Essay on Homers Odyssey: Exploring Our Social Roots -- Homer Odyssey

The Odyssey Exploring Our Social Roots In modern western society we are a people taught from very young that frank manners and strong pietism are necessity. The idea that the good pass on prosper and the bad will get what they deserve is widely authorized and applauded. However, these ideas about the favorable rules of modern civil man are non so novel. This same system of social behavior and belief is exhibited passim the epic poem, The Odyssey. In this epic we find the roots of our contemporary social actions and convictions importantly displayed. All through this epic there are numerous examples to distinguish those civilized, who abided by social customs, and those who did not. One of the primary forms of manner, during this period, was the customary employment of the civilized to invite a guest to feast without prior interrogatory into his errand. We encounter this social rule early upon the first meeting of Telemachos and his mothers suitors during a feast at the home. An unidentified guest arrives and is ignored by the suitors. However, the unnatural Telemachos promptly invites the guest in to join them in feasting he is annoyed that their guest was made to wait and also embarrassed by and apologizes for the suitors crude behavior. This same practice rep grub itself throughout the poem and is yet once again contrasted when Odysseus and some of his crew arrive at the island of the Cyclops. The men allow themselves into an neglected cave whose owner is the Cyclops, Polyphemus. Upon the uncivilized Cyclops arrival home he eats some of the men and traps the remainder. Clearly, the social intuition of manners plays such a strong silent role. As Horace Mann said Manners advantageously and cursorily mature into m... ...ood, and idea that good always triumphs over evil. We can easily witness the roots of present rules of society budding during this time period. such(prenominal) reflection and insight allows us to connect in a way, we by chanc e normally would not have, with one of our modern cultures leaders in morality and manners. Works Citied Dimock, George E. The Unity of the Odyssey. The University Of Massachusetts Press Amherst, 1989. Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical rendering Homers The Odyssey. Chelsea House Publishers New York, 1988. Lawall, Sarah, ed. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York, London, 1999. 209-514 Cyber commonwealth Home Page. 2000. Cyber Nation International Inc.< http//www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_manners.html>.