Loyalty In Homer's The Odyssey

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Loyalty: a noun used to describe how loyal someone is to another person or group. The word loyalty plays a huge role in The Odyssey, by Homer. The book tells the story of Odysseus, the King of Ithaca in Ancient Greece, and his 20 year long journey to get home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. In the book, Odysseus is called upon to go fight in the Trojan War, forcing him to leave his wife and newly born son. After 10 years of fighting, Odysseus is finally able to go home, however, it is not easy. Odysseus and his crew end up sailing around greece and fighting for their lives. After three years, Odysseus’ crew end up all dying, leaving Odysseus alone. Shortly after, he is kidnapped by a nymph named Calypso and is held on her island for seven more years. Throughout Odysseus’ journey, there are many moments where Odysseus is …show more content…
Up with you, look, there’s still some meat and drink in our good ship. Put our minds on food--why die of hunger here? (10.191-95)
In this quote Odysseus is trying to lift the spirits of his men, so that they will not give up. His men should be loyal to him because without him, they would have given up. Odysseus is also a great leader, when he stuffed his men's ears with beeswax: “...and I stopped the ears of my comrades one by one” (12.193). This shows Odysseus as a great leader because he is tactical and knows what to do. His crew should be loyal to Odysseus because if he had not put the beeswax in their ears, they would have fallen under the spell. Odysseus also shows he is a good leader who deserves his crew's loyalty when he creates the plan to attack the cyclops. Odysseus spends a lot of time planning a way to trick the cyclops, and attack him. Part of his trickery comes from when Polyphemus asks him his name, “...Nobody--that’s my name, Nobody…” (9.410) Odysseus is so smart and tricky he is able to come up with a way to trick the cyclops, proving he is a good leader who deserves the loyalty from his