Free Essays - Comparing Odysseus and Medea :: comparison compare contrast essays

Free Essays on Homers Odyssey Odysseus and Medea      Let me hear no hushed talkof death from you, Odysseus, light of councils.Better, I say, to break sod  as a farm handfor some poor country man, on iron rations,than lord it over all the exhausted dead.   Right in advance restless Odysseus leaves Circe, she tells him that he must go down into Hades to determine the shade of Teiresias, the blind prophet who advises Odysseus of his homecoming (the Wanderings). He then goes on to meet the shades of the queens and lovers of dead heroes and finally the heroes themselves. In the deferred paywork forcet cited, Odysseus is talking with Achilles, the greatest hero of the Trojan War. Achilles, while alive, was fully aware of his choice between a long life spent in obscurity or a short life, filled with glory. He chose the latter. I suppose Achilles quickly realized after he died that fame has no convey for you after youre dead. In retrospect, he understood t hat death gives meaning, and fills one up with the passion for life. Every action, however mundane, is filled with the miracle of life and completes itself when one interacts with others. This is what Achilles meant when he asks Odysseus about his son and his former kingdom--never mind the dead, what are the living doing? Achilles yearns to be back among the living. This theme of death giving meaning to life is everyday throughout the Odyssey. Hell is death, heaven is now, in life, in the field of condemnation and action. Odysseus nearly died of homesickness (or boredom) when Kalypso detained him on her island, hoping to make him her immortal husband. Odysseus knew if he drank that ambrosia, life would be eternal, youd have a beautiful house and a babe for a wife, but things would get terribly vapid after a sure point. Immortality is death, in this sense. Finally, it is Athena (thought, action) who convinces the gods (who are, I think, jealous of us mortals) to let Odysseus mu rder the island and back into his life. It is interesting to note that even Hermes couldnt wait to get pip Kalypsos island--who would willingly come here? There is no city of men nearby. . . . . Ultimately, Odysseus journey to Ithaka is about embracing ones life, accepting the challenges, the dangers, pitfalls, and joys, with courage, tenacity and a perspicacious sense of what it takes to maintain balance in ones life.