Analysis of Odysseus' Adventures Essay Sample

Odysseus was an incredible man who went through many adventures to get back to his family after he left for the War of Troy. Some of these adventures consisted of , the war itself, the land of Cyclopes, the Island of Aeolus, Circe, the Sirens, Scylla, the island of Thrinacia, Charybdis, Ogygia, King Alcinous and finally his own land, Ithaka. 

Odysseus’s first adventure was the War of Troy.  Although he didn’t want to, he left his wife and son behind and went to war. If it hadn’t been for Odysseus’s bravery, the Greeks would of lost the war early on. (p.g 67) At the end the Greeks won the war because of Odysseus’s idea. This idea was to build a big wooden horse and leave it so the Trojans brought it within the city not suspecting anything, then at night the hidden Greeks inside the horse attacked the city. (p.g 115-117)

After a short stop at a strange island were Odysseus’s men ate honey-sweet fruit and grew forgetful, they landed in the land of Cyclopes.  Odysseus came to the Cyclopes’s cave and saw goods in it. (p.g 154-156)  The Cyclopes was large and had one eye. Then the Cyclopes came back to his cave and did not help Odysseus and his men. After Odysseus begged Cyclopes to help them again, the Cyclopes took two of his men and ate them! Odysseus made a plan to kill the Cyclopes by making him drunk so he would fall asleep and then two stab his one eye. He did just this. The next day, he and his men left the island but Cyclopes called on the god Poisiden to avenge Odysseus. ( p.g 163) 

Then Odysseus landed to the island were Aeolus, the god of the wind was. (p.g 163-164) When Odysseus was leaving the island after dwelling there for a month, Aeolus gave him a bag of winds that blow. Odysseus set sail once more and spotted Ithaka, but then fell into sleep. Unfortunately, his men loosened the bag of winds out of jealousy therefore, all the winds escaped, driving the boat away from Ithaka and to the high seas. ( p.g 164-165 ) They landed at the same island again, but this time, Aeolus refused to help Odysseus once more.

With heavy hearts, they sailed away and arrived to the Aean Island were an enchantress named Circe lived. When some of Odysseus’s men went to discover her house, she turned them all to pigs but one. He told Odysseus about what he saw, and Odysseus went to the house knowing Circe’s tricks. After swearing not to trick Odysseus anymore, Circe was friendly to him. (p.g 167) She told him of all the dangers he would meet along his way home. 

First, Odysseus sailed past the Sirens. Their singing is beautiful and it draws men to them, but they are really monsters who devour anyone who comes to them. Odysseus was able to pass them by having his men tie him up to a pole, as to not escaping and falling for the Sirens trap. (p.g 172)

Then, there was Scylla, a six headed monster who ate people. Near Scylla, there was Charybdis, who sucked things up and then cast it back up again. Odysseus chose to go nearer to Scylla than Charybdis, because it would be better to have six of his company eaten by her than for all of them to be sucked down by Charybdis. So, Scylla ate six of Odysseus’s company. (p.g 173)

However, after a short stop at the  Island of Thrinacia, were an evil deed of Odysseus’s men brought misfortune, Odysseus found himself near Charybdis. (p.g 177) His ship got sucked down, and he lost all his men. He was only hanging on to the branch of a fig tree. Then, some pieces of his ship were cast up again by Charybdis and he jumped on it and sailed away. 

After nine days at sea alone, on the tenth day, Odysseus got to Ogygia were the nymph Calypso was. She was in love with Odysseus and would not let him go. One day the god Hermes told Calypso that Zeus wills for Odysseus to be free. (p.g 125)  Calypso built him a boat, and he sailed away from that beautiful island. 

Unfortunately, Odysseus got shipwrecked at sea, and landed in the land of the Phaeacians. There, a princess named Nausicaa found him and gave him instructions on getting to her home, the king’s palace. ( p.g 138) When Odysseus got there, he asked the queen to get him to his own land. And after revealing himself to them, the king gave Odysseus a ship and an escort to get to Ithaka. When they got there, the mariners left him on the shore sleeping, and they left. 

When Odysseus woke up from sleep, the goddess Pallas Athene appeared to him. She told him were he was, and changed his appearance to an old beggar. ( p.g 181-182) Near Odysseus was Eumaeus, an old faithful servant of Odysseus. He didn’t recognize Odysseus because of his appearance. One day, Odysseus’s son Telemachus went to the old servants house. This was the son he left so long ago to go to war. He did not recognize Odysseus either. As Telemachus was resting, Pallas Athene appeared to him and turned Odysseus back to his normal appearance to show Telemachus that he had come back.  

Odysseus told Telemachus that he would make a plan to deal with the wooers. ( p.g 197) He told Telemachus to not let anyone know that he had returned . Eumaeus led Odysseus to his own hall. Odysseus sat and ate among the wooers. When the wooers left, Odysseus and Telemachus took down all the weapons in the hall, and Telemachus hid them. ( p.g 214) The next day, there was a contest to see which one of the wooers could shoot and arrow using Odysseus’s bow through twelve axes. Whoever could accomplish this would marry the Lady Penelope, Odysseus’s wife. Fortunately, none of the wooers could do it, only Odysseus. Finally the time had come for him to slain the wooers! ( p.g 234-236)  He shot some with his bow. Telemachus, Eumaeus, and a cattle herd who was on Odysseus’s side, helped slain some of the wooers. At last, all the wooers were dead! Odysseus had victoriously won, and was reunited with his family. 

Although it took many years for Odysseus to finally reach his home, he did, and overcame his hardship.