The Bond of Love

The Bond of Love

There are many essential emotions that form the building blocks of our lives. These emotions help to shape the people that we are. These feelings are ones that are ultimately necessary to keep us happy. Nothing makes these feelings more evident than the Odyssey by Homer. Through out the course of this book there is one major emotional theme, which is love. Love is shown within a family, which chose to fight to keep their togetherness no matter how much that had to endure.

One main strife in life is to be in search of a companion who makes us happy and for whom we would do anything. Odysseus and Penelope's lasting loyalty is an obvious representation of love in the Odyssey. Although Odysseus is gone for twenty years he never forgets his faithful wife in Ithaca. This love seems to help him persevere through the many hardships that he encounters on his journey home. On the other hand, Penelope too remains loyal to her beloved Odysseus no matter what happens. At home in Ithaca, she stays loyal to Odysseus by unraveling his shroud and delaying the possible marriage to one of the many suitors. She always keeps the hope that her love, Odysseus, will return. Odysseus and Penelope's marriage clearly illustrates the theme of love in the epic.

The bond formed between father and son is another one of life's ways of showing love. This relationship is shown throughout the Odyssey. Telemachos's desperate search for his father, and Odysseus longing for his homeland and