Homework Question on Odyssey
Answer all the question below in one long paragraph.
- Explain how the Odyssey is a story of crime and punishment by describing what happens to Odysseus’ men and the suitors.
- Do these people deserve the punishment that happens to them? Why or why not?
- Are they more the victims of fate, or their own sins?
- Are the gods responsible for all human suffering?
- What about Odysseus? Does he deserve to be pursued by the wrath of Poseidon?
- How does the Odyssey show that both the innocent suffer, as well as those who deserve it?
- Discipline: Classical Mythology
Homework Answer on Odyssey
Odyssey is a classical depiction of punishment where the aggressors are proportionately punished for their crime. After spending a decade wandering from one land to another, Odysseus finally returns to his Ithaca to his wife Penelope whom he has not seen for ten years. However, unbeknown to him, his fellow kings with whom he had fought and won the Trojan War are plundering his riches. More atrocious, they are drawing lots among them and forcing his wife to choose one of them as her suitor.
Dining and wining and even sleeping with the palace maids, the kings and fellow warriors continue to pressurize Penelope to choose. The punishment each received, a swift death in the hands of Odysseus, is deserved. They dishonored his palace, his name and many battles they had fought side by side including the most recent one, the Trojan War. They ought to have honored him by protecting his family, his dear wife and kingdom in honor of his heroics during the wars. Their actions were the epitome of betrayal for any soldier and fellow king and were deservedly punished.
Like the suitors, Odysseus was rightly punished by Poseidon. The victory at Troy, he became boastful and did not acknowledge the gods especially Poseidon as the source of the victory. So he was rightly punished by the angry Poseidon who made sure that he wandered to different lands with life threatening challenges including the mono-eyed Cyclops and soothsaying goddesses.