The Odyssey

The Odyssey

The Greek poet, Homer, wrote the epic poem The Odyssey in approximately 700 B.C. Homer was a mysterious writer who was believed to be blind or possibly even a woman. Fore during this time in history women were thought of as insignificant, but Homer focused on the qualities of good character in both males and females. Throughout Homer’s adventure story there is a lot of contrast used to show the hospitality, loyalty, respect, and courage.

In Homer’s The Odyssey it clearly shows that hospitality played an extremely important role in the early Greek lifestyle, unfortunately, also showing how not all Greeks showed good hospitality to one another. In every home it was expected to welcome a stranger in for food and drinks before helping them on their way or even asking a single question about their business there. A good example of hospitality would be Menelaos who immediately welcomed two strangers into his home to eat, “Break your bread and be welcome. After you have dined, you shall tell us who you are…” (Homer 45). Another good example would be Odysseus’s swineherd Eomaios who he himself doesn’t have much of anything still invited the Gaffer (Odysseus in disguise) inside his hut to “fill thi belly” (Homer 159) with food and wine. Alongside these generous people are the fairly non-hospitable people such as Calypso and the Cyclops. Calypso treated Odysseus with love and passion; she took very good care of him if you ignore the fact that she kept him as a sex-slave against his own will. On the other hand the Cyclops didn’t care at all for hospitality he actually welcomes his guests by filling “his great belly with human flesh” (Homer 106), that’s right he ate his guests.

Throughout The Odyssey Homer shows us that both loyalty and disloyalty keep us the individuals pushing forward in life. A great example of this would be the marriage of Odysseus and Penelopeia. During the whole story Odysseus’ faith in Penelopeia’s loyalty kept him moving forward on his journey back to his homeland. Calypso was loyal to both Zeus and Odysseus, fore she loved Odysseus enough to give him the choice to go someplace else if it made him happy even if it wasn’t with her. She even helped him on his departure from her island, “She did not forget a skin of red wine, and another large one full of water, with provisions in a bag….she sent with him a fair