack the town and divide the women and plunder they took between them.  Odysseus then told his men they needed to leave the island, but they didn’t want to.  They wanted to stay and celebrate the sacking of the town and the victory over Troy.  The next morning the Cicones gathered a force and attacked the unaware Greeks.

In this situation the Cicones were not really a very big obstacle to Odysseus as he managed to sack the town and could have left with out any losses.  But it was Odysseus’ men that were the biggest obstacle and caused some of the men to die:

‘And then I said we must escape with all possible speed.  But my fools of men refused.’

This shows that Odysseus told the men that they should have left the island but they refused.  This is a physical obstacle for Odysseus because if he had tried to lead his men away from the island then they would have rebelled against him, so therefore he was actually obstructed by his men.  There is a reason for the men disobeying Odysseus though and this is because they had been fighting in Troy for ten years and wanted to have a break from fighting and working.  This would also have been an emotional obstacle for Odysseus for a number of reasons; he would have had to face the deaths of the men:

‘We sailed on from Ismarus with heavy hearts, grieving for the loss of our dear companions.’

This would have played on Odysseus mind and he would have felt sad to have lost men, he would have been emotionally dejected.  Here ‘Heavy hearts’ means that they were sad and were grieving the loss of the men.  Odysseus probably would have thought that if the men had listened to him then the men would not have died.  The men should have listened to Odysseus as he is a wise, old man who had experienced many more so he had and therefore had a better knowledge of life and war.

        Odysseus and his men then set sail.  They then came to the land of the Lotus-Eaters.  Odysseus sent some of them to go and explore the area.  They soon found the Lotus Eaters who offered them some lotus:

Those who ate the honeyed fruit of the plant lost any wish to come back and bring us news.  All they now wanted was to stay where they were with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the lotus, and to forget all thoughts of return.

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This quote describes what happened when men ate the fruit.  This would have been a physical and emotional obstacle for Odysseus: the men not leaving the land was a physical obstacle.  This is not the men’s fault however as Odysseus sends them to go and explore the area.  Therefore this obstacle is made more difficult to conquer by Odysseus as he sent the men to go and explore when he should have gone himself.  Odysseus would also have been hurt emotionally by this situation as he had just lost men at the land of the Cicones.  The way Odysseus ...

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