The Odyssey served as inspiration for Camões, Virgílio, James Joyce, García Márquez, Guimarães Rosa. It continues and will continue to disturb Western literature. This is the sequence narrated in the Iliad, also written by the Greek poet Homer, the father of mythology and true god of Olympus, as he gave life to the gods, heroes and monsters that we know universally. In the epic poem, we have the hero Odysseus — responsible for designing the famous Trojan Horse in the Iliad — trying to return to his home, on the island of Ithaca. On the way back, he has different adventures. He awakens the wrath of Poseidon, god of the seas, and has to hide on Calypso’s Island. Meanwhile, his wife, Penelope, is besieged by several suitors and usurpers. To rescue his wife and his family’s heritage, Odysseus faces a series of fantastic adventures across the seas and Greek islands until he returns to the arms of Penelope and her son, Telemachus.
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Odysseus’s journey was originally supposed to last a few days, but it took many years, given the challenges of Poseidon’s merciless sea. During the 24 schapters, the hero goes through a panel of events that make him transform as a man. He survived the Cyclops, defeated the sorceress Circe, survived the song of the sirens and the charms of the goddess Calypso, descended into the hell of Hades, had relationships with kingdoms and returned tired, but very wise, to his home, settling again in his space after one of the most overwhelming bloody battles in the history of literature.
Popularized thanks to its philosophical appeal, the sirens’ song is one of the most important parts of the poem. The episode follows the descent into Hades. Odysseus returns from the most knowledge-filled place. He had spoken with his mother and with Thyresis, in short, walked through a territory that can be thought of as the land of song and enchantment, what tradition will identify as the field of poetic words. The measures taken by the hero when the ship approaches the island of the mermaids speaks of the temptations to dangerous situations that we face.
The saga is an allegory for our challenges throughout life. Among its general themes we can point out the moral code about caring for people, being hospitable and sharing what you receive with people. The arrival of the hero in the work is an archetype for all humanity, the return to the comfort and serenity of home, also having a philosophical conflict between free will and destiny.
by Pandora_box_Hesiod