We see a lot of intervention from the gods. Athena comes to the rescue of Odysseus after she talks to Zeus about the villagers coming to kill Odysseus to take revenge for their dead sons and brothers. In the beginning when we read the introduction, we read about how the gods love to intervene and become so involved in an individual’s life. In this poem the intervention comes from Athena to Odysseus’ life. She helps him fights off the suitors as well as, scare the Cephallenians into stopping their attack and make them understand that they need to work with Odysseus and that the killing must stop.
We also see epic machinery in the fact that there is a trip to the underworld that the readers experience and the suitors although now they are dead. This trip signifies an important turning point in the suitors’ demeanor in the fact that they all begin to be more open. As well as, they begin see that they were in the wrong, because of how Agamemnon talks to them and talks about how much he respects Penelope for not marrying them.
I found one of the translator’s notes really interesting. It explains how Odysseus was a conscientious objector to the Trojan War. It talks about how he tried to escape going to the war by pretending that he was insane. I find this extremely interesting because Odysseus turns out to be this great hero from his experience at Troy and that he becomes so well known. That he is known to be this great fighter, and yet he didn’t want to fight, he wanted to stay home. When I first read this, I thought wow, complete change from how he was then to how he is now. And it made me wonder, what really changed his mind in the end, Telemachus and Penelope or the war itself?
GQ: Do you think that Odysseus made the right choice to go fight in the war in the end? If you were in a similar position, would you fight for what you believe in or would you go where you are needed, even if it meant going against your beliefs? Where have we seen moments like this in our history?
Well, because we know the outcomes of Odysseus' journies, we would assume that he made the right choice but a key thing to note is that Odysseus is not the everyday man. He is the extraordinary person whom the gods favored. Everyone else who left from Ithaca never came back to their homeland. It is my own opinion that fighting or going to war is too much of a risk for a couple andrenaline rush. If it was against my beliefs to wage war against a country so foreign and so far away, I would never go to war. This common theme of going overseas and returning as victors is hugely popularized by World War II in the media. Hollywood has provided a modern Odyssey in an essence by filming movies such as Pearl Harbor and Brothers in Arms. War is never glorious. It is sheer piracy that human nature want to take part in. We always wish to come out as victors. Furthermore, America's participation in the second World War was unnecessary due to Russia's overwhelming military.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think Odysseus should have gone to fight. Most likely, he didn't share the same beliefs as his country as a whole, and so he was fighting a war that he didn't necessarily support. I'm reminded of The Things They Carried when I think about war, and I know that what the book and the Odyssey had in common were that the soldiers were drafted, forced into a conflict that didn't stand for any of their individual values. Odysseus should have stayed home in Ithaca and been with his son and wife. If he had never gone to fight in Troy, suitors would have never come and harassed Penelope and in the process, destroy the palace. Some may argue that he gained experience from this process, well I think that from Odysseus' previous abilities, he would have wowed all of Ithaca in a different manner; one that was focused solely on himself. I mean, this is western culture, and so focus on the individual is key to success. If I were in Odysseus’ position, I would have done everything in my power to stay home and stay out of the war. I mean, I'm content with my country, I just don't want my life on the line.
ReplyDeleteI think at the end Odysseus made the right decision to listen to Athena and stop fighting. No good can ever come of continuously killing each other because there will always be another person that will want to avenge the death of their loved one. If Odysseus had not listened to Athena, the war may have gone on for several more years, and that is a hardship the people of Ithaca, Odysseus included, do not need. Plus the readers and Odysseus know that he is supposed to live on to have a happy life with Penelope until the day he dies in old age. If he did not stop the fighting, there is no way to know if that prophecy would come true.
ReplyDeleteI think that in deciding whether Odysseus should have gone to war or not, in the end it doesn't really make large of a difference. If Odysseus had stayed home he still would have been with Penelope because he would have stayed in his palace to watch the suitors. Since Odysseus did go to war, now he has had more experiences throughout his life and he is looked as a great man among the Greeks, which is nice if you liked to be famous, but he also wouldn't have had to go through the extremely long and dangerous journeys throughout the war and his journey home. The other thing that is a downside to going to the war for Odysseus is like a couple people have mentioned, Odysseus doesn't believe in the cause he is fighting for. I know that if I didn't believe in what I was fighting for I would never go to war, not that I would anyways, I think war is a waste of time and effort and a bad way to solve problems. But for Odysseus I think that he chose to go to war because he had the goal to become a famous hero in Greece and to defend the beliefs of his country even if they stood in contradiction with his own.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus should have gone to war. In the end he returned to Penelope and if he had not gone to war he would have been with Penelope the whole time but he would have regretted his decision to not go to war and possibly resented Penelope for holding him back.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to say what I would do in Odysseus' position but I would hold true to my beliefs. It is easy to view war as necessary and something that has to happen to conquer the wicked but it is very different once you are the soldier under fire. I would go to war if to fight for what I believe in but I would never go to war for a cause that I am opposed to, in war people do terrible things I would not like these things but I would understand that what you do now helps achieve the end goal.
This situation is similar to Vietnam when there was a draft and many people ran away from their draft notices and some people had no choice but to go and fight in a war they did not believe in.