Free Essays: The Many Challenges of Homers Odyssey :: Homer Odyssey Essays

The Many Challenges of Homers Odyssey   In The Odyssey, Odysseus had to face more challenges during his travels a few of these difficulties were a cannibalistic Cyclops, huge whirlpools, determined suitors, on with many hardships.  Odysseus fought constantly to return to his homeland of Ithaca, but to accomplish this Odysseus had to be clever, resourceful, and have great leadership qualities.   Odysseus proved throughout the story that he was very clever.  When he was faced with having to get out of Polyphemuss cave, Odysseus first told the Cyclops, My advert is Nohbdy mother, father, and friends, / everyone calls me Nohbdy. (pg. 452, 341-342)  Odysseus told him this because he knew if the other Cyclopes would come and ask who was with him, they would think that Nohbdy was there.  In another episode, Odysseus outsmarted the Sirens he wanted to discover to their sweet song, but he knew he would try to jump overboard.  It was indeed he got t he notion to spot his crew, ...you are to tie me up,  tight as a splint, / erect along the mast, lashed to the mast, / and if I shout and beg to be untied, / take more turns of cockroach to muffle me. (pg. 459, 536-539)  This and telling the crew members to put wax in their ears ensured that Odysseus, alone, could listen to the Sirens song and not die.    When Odysseus had to figure out how he could kill the Suitors who were staying in his house, he had Athena disguise him as an old beggar and then told  Telemachus, his son, to hide all of the Suitors weapons and armor. If they asked Telemachus what he was doing, he was to tell them he was storing the weapons so that none of the suitors would kill each other if they got into a fight. Many times throughout the story, Odysseus had to be resourceful enough to accomplish a tax by using surrounding things, whatever was at hand.  When he was move back towards Charybdis,  Odysseus grabbed onto a nearby fig tree and held on until a piece of driftwood shot out of the whirlpool then he grabbed a hold of the driftwood and soared to safety.    In order to escape from the Cyclopss cave, Odysseus wanted to blind the Cyclops.