Odyssey

By: Grace

 

Hi, everyone, this week I’d like to talk about the great epic Odyssey.

This epic describes the return of a Greek hero Odysseus from the Trojan War. The Trojan War had lasted for 10 years because of Unassailable wall. At that time, a good idea occurred to Odysseus. He leaded the army to build a big wood horse and left it on the beach. Then the Trojan dragged the wood horse back to the wall. When received code, the soldiers who had hid in the wood horse rushed from it and occupied Troy at night.

In this epic, my favorite story is about Polyphemus. On the way to home, Odysseus and his crews found a cave which belonged to Polyphemus in order to search food. But Polyphemus ate some of the crews instead of entertaining them as an honored guest. Odysseus made him drunk with heavy wine and blinded his eyes. Then Odysseus and his crews dressed up as sheep to escape from the cave. Trouble by Poseidon, Odysseus and his crews landed at the island of the Circe. Circe turned them into pigs for their bad behavior at table. Odysseus ate a potion that gave by god and slept with Circe to return his crews to human. After had been dining and sleeping with the goddess for a year, Odysseus finally decided to back home and back to his kingship.

In the story of Polyphemus, hospitality is one of the basic keyword. From this part we can see that the relationship between the host and the guest is very delicate, and harmonious relationship requires the concerted efforts of both sides. On one side, the host should satisfy his guest and make him feel comfortable as far as possible, and at least should respect him. At this case, the wife and the son of Odysseus did well. It was the best proof that they gave the rogue guest maximum tolerate. In contrast, Polyphemus ate the visitors instead of treat them as guests. And he finally got his dessert for his unwise actions. On the other side, except showing respect to host, expressing your appreciation to host is also a necessary manner that every guest should have. Otherwise you will get into trouble. For instance, the crews of Odysseus had been turned into swine for behaving badly on the table. And Odysseus also gave his punishment to the rude guests. Hence, both host and guest have responsibility for their relationship. It is a significant content of interpersonal relationship not only in ancient but also in modern society.

Finally, Odyssey has many kinds of influence on culture later times, but in my view the greatest influence of Odyssey is the comprehensive concept of Gods. Odyssey describes a world that human live with Gods. The Gods are same as human expect their magic and immoral body. They are also jealous and selfish. Hero is the special existence between common people and Gods. Common people can become hero, as long as they are willing to struggle with their limited life. The value of life is greater than immoral body. Maybe this is also the reason for Odysseus to insist to back home instead of living with beauty forever. In conclusion, Odyssey plays an important part on the nation spirit of Greek.