Book Review Of The Odyssey By Homer
...by Alexander Pope, the Odyssey of Homer is a poem about the life of the king of Ithaca, Ulysses, who leaves to fight in the Trojan War, but he doesn't return until 20 years. According to Professor P. Landow, Ulysses is a great athlete and great warrior, heroic, courageous, eloquent, and masterful, and at the same time, he I pious (Landow). In those twenty years trying to get back home, he goes through many adventures including "the angry god Poseidon and the one-eyed Cyclops who try to destroy him, the seduced Sirens with their sweet song who tempt him away from his quest, and the intoxication with Circe captures him through her exotic magic."(Ostrow: B21) During his absent, Penelope, his loving wife, is faithful to Ulysses, but the suitors of Ithaca try to force her to marry one of them. Ulysses's son Telemachus wants to protect his mother by throwing the suitors out, but he's too young. Pallas , daughter of Zeus, tries to help Telemachus by disguising herself as Mentor, a old friend of Ulysses, and tells Telemachus to have a meeting to get the suitors to leave, but it fails. Pallas then tells Telemachus to set sail to see Nestor, King of Pylos, and Menelaus, King of Sparto. At Pylos, Nestor didn't have much to say about Ulysses. He just said that he last saw Ulysses after the war. He advises them to sail to Sparta for more information with Nestors's son Pisistratus to talk to Menelaus, King of Sparta and Ulysses's friend. They arrived at Sparta, and Menelaus tells Telemachus that Ulysses was alive and was being held by Calypso, a sea-nymph who holds Ulysses on her island for seven years. While Telemachus is gone, the suitors are having a little fun too. They plan to destroy his ship when he returns to Ithaca.The gods hold a meeting at Mount Olympus without Neptune, god of the sea. Pallas asks Zeus to send Hermes, messenger of the gods, to let Odysseus...
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