Nathaniel Mc Intyre
Period 3
11/5/14

Odyssueus the Man

Odysseus yearns for his Ithaca. The great hero of the Trojan war knew he wanted to see his land, feel his soil.Odysseus though being a thinking man he was still but a man that was emotionally and physically torn due to the missing of his beloved kingdom, his son he has never set eyes upon, and the lack of embracing the true love his wife. Telemachus, His son causes great disappointment. Without a father, his son strives to grow and mature yet he has not the slightest idea of where to. However, as Telemachus struggles to reach manhood and his father struggles to return to Ithaka, their seemingly separate journeys are connected. They both learn values that turn a boy into a man and a great man even greater. In the epic poem the Odyssey, Homer uses parallel rites of passage with Odysseus and Telemachus to develop the importance of the father son-bond. Early on in both of their stories, Odysseus and Telemachus learn to practice strong will in initiating their own journeys. Even though Telemachus reaches the cusp of his childhood, the individuals around him plague him into believing he remains a boy. When the hero does return, he still teaches valuable lessons “It is easy to be mad at anytime but it is hard to mad at the right time” this Odysseus tells his boy. Though they were part Homer seems to but them close to eachother. See they both had very difficult journeys but when they were united for the first time it as if they knew what one had gone through to see and ruturn to one another. Penelope the wife of the man hero Odysseus, but she is also the center of the plot involving the suitors and the fate of Telemakos and Ithaca itself with not only providing the motivation for Odysseus's return to Ithaca. She is ambivalent, variously calling out for Artemis to kill her and, apparently, considering marrying one of the suitors. When disguised Odysseus returns, she announces in her long interview with the disguised hero that whoever can string Odysseus's rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe shafts may have her hand. "For the plot of the Odyssey, of course, her decision is the turning point, the move that makes possible the long-predicted triumph of the returning hero due to this Odysseus is testing his wife to she if she had stayed faithful and she had been. When the contest of the bow begins, none of the suitors is able to string the bow, but Odysseus does, and wins the contest. Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors- Antinous first who he finds drinking from Odysseus' cup - with help from Telemachus, Athena and two servants, Eumaeus the swineherd and Philoetius the cowherd. Odysseus has now revealed himself in all his glory, (with a little makeover by Athena) and it is standard (in terms of a recognition scene) for all to recognize him and be happy. Penelope, however, cannot believe that her