Parallel Motivations in the Iliad and the Odyssey Essay

The Iliad and the Odyssey were metrical compositions written by mark nigh events in Grecian mythology. The Iliad detailed the utmost socio-economic class of the trojan horse state of struggle, which pitted the Grecians once against the fifth columns, and this poetic paper expound the outcome of the struggle. Homers Odyssey describes the adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses, as he was known in roman print mythology) as he tries to legislate berth, to Ithaca, adjacent the fifth column War. But there is star them that is feed in both of these poems, and that is that when everyvirtuoso is hungriness for cornerst unmatched, disaster and except complications ever arise.In the Iliad, the Greeks argon trying to wrap up the war quickly, be pull in some(prenominal) of the custody leave off their homes, unless the bloody battle is claiming lives stochastic vari open-bodied both sides, and in the Odyssey, Odysseus entirely wants to commit home, to his married woman a nd son, exactly he is delay by a series of events and denouements that for several(prenominal) time, altogether lead storys him further and further from home. The Iliad flesh out the final year of the fifth column War, which was waged by the Greeks on the Trojans all over Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus, who was the comrade of the Greek commander, Agamemnon.Paris of troy was t grey he could be granted one hankering by Aphrodite, the love and beauty beau idealdess, and he decided that he wanted Helen, who he though was the most beautiful cleaning woman in the world. The Trojans were able to get Helen, and set aside her in Troy, and the Greeks attacked Troy over Helen, consort to the myth. But in the final year of the War, it had been drawn out, and many Greek combatants only wanted to fade home.At the opening of the Iliad, Achilles, a Greek warrior who was extra fear just about ( due to his nearly-immortal status- as the only place on his body that could be harmed was the natural covering of his heel), was non participating in the battle, because Agamemnon had agreed to fork out a war prize of Achilles, who was a young girl, to Sparta, and Achilles was upset. So with Achilles out, Paris of Troys older br early(a) swagger, the Trojan Prince, was the greatest warrior in the war, and he did nigh serious damage to the Greek forces.Achilles title-holder Patroclus goes into battle, disguised as Achilles, and Hector kills him, thin faggot he has killed Achilles. Achilles is angered by the remove of his fri rest, and kills Hector in combat, and drags his body or so the besieged city of Troy for days, only when King Priam, the King of Troy, comes out to the Greek camp and negotiates with Achilles for the body, so that he could eat his son proper burial. Achilles permits him have the body, and the Iliad ends with Hectors funeral. The Odyssey is Homers travel that details the plight of Odysseus as he tries to re wrick home after the Trojan War. later on the Iliad, Achilles was remove by Paris, who was able to strike him in the heel with a single arrow, which killed him, scarcely the Greeks were victorious due to the learning and cunning of Odysseus. He came up with the plan for the Trojan horse, which was a war prize that the Greeks built for the Trojans, as they pretend spank, but when the Trojans brought it into the city, some Greeks jumped out, and opened the gate to their comrades, and the Greeks overwhelmed the Trojans from inside the citys w anys. afterward the war, Odysseus and his workforce set off on their twelve vessels, headed for Ithaca, but disaster did non wait long to strike. The actual poem begins in the middle of the storyline of the Odyssey, which is at the point where Odysseus has been held captive by the nymph fairy-slipper for seven eld, and A hencea, the goddess of sapience, is preparing Telemachus, Odysseus young son, for a ocean trip that will act as a search for his father. At the equal time, Odysseus wife, Penelope is fending off suitors, who wish to sweep up her, and take over as king of Ithaca, and Odysseus replacement, but she is able to delay them.At that time, Odysseus is very worn out, and wishes to overhaul home to see his wife and son, because he has been by for decades, forceing in the Trojan War, and then encountering disasters, and spending time as Calypsos unwilling companion on her island. But Zeus sends Hermes, the messenger god to tell Calypso that she must let Odysseus go dispense with to his family, and she gives him food, and he builds a raft to set off. And here is another(prenominal) recurring theme of the story, which is of hope, as doneout the Iliad and Odyssey there are generation when everything seems give care it is going to be alright, but them further disasters and complications occur.But Poseidon, father of a cyclops that he had killed, named Polyphemus, wrecks his raft, and Odysseus swims ashore to another island. Odyss eus reveals his story to Demodocus, the ruler of the land where he process ashore, after the story of the end of the Trojan War was told to him. This is where Odysseus explains what had happened to him from the end of the war until the end of his stay on Calypsos island. It was an act of betrayal by Odysseus lot that most delayed his return to Ithaca by-line the Trojan War.He had gone to the island of Aeolus, the outdo of the winds, who had given him a bag of winds, which he was told to use wisely, to aid in his return home. Odysseus told his crew never to touch the bag, but thinking that it contained gold, they opened it when Odysseus slept, and the winds blew the ships indorse onward from Ithaca as it was coming into sight, to near where their voyage had began. After that, Odysseus and his men encountered malevolent nymphs and cannibals, all of whom further delayed Odysseus as he tried to return home.He stayed with one nymph, Circe, for a year, where he and his crew feasted and drank, but then they set off again for Ithaca, and Circe overhauled them get started. There were countless times in the Odyssey when it seemed like everything was going alright, and that the men would be to Ithaca in just a few days if everything went on course, but it never did. Some disaster forever and a day arose that pass on it harder for the men to return home. After leaving Circe, Odysseus had been told that he had to visit a dead poet in the underworld for instructions to get back to Ithaca.When he went to the underworld for advice, he saw his mother there, and Agamemnons spirit, along with those of other Greek companions who had been slain during or after the war. When he leftover the underworld, Odysseus sailed back to Circes island again. Before left again, the Circe warned him about some of the dangers that he would tranquilize have to go through on his return, and she instructed him on how to safely survive them and wait to Ithaca.The first danger that he w as to grammatical construction were the Sirens, which were evil sea nymphs who lured sailors to their deaths with beautiful singing, and made the sailors jump overboard when they get wordd the voices of the nymphs. Odysseus staged his men to plug their ears with wax to make it so that they would not hear the Sirens singing, which would lead to their deaths. But he wanted to hear their songs himself, so he had his men linkup him to the ships mast so that he could not be led a fashion, and he cut himself trying to break free of his restraints.Odysseus and his men then passed through the qualify cavern between Scylla, a demon with many heads, and Charybdis, a dangerous whirlpool, and they arrive on the land of Thrinacia. But his men there, ignoring the warnings of Circe, killed some of the sacred cattle that belonged to the god Helios, and after they set off, he ca apply the ships to slip by aground, killing everyone but Odysseus, who washed up on Calypsos island, victorious t he reader back to the point that the root of the story began at. This detailed all of the problems that Odysseus had encountered so far in his quest to return home, after a seemingly ageless war.People in the Iliad were of the equivalent beware state, which was that they could never return home, as the war was always full of complications and divine interventions that prolonged the Trojan War, and Odysseus found that his journey back after the war had many of the same characteristics. This is the biggest similarity between the two poems as people are exhausted, and thirstiness for home, complications always delay there return, and make vitality for the Greeks (and for Odysseus, in the Odyssey) more miserable.The Phaeacians, of whom Demodocus, who he was telling his story to, was the king, decided to admirer Odysseus, and be skilled navigators, they sailed him to a hidden reserve at Ithaca, and Odysseus then stayed at the hutch of one of his former slaves, who was a swine herd. There, with the help of Athena, the goddess of experience, who had always admired and tried to help Odysseus, he planned his entrance into Ithaca, and how he would reveal himself to his wife and son, and how he would shoot down the suitors of Penelope.But as Odysseus is preparing for his fight with the suitors, who would sure bountiful try to kill him, he prevails that he is not himself at all, and with the help of Athena, he disguises himself as an elderly friar, and tells the herders he is staying with a fictitious tale about he came from Crete. At that time, Athena helps Telemachus, Odysseus son, return home from Sparta, where he had gone to ask about his fathers whereabouts, and after returning to Ithaca, he meets Odysseus, who reveals his identity, but avows his disguise, and tells no one else of his true identity.This re kick ins another theme that is present in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, which is that patience and wisdom are more valiant than force out and brute force, and when it comes down to it, wisdom usually prevails. As after nearly a decade of fighting, the Trojan War was unruffled going strong, it took an act of guile and wisdom and patience, on the part of Odysseus to secure a Greek victory. And here, as Odysseus decided to honour his new identity until every menace had been neutralized, he was again exhibiting the same gentle of patience and wisdom that he had used to win the Trojan War for the Greeks. yet disguised as a beggar, Odysseus returns to his old house that he had not seen in over two decades, and sees that it is overrun by rowdy, disrespectful suitors, who aim to marry his wife so that they can take over as King of Ithaca. But Odysseus has other plans, and calculates the strategies that he will use to defeat the suitors as Eumaeus, the swineherd, and former slave of Odysseus escorts him through the house.He meets his wife Penelope, and is able to maintain his disguise, but a house keeper, who washes the begga r Odysseus feet notices a scar that Odysseus had received from a boar hunt many years before he left to fight in the Trojan War, but he convinces the house keeper to remain silent. The side by side(p) day, Penelope has the suitors come into a direction to compete for her in an archery competition that uses the table of Odysseus. None of the suitors are strong enough to string the bow, so Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, steps forward, and as the suitors are laughing at him, he string section it.Then he, his son, and some of his former slaves turn on the suitors, and kill them all. After that, some of the supporters of the slain suitors decide that Odysseus has caused the deaths of too many men from Ithaca, blaming him for the deaths of the men he went to war with, and who were shipwrecked do to their own disobedience, in appendage to the deaths of the suitors. But Athena convinces everyone to accept Odysseus again as the King of Ithaca, and the Odyssey is finished.There are many parallel themes that are present in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, but perchance the most notable theme is the longing for home, which can only be live up to by wisdom. During the Trojan War, Greek forces go through themselves exhausted, and longing for home, but complications are only prolonging the war. Whenever they have a major accomplishment, catastrophe results in the story of the war. After Achilles was able to defeat Hector, Paris defeats Achilles. And in the end, it was the wisdom and patience of Odysseus that one the war for the Greeks.And in the Odyssey, things go much the same way. As Odysseus and his men are trying to return from Troy, and head back to Ithaca, whenever they have a significant gain, a setback seems to follow. When Odysseus got the back of winds that would allow him to control the winds and safely, and quickly voyage the vessels back to Ithaca, his disobedient men cause a problem, sending the ships back the way that they had come from. But in the en d, it was Odysseus only when who returned, as he was able to tailor temptations, and run into his way home to Ithaca, and to his family.And in the very end of Homers story, Odysseus used his wisdom to defeat his final enemies, as he was able to maintain his false identity until every flagellum had been nullified. This is how the Trojan War was won by Odysseus and the Greeks, and how he was able to finally find his way back to his family. Works Cited Homer. The Iliad. trans. Robert Fagles. new-sprung(prenominal) York Penguin, 1990. Finley, M. I. The World of Odysseus. New York Signet, 1974. Myrsiades, Kostas, ed. Approaches to Teaching Homers Iliad and Odyssey. New York MLA, 1987.