Odysseus Cannot Return Home in Homers Odyssey Essay -- Odyssey essays

Odysseus Cannot Return Home in Homers Odyssey Websters College Dictionary defines home as An environment offering certification and happiness and a valued place regarded as refuge or place of origin. Anyone can build a house but the emotional aegis a home provides is created by the people who live there. In Homers Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus leaves his home in Ithica to fight in the Trojan war. The Odyssey tells the story of his undependable journey back to Ithica, and the turmoil he experiences. Due to his strong desire to lapse to the place he remembered as home, Odysseus endurs the hardships of his journey. He hopes his homecoming will return him to the like home, and same life he built twenty years ago. Odysseus will never truly return home because he is not the same king, husband, or serviceman he once was He is not capable of recreating the home he once had. Ulysses quote, I am part of altogether that I have met, is the epitome of why Odysseus can never a gain truly return home. Throughout his journeys he has experienced multiple life changing events. As the quotation states, he has become a part of everything he has experienced. Victimized by kleos, arrogance, and emotional weakness, Odysseus is forever changed from the Trojan war, and his journey home. Fighting on the dispute grounds of the Trojan war, left Odysseus narcissistic, and controlled by his desire for kleos. Odysseus desire for recognition is demonstrated often before he reaches Ithica. It eventually leads to the death of all of his men. An in front example is the manner in which he dealt with the Cyclops. When Odysseys and his men were sailing back to sea, after escaping the beast, he called out to the already furious Cyclops,... ...the suitors and the women who were in some elbow room connected to them. Odysseus will never be the same husband, because he broke the trust between himself and Penelope, and the security of marriage. Emotionally damaged and belligerent, Odysseus is not the same man and will never be able to play the role of the person he was. The home he once had, the security, attachment, and people that are associated with it, will all be effected by him. The home Odysseus, the all mighty Trojan hero once built, will never again be more than a memory. Works Consulted Bloom, Harold. Homers Odyssey Edited and with an Introduction, NY, Chelsea House 1988 Crane, Gregory. Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey, Frankfurt, Athenaeum 1988 Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York 1996 Tracy, Stephen V. The Story of the Odyssey Princeton UP 1990