The Odyssey- Imortal Interference

Immortal Interference         Homers epic poem The Odyssey follows the journey of the hero Odysseus as he returns from the Trojan War. Odysseus juts many places before he at unyielding last arrives at his billet island of Ithica, with several timelesss interrupting his natural course. Unfortunately for Odysseus, the immortals Kirkê, Kalypso, and Poseidon forbid his ultimate homecoming.

        One goddesses who delays Odysseuss trip home is Kirkê, a sorceress who uses two physical and psychological magic to keep Odysseus and his men appeal for a year. Three days after landing on Kirkês island, Odysseus sends two platoons to explore Kirkês hall. When the men yield inside, they are surprise by Kirkês hospitality.

                 On thrones she seated them, and lounging chairs                  while she prepared a meal of cheese and barley                  and amber honey manifold with Pramnian wine.

                 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

                  Scarce had they drunk when she flew after them                  With her long stick and closed them in a pigsty. (172) Hearing of Kirkês spell, Odysseus reacts by threatening Kirkês breeding and commanding that she return his men to their human form. She obliges, provided formerly she has Odysseus in her house, she lures him into staying with her. For a year, she holds Odysseus and his men captive, until finally, Odysseuss men convince him to leave. unless once a procure, Kirkê puts another obstacle in the vogue of Odysseuss scourtual(prenominal) homecoming. [Y]ou shall stay here no longer against your will; / just home you may not go / unless you take a strange way round and come / to the cold homes of close and pale Perséphonꝝ (180). So now, Odysseus must travel all the way to the underworld before he can go home.

         time Kirkê keeps Odysseus captivated for a year, Kalypso tempts him for s til now. She loves Odysseus and wants him to marry her, but no count how much military force she has, he has to consent. For heptad years, she tries to seduce him, tolerant him immortal clothing, delicious foods, comfortable lodging, and offering him her loving. She tests his will to the breakage point and beyond, but through it all, Odysseus never gives up accept and remains faithful to his wife, Penélopê. The enchantress in her beauty / fed and caressed me . . . / . . . / but in my heart I never gave consent / though seven years detained (118). She even offers him immortality and ageless youth, but by now, Odysseus has realized that being immortal is less than being human. On the eighth year, Zeus sends Hermês to tell Kalypso to let Odysseus go. When he arrives, he does not see Odysseus, who sat apart, as a thousand times before, / and racked his receive heart groaning, with eyes wet / scanning the bare scene of the sea (83). Even now, she does not want to release Odysseus, even though all-powerful Zeus has commanded her to. She tells Hermês [i]f this thing be ordained by him, I say / so be it, let the man strike out alone / on the vast water (85); but eventually and reluctantly, she helps Odysseus leave after seven long years of his waiting and resisting the goddesss love.

        While Kirkê and Kalypso merely slow up Odysseuss eventual homecoming, Poseidon makes sure his voyage home is as long and painful as possible. Odysseus does nothing to anger the god himself, but rather Odysseuss passage home is damned because of a petition from the sea gods one-eyed son, Polyphêmos.

[G]rant that Odysseus, raiders of cities, never see his home: Laërtês son, I mean, who kept his halls on Ithica.



Should destiny intend that he shall not see his roof again among his family in his catch land, far be that day, and dark the years between. (161) Without even wondering(a) his sons reasons, Poseidon takes out a personal vendetta against Odysseus, who has not through with(p) anything to the immortal god. Poseidon makes sure the seas are stormy and turbulent for Odysseuss faultless trip. When Odysseus is sailing home from Ogýgia, the island of Kalypso, the sea god states his disposition:                   here is a pretty cruise! While I was deceased                  the god shave changed their mind about Odysseus.

                 Look at him now, just offshore of that island                  that frees him from the bondage of exile!                  Still I can give him a rough ride in, and will. (89) Odysseus is salve from Poseidons wrath, however, by Leukothea, who tells him that no matter how much suffering Poseidon expertness inflict, he will not kill him (Odysseus). Finally, after Odysseus reaches home and slays the suitors, he makes his sacrifice to Poseidon at the place where the people do not know the sea, a final show of humility to the detrimental god.

Unfortunately for Odysseus, these three immortals hindered his passage home for some ten years. In addition, they all did it for their own personal gain or pleasure: Kirkê held him for a year and sent him to the Underworld; Kalypso kept him detained on her island for seven years; and Poseidon did everything within his power to Odysseus but kill him. The gods are supposed to be the uncorrupt, fairly overseers of the world, not the narrow-minded, self-serving beings depicted by Homer.

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