Hero's Journey In The Odyssey

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The Odyssey, by Homer, is about Odysseus and his journey home from Troy. The “Hero’s Journey” but Joseph Cambell represents The Odyssey multiple times through Odysseus’s adventure. Tests and enemies, the supreme ordeal, and the return and restoring the worlds are the three parts of the “Hero’s Journey” that proves that The Odyssey has lots of the “Hero’s journey” incorporated into the story. In The Odyssey, Odysseus has to go through multiple tests and face multiple enemies before going home. When Odysseus goes to the land of the dead, Tiresias tells Odysseus, “...a fair wind and the honey lights of home are all you seek[,but] anguish lies ahead...”(Homer,577). IN order for Odysseus to get home, which is his reward, he must go through tests and fight enemies. In the hero’s journey, it states that, “the …show more content…
When Odysseus returns to the castle overrun by the suitors, he has to restore the kingdom. When Odysseus meets his son, he tells him that, “before long they will stand to right and left of us in combat, in the shouting, when the test comes-our nerve against the suitors’ in my hall.”(Homer,599). In the hero’s journey, it states that, “by achieving victory, they have changed or, preserved their original world [and] often they return with ‘the elixir,’ an object or personal ability that allows them to save their world.”(Cambell). When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, his elixir is his ability to outsmart people. After Odysseus kills the suitors, he reveals himself to Penelope, and the world becomes restored. In The Odyssey, there’s multiple tests, a supreme ordeal, and restoring the world. These three things prove that The Odyssey has lots of the “Hero’s Journey” incorporated in it. The idea that the “Hero’s Journey” is incorporated into old stories like The Odyssey, shows that all adventure stories are connected since all have at least a piece of the “Hero’s Journey” hidden

Odyssey Hero's Journey

believing Odysseus to be dead, have been continually seeking the hand of his wife, Penelope, in marriage, while over running Odysseus’ palace and enjoying themselves at Penelope’s expense,” (Odyssey 595). Proving the suitors had no respect for Odysseus, and that the Reward and Journey Home, in Hero’s Journey,…

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The Hero's Journey In The Odyssey

In Homer’s epic The Odyssey, Odysseus does complete the Hero’s Journey since Odysseus departs for home, goes through and overcomes many challenging trials, and then proceeds to return home to his life. Odysseus does complete the Hero’s Journey because he leaves his everyday life to go on a Journey. Penelope talks to the beggar(Odysseus) and tells him what happened to Odysseus “Odysseus left us years ago when he went off to Troy” (980-981).Odysseus left home to go and fight the Trojan…

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Odyssey Hero's Journey

of Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter, and Luke Skywalker appear to be vastly different, they are actually the same storylines substituted with different characters. Each film follows Joseph Campbell’s guidelines of a monomyth, which describes the hero’s journey in all successful plots. According to Campbell, a hero must first receive a call to adventure, refuse it initially, and then cross a threshold from his or her ordinary world into the special realm. There the protagonist faces several tests, encountering…

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Odyssey Hero's Journey

They say hero’s come in all shapes in sizes. Some small, some more popular than others, but they all lead a life of trials and tribulations in order to fight a battle with themselves and their situations. As said by Joseph Campbell in his book “The hero with a thousand faces”, we all travel one journey to become a hero. This “hero’s journey” that we are on in life shows a timeline of events that connects us all in the same path. In the book “The Odyssey” by Homer we see the trials and tribulations…

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Odyssey Hero's Journey

What is a hero? A hero can be anyone. They can be strong, courageous, loyal, smart, or just anything. Hero’s can go on journeys too just like Odysseus in the novel called Odyssey. Hero’s go through many changes. For instance, a hero starts out as a person but sooner or later they can become a hero if they really wanted to. In the Odyssey, Homer uses Odysseus’s journey to show how one’s journey can change them as a person. One way we can see that Odysseus was changed is when he desired to leave Calypso’s…

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The Odyssey Hero's Journey

A hero’s journey, beginning in a ordinary world, something changes, or does it. In The Odyssey, Odysseus starts his journey trapped by Calypso on her island, trapped to a lifetime in bed with her. This had been going on for 10 years and even then according to Odysseus, it was anything but ordinary. How can you learn the humanistic/ordinary qualities of our so called hero, if the world he’s trapped in is anything but…

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Odyssey Hero's Journey

leader of his army. He snakes through every presented hardship. Odysseus wants to go back home to his loyal wife and son. The monomyth, or the hero’s journey, is a cyclical quest or adventure undertaken by a hero. Monomyths contain specific parts in order to recognize one from reading text. The call to adventure is what drives the hero on his mission. Every journey must have supernatural aid and a mentor. Anything inhuman that helps the hero on his way could be classified as supernatural aid. The mentor…

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Odyssey Hero's Journey

An epic hero is a protagonist who saves people, a place, the planet, or even the whole universe. A common hero's attributes consist of bravery, strength and even intelligence. Homer’s The Odyssey tells a story of an epic hero who set sails from Troy and goes into a journey, a challenge by Poseidon, and encounters difficult obstacles that himself and his crew have to face. Kiki from the Studio Ghibli film, “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, tells a different story. “Kiki’s Delivery Service” about a young…

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Odyssey Hero's Journey

complete their journey. Hell is a common factor in hero's journeys because it involves exploring oneself in the most thorough way one can do. Also, it involves encountering the one thing no one alive knows about, death. The experience of going to the darkest point is a life changing experience for the adventurer. Dante went through Hell with the help of Virgil in The Inferno and Odysseus went through it in The Odyssey. Dante and Odysseus were both dramatically changed by Hell. Before his journey into Hell…

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Odyssey Hero's Journey Analysis

The Hero’s Journey is the main character’s path that is described, variously, but in general, it includes the main character’s journey in the book. The Odyssey is about Odysseus who went on hero’s journey and he has still not returned. While he was away he was put through tests but everyone at home didn,t know he was alive. The hero's journey has many steps and the first one was the call to adventure which is when the character get called away. The Odyssey it starts ten years after the Trojan War…

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