The odyssey is a luminous piece of literary work by Homer which gives mesmerizing experience to the readers. It is easy for a reader to find a number of themes in this great epic and pride seems to be the most importantly portrayed all the way through the adventurers of Odysseus’s in the odyssey. Pride does not only seem to affect Odysseus substantially but also it created a number of difficulties for him throughout the story. It was the pride that cost almost ten years to his life. After grabbing victory at the Trojan War, Odysseus became prideful in a manner which made him drowning in his personal pride. It was his pride that angered gods and in anger the gods did everything with intention to make his journey troublesome. They did not spare a single chance of harassing Odysseus during his journey. Homer has brilliantly used soubriquets to portray the pride in the odyssey at different occasions. This paper thoroughly discusses the pride that is used as one of the most eminent themes in the homer’s odyssey and further talks about several related aspects of the story.
The very initial example where we find displaying the pride is the episode of ‘Sailing from Troy’. Odysseus starts his story by introducing himself; he says that he is Odysseus, son of the Laertes. Here he has been portrayed pronouncing his own name as well as his father’s name in a manner which is swollen with pride. He does not forget mentioning the name of his father and this way presents him as prominent and significant. Since his father is a well known personality, Odysseus boasts about his name. Apart from this, He is aware of the fact that anyone would not say a single bad word about his father’s name. This instance displays the enormous amount of pride that was inseparable part of Odysseus’s personality.
In another instance where Odysseus’ pride is portrayed is the episode of Cyclops. When Odysseus faces Polyphemus in a cave, he introduces himself. With the intention to seem threatening, he says that he has served under the great Agammemon and Atreus’s. he further adds that whole world is aware about the cities he belongs to and about how many armies has been destroyed by him. Again this instance displays Odysseus’ pride as he boasts about someone under whom he has served. He does not hesitate to mention a place because he knows that everyone is well aware of this place. Though this attitude of pride causes him hurt and knowing about his personality, Polyphemus calls his father the god of sea, Poseidon in order to punish Odysseus. In this instance, Odysseus stresses on the name of Agamemmon’s father to be known as special, impressive and important. The reason behind mentioning his name is that when Odysseus is recognized as someone who has worked in the leadership of Atreus’s son, he will be famous and people out of their fear will start respecting him. In addition, Odysseus does not forget to mention that the entire world is aware of about the cities he has conquered and also about the warriors he has killed. So this is clear from this instance that by means of this description when he says who is he and which place he belongs to, he introduces him with enormous amount of pride .
The pride has been portrayed as the biggest flaw in homer’s odyssey. The hero of the story is an overconfident man who angers even gods with his habit of showing prides but not at a single occasion he has been portrayed repenting for his pride and boastings. Odysseus due to his enormous pride emerges as a proud man and thus angered several gods. Gods caused several difficulties to him and delayed his journey back to home. Instead of repenting, Odysseus blames gods for several sufferings which is also something to observe. Homer has portrayed the pride through soubriquets in the odyssey and Pride is the most clearly visible theme of this epic. Soubriquets that homer has used in this epic denotes pride and all of them are usually depicting the pride of Odysseus.
It is good to conclude by saying that the hero of the homer’s epic, Odysseus was a real hero, he was courageous, brave and winner of wars bur the biggest flaw in his personality was the pride. He was great and there is not a single doubt about it but like other human beings on the earth there was something which affected his heroic image. Pride is not bad and it is good having it but our hero had a lot more than it is required and the same has been reflected at several occasions in the story. He suffered more than enough just because he had angered the gods with his enormous pride. The hero will be remembered for his muscle power, several victories and his brain but the only lacuna which overshadowed his personality is the pride as portrayed by the Homer in odyssey.
Work Cited
Homer. The Odyssey. virginia: RicherResourcesPublications., 2006.
