The Odyssey Critique

In the Odyssey, by the Greek poet Homer, Odysseus and his men are returning home from the victory of the Trojan War. Little do they, the journey back has many obstacles that they need to face. Odysseus, as the leader needs to make right decision to help his crew get home safely. In this epic, Odysseus demonstrates how the Greeks believed in resisting temptation of the world. Odysseus resists temptation from the beginning of his journey to the end. He refused to give into temptation in the Lotus-Eaters, The Sirens, and Calypso’s Island.

In the episode The Lotus-Eaters, Odysseus and his men got hit by a storm, and drifted to the coastline of the Lotus-Eaters. If the Lotus is eaten you lose all hope of going home. Odysseus tried to stop his men from eating the Lotus. “All hands aboard; come, clear the beach and no one taste the Lotus, or you lose your hope of home.” (Homer 602) Three of Odysseus’ men end up eating the Lotus and no longer feel the need to go back to Ithaca. Odysseus tries to save his men by tying his mean up to the ships benches and demand the rest of his crew to leave quickly. “I drove them, all three wailing to their ships, tied them down under their rowing benches…” (Homer 602). The rest of Odysseus’ crew and Odysseus himself, all resisted the temptation of the Lotus.

Odysseus and his crew also resist temptation of the lovely singing Sirens. In the episode “The Sirens” the ships are traveling back home to Ithaca, when they come across the Sirens, who tempt the men into coming closer to then so they can kill them. They tempt them by their beauty and mystical singing. With the winds blowing the ship went into the island of the Sirens. When on the island, Odysseus got beeswax to try to help block out the sound of the Sirens. “I carved a massive cake of beeswax into bits and rolled them into my hands until they softened” (Homer 618) Odysseus made his men put the beeswax in their ears so they wouldn’t hear the Sirens. To prevent Odysseus from being...