Skip to main content

Influence of The Odyssey on Later Epic Works

The Odyssey is a text that has the capacity to fascinate scholars from both literary and academic fields alike. It is the rare case of a text over 2,500 years old which has the power to illustrate at least a basic view of daily life in the culture where it originates, and yet it combines that with heartbreaking drama, interesting characters, and epic scenery. Today, fantasy works of all genres (from epic to high to low to dark) have seen some influence from epics such as the Odyssey. But it is the Odyssey itself which truly shows the most influence in the Western canon.

The Odyssey is certainly not the first work to exhibit the "Hero's Journey" archetype (*cough* the Epic of Gilgamesh *cough*) but, unlike the aforementioned Mesopotamian work, the Odyssey exhibits more of a traditional Western fantasy story where one hero and his allies face extraordinary odds instead of a villain teaming up with a hero to kill a monster, which is shown in Gilgamesh.

Today, the Odyssey, to those familiar with fantasy literature, may seem familiar but different. For example, we have the sterotypical strong hero, but, rather than coming from poor, humble beginnings like in a lot of literature today, he was already king. This is only a major of one of the many differences the Odyssey presents itself to us today, but there is certainly no denying the influence of one of the earliest and most awe-inspiring of Weatern literature.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hieronymus Bosch, Saint Christopher, and the Renaissance

  Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child Through a Sinful World (c. 1520) One huge component of Renaissance era painting and culture was religion (in most of Europe, Christianity in particular). And while I didn't manage to get any pieces pertaining to the English Renaissance per se , I did manage to find a painting by a follower of celebrated 14th-15th century Dutch painter, Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 - 1516), whose themes exhibited in his and his follower's works transcend many nations of the European Renaissance, including England. The European Renaissance is known for its Christian symbolism, certainly exhibited in many of Bosch and his follower's works, including arguably Bosch's most famous work, The Garden of Earthly Delights . These paintings, however, typically take the form of Christ's crucifixion or Saint Mary with the infant Christ, and are rarely so abstract as that with Bosch and his followers, with this particular painting showing Saint C...
15 comments
Read more

Role of God in Persepolis

In Persepolis , I believe that the author is actually discussing her own personal relationships with God in a very meaningful in honest way; she doesn't show that she has the perfect relationship with Him. In reality, she is frustrated by His inability to simply explain things; I think as a child, we all want the answers. Her not getting the answers, whether it's about new developing feelings for boys, for example, or the nature of religion and His role in society in an Islamic takeover is a really frustrating for her. So frustrating, that she yells and screams at him. To her, he is not an all-powerful, all-knowing benevolent being; he is simply another person that she doesn't get. And I really like this aspect to Marjane's character, because as a child, I think God is one of the most frightening things to us. And her describing their relationship this personally really gives more insight into her character.
Post a Comment
Read more

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: Why Were Slaves Separated from their Families?

Frederick Douglass, as mentioned at the very beginning of Chapter I, was separated from his mother at a very young age. In fact, really the only thing he remembers of her is the fact that she talked to him at nights when he was a very young boy - but when he woke up in the morning, she was gone. Unfortunately, such an event was not uncommon with slaves. Because slaves were treated as property rather than people, slave families were often separated to prevent a human bond between them, which would likely interfere with the ordering of harsh, strenuous work and even harsher punishments. Additionally, Douglass mentions the fact that slaves were to know as little of themselves as possible, in order to preserve them as property, born not to think or feel but to work. In the masters' eyes, this would have likely had slaves see the world as one to work on, and so that is exactly what they would do. Of course, slaves eventually did rebel against their masters and go to every length to de...
Post a Comment
Read more