NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Odyssey and Joseph Within the conceptual framework of this research, we will elaborate on two epic heroes and affect of their cultures. Throughout the novel, Odyssey is tested to see if his strength is truly heroic. He shipwrecks, starves and is weather beaten; but Odyssey always remains strong, like a hero should. At many points he is tempted to give up, but the one constant is his strength. Odyssey is willing to endure anything to reach his final goal.
I long for home, long for the sight of home. If any god has marked me out again for shipwreck, my tough heart can undergo it. What hardship have I not long since endured at sea, in battle! Let the trial come. " (Book 5, 229 - 33) Odyssey mental power is a characteristic that adds to his heroic qualities. It consists in his ability to resist temptations that would prolong his journey home. This is a heroic quality because instead of succumbing to temptation, he keeps his ultimate goal in site.
An example of his ability to resist temptation comes when Odyssey has to face the Lotus-Eaters. While the rest of his men want to stay forever, browsing on the native bloom, forgetful of their homelands, Odyssey remains strong and convinces them continue their journey. Another example of Odyssey ability to resist temptation is his decision to leave the island of Ogygia, home of Calypso. Odyssey is stranded there and is taken care of by Calypso. He is offered anything he desires but he respectfully declines like a true hero would. Odyssey has his mind set on reaching home, his ultimate goal.
This says a lot about his character because he is willing to give up comforts for almost certain pain. While Odyssey ability to resist temptation adds to his heroic character, perhaps his greatest heroic quality was his wit. It is his greatest asset as a hero, resolving his problems and leading him from a situation safely. Odyssey uses his cunning ideas and insuperable intelligence to overcome the many obstacles presented to him. He is a crafty thinker, always searching for the best resolution that will prove beneficial to him self and others. Odyssey uses his wit to overcome the challenge of the Cyclops, telling the Cyclops his name was Nobody so when he yells for help, no one answers and he can escape safely. "Cyclops, you ask my honorable name?
Remember the gift you promised me, and I shall tell you. My name is Nobody: mother father and friends, everyone calls me Nobody. " (Book 9, lines 394 399) He also uses his craft of cunning to decipher those servants who are disloyal so he can dispose of them and get his thrown back. Another example of Odyssey using his wit to overcome an obstacle is when he is trapped on the Aegean Island, home of Circe. Odyssey uses the advice of Hermes and his own wit to trick Circe and avoid her temptations, saving his men and ultimately finding security for a time. In each case, Odyssey looks at each situation logically and decides the best course of action.
Odyssey learns through experience that he should use his wit as his greatest tool as a hero. The learning process of holding his pride and being able to manipulate people to do what he desires pleases the gods. Athena in particular holds Odyssey in high regards. She too uses the art of deception to reach the goals she desires. As Odyssey uses his gift more often, the sympathy of the gods fall on him, and he is able to reach his goal of arriving home.
But all the gods pitied him except Poseidon; he remained relentlessly angry with godlike Odysseus, until his return to his own country. (Book I, lines 19 - 21) While Odyssey is a hero, he is still mortal. He is therefore subject to the same human emotions as everyone else. It is Odyssey arrogant nature that tends to compound his problems. While Odyssey has many great qualities, his arrogance is less admirable.
He is sometimes arrogant and boastful of his achievements. I am Odysseus son of Laertes, known before all men for the study of crafty designs, and my fame goes up to the heavens. (Book Nine, lines 19 - 20) After blinding and escaping from the Cyclops, Odyssey taunts the beast. He tells him his name and how proud he is of tricking the Cyclops. Inevitably, the wrath of Poseidon is brought down upon Odyssey for this deed, and causes the crew numerous hardships because of it. Another case where Odyssey pride is his worst enemy is in the land of the Cicones. Odyssey stays to celebrate his newfound victory, enabling a counter attack by the enemy.
This causes him to flee in haste and leaves him with many casualties. Although Odyssey possesses the flaw of arrogance, the duration of the novel proves to teach him that excessive pride provokes bad fortune. Therefore, he takes this knowledge and uses it upon his arrival in Ithaca, not openly boasting of his journeys. He keeps his profile low and consults a loyal sheepherder to obtain a truthful story of the condition of his kingdom and the suitors. He also never brags to the suitors and is able to enter his house his real identity known to the suitors. He takes the punishment of Antinous and the other suitors without divulging his identity, enabling him to determine who has invaded his house.
Throughout the epic novel The Odyssey by Homer, a detailed character sketch of Odyssey is created. Odyssey is an extraordinary character with amiable qualities of physical strength, mental power, and wit. Although his less admirable characteristic of arrogance sets him back, he learns from his mistakes and molds himself into a true hero, appreciative of the goal he worked so hard to achieve. In Genesis, Joseph foregoes the revenge available to him in the wish-fulfillment fantasy which underlies his story; in that fantasy of the powerless, one anticipates with pleasure the moment when he has his enemies within his power, unbeknownst to them. When the brothers supplicate Pharaoh's lieutenant for grain to take back to their famine-starved land, we experience momentarily the now I've got you!" dream of vengeance. But Joseph narrative allows us this pleasure only momentarily, violating our expectations and raising the discourse to another level by having the protagonist forego revenge in favor of restoration.
Joseph's temporary imprisonment of his brothers is the first stage of his providing the conditions for their repentance. Joseph, releasing his brothers from their three days' imprisonment, offers to allow them to demonstrate their truthfulness to him by leaving one of their number as a hostage while they return to Canaan to bring back their youngest brother as Joseph has demanded. This is their test: will the brothers sacrifice another brother, as they once threw Joseph in the pit and sold him into slavery out of jealous rage at the favored status of Rachel's children? The brothers move toward anagnorisis when Joseph demands that they bring their youngest brother to him: And they said one to another, "We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. " And Reuben answered them, saying, "Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required. " (Genesis 42: 21 - 22) Adversity has enabled the brothers to see the connection between their past guilt and their present predicament, though they are not at this point aware of how direct the connection is.
The result of Joseph's course of action is to bring the brothers' long-repressed guilt to the surface. Only now win there be discussion and recrimination among them concerning what had happened twenty years before. The Geneva Bible's gloss on this passage underlines the point for its readers: "Affliction maketh men to acknowledge their faults which otherwise they would dissemble. " (The Geneva Bible) But does Joseph's brothers' realization betoken genuine repentance and transformation? When the brothers return to Egypt, again needing grain, it is with Benjamin.
Judah has met Jacob's objections to parting with Benjamin by offering to stand surety for him; through their adversity Judah has learned the importance of family cohesion, even at the cost of allowing Rachel's child to retain his favored status. And when Joseph sets the final trap, placing the goblet in Benjamin's sack and having the steward tell the brothers that they may go free without Benjamin, the brothers rise to the occasion, Judah offering to remain in Egypt in Benjamin's place. As Judah was the one who suggested selling Joseph into bondage, so now it is his offer to exchange his life for Benjamin's that represents the brothers' regeneration. The re-enactment goes further, as the brothers have not only resisted the temptation to repeat their crime against a brother, but have themselves undergone the consequences their actions forced upon Joseph: false accusation and imprisonment. As the hero of Genesis, Joseph is a rather controversial epic hero. Although he is a strong and persuasive person, he does not do all the things that epic heroes usually do: he does not kill his enemies, he does not go for revenge when he has the opportunity to do so, etc.
He is Bible epic hero, and in the Bible the qualities of a hero are different from those of standard epics. Bibliography Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Translated by Richmond Lattimore.
New York: Harper & Row, 1995. The Geneva Bible. Michigan: Zondervan Publishers, 1993.
Free research essays on topics related to: epic hero, ultimate goal, joseph, true hero, odyssey
Research essay sample on Epic Hero Ultimate Goal
