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Loyalty In The Odyssey

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Books Nine through Twelve of Homer’s The Odyssey are probably the most famous of the epic. This is because of the fact that this is where much of the action of Odysseus’s journey back to Ithaca is described. However, these books work greatly as a whole. The Odyssey’s Book Nine through Twelve contain many major themes that help develop the characters in the collective piece. These selected books from Homer’s The Odyssey have many themes and values that including the importance of loyalty. Odysseus is often portrayed as a very loyal person. The very point of his journey is to return to his home in Ithaca to his wife and son. Odysseus is also very loyal to his crew and goes to great lengths to ensure their safety, such as using wax to put in their ears so that they could not hear the songs of sirens. Loyalty is also important to many of the creatures that Odysseus and his crew …show more content…
Odysseus’s greatest quality is probably his wit and cunning nature. He is best known as the man who thought of the Trojan horse and he continues in this story to discover ways to outwit opponents in outside-of-the-box means. No matter how seemingly unbeatable the foe Odysseus must face, he always manages to outsmart them. Whether it was not eating the Lotus plants, the elaborate escape from the land of Cyclops, the use of beeswax to block out the songs of sirens, or any other time that Odysseus used his wits, we are shown that craftiness can seemingly conquer any seemingly unbeatable situation. The characters in Homer’s The Odyssey are developed by the themes and ideas that are depicted over and over throughout the story. The importance of loyalty to one’s family and comrades plus the strength in craftiness are two themes that are echoed through the actions and beliefs of the major characters. We can learn much about the major characters in The Odyssey through the values and themes represented these four

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