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What do we learn about Odysseus in books 1 4 Why does the poem start with
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... The main plot of the epic poem, follows Odysseus and his crew on his journey home from the Trojan War back to Ithaca, his home land. There is a sub plot which involves the people back in Ithaca and how they are coping with the absence of Odysseus. The first four books begin with this subplot and starts in Ithaca before Odysseus is introduced into the book as himself.
From the first four books, you are able to gather the general background of the story about where Odysseus has been and why. The first paragraph of book 1 has a short introduction where it first mentions Odysseus not by his name but as ‘that resourceful man who has driven far and wide after he had sacked the holy citadel of Troy. From the first sentence you learn that Odysseus has been in Troy and suffered from a long journey after this. The phrase ‘suffered great anguish on the high seas’ also emphasises Odysseus’s struggle to ‘bring his comrades home’. Following this introduction, it mentions that Odysseus is ‘prevented from returning to the home and wife he yearned for’ because he has been trapped by the nymph Calypso on her island. The phrase ‘not even when the rolling seasons brought in the year which the Gods had chosen for his homecoming to Ithaca was he clear of troubles…’ This suggests just how long Odysseus has been away and there is no mention of Odysseus actually reaching Ithaca before the subject matter changes.
The Gods seemed to have a large part upon Odysseus fate and when he was finally to return home as shown by the quote above, aswell as how ‘all the Gods pitied him, except for Poseidon’. Poseidon was the only one who had not attended the meeting to discuss Odysseus which suggests that he may be responsible for some part of Odysseus’s difficult journey home and poses the question of why he is the only exception. The rest of the Gods discuss other members of Troy, while Athene intervenes and tells her father that she is concerned about Odysseus and ‘it is for Odysseus my heart is wrung, the wise and unlucky Odysseus, who has been parted so long from all his friends and is pining on a lonely island far away in the middle of the seas’. ... To stay on the right side of the Gods was a hard task, which suggest that Odysseus is a good and religious man who worships the Gods regularly.
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Title: What do we learn about Odysseus in books 1 4 Why does the poem start with
Words: 2005
Rating: None
Pages: 8
submitted by: stupidityrocks
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