Odysseus Journey and His Family Compared to Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid Odysseus and Aeneas
Odysseus was a famous Greek hero who was known for being intellect and cunning. He among the greatest Greek heroes who fought in the Trojan War. Being a cunning individual, Odysseus created a plan that he used to destroy Troy city, which resulted in the end of the Trojan War. The Odysseus story begins in the Iliad, the epic poem of Homer. In his second poem called The Odyssey, Homer narrates the story of Odysseus walking at the seas for ten years as he was struggling to find his way from the Trojan War.
Odysseus was the ruler of the island kingdom called Ithaca. Odysseus had a nuclear family. His wife, by the name Penelope, had given birth to a baby boy called Telemachus. This happened just before the Trojan War had begun to take place. Because of being intellect and cunning, Odysseus got a favor from the goddess Athena. Aeneas, on the other hand, had an extensive family linage.
The debt of Virgil to Homer is clearly shown in the portrayal of Aeneas, whose journey experiences at the narrative were almost similar to that of Odysseus. There are also significant differences between the Greek hero in Odysseus and the Rome hero in Aeneas.
The differences between the two heroes are seen in the visions of the two authors and also the culture of the Greeks and the Romans. Odysseus is a hero that is portrayed as being selfish, whose interest is not for his country. Aeneas, on the other hand, is being seen as being selfless, whose interest is to serve his people. Both Odysseus and Aeneas went through a parallel journey with the main reason for returning home.
The Trojan War
There was a prophesy that declared that Odysseus could be away from home for a very long time if he could have joined a Greek Army and attack Troy. Since he loved his wife and the newborn son, Odysseus didn’t want to join the Greek army. He, therefore, pretended to be crazy when the military came for him. He then decided to tether the donkey with the ox, and he plowed the seashore. One member of the Greek army took Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, and placed him on the way of Odysseus. Odysseus diverged from missing the baby as the pretense revealed.
The war with the troy took place for ten years. After the Greek champion Achilles had died, Odysseus came up with a plan of how to enter the city to try and end the war. This is the point that he showed his cunning trait. He then made the Greek army to build a Trojan horse. This is a large horse image that was made up of wood and was hollow. The Trojan horse was meant to be given to Trojans as a peace offering. Some Greek warriors hid inside the horse.
The remaining armies took their ships and moved some distance away from the city. Seeing the horse, the Trojans celebrated because their differences had been brought to an end. They then decided to bring the Trojan horse inside the walls of the city. When the night came, the hidden Greek warriors came out of the horse and opened the gate to the Greek army who were hiding from the sea. And out of nowhere, the city was taken over, and it got destroyed.
When the city was being destroyed, the Greek army treated with disrespect to the altars and the temples of the gods. This angered the gods, which led to a wild storm occurring which scattered the whole Greek army. Odysseus and his group were stormed away, making them lose their way. They then started a ten-year struggle of finding a way of getting back to Ithaca from the troy.
The Journey
After the Trojan War was over, both Odysseus and Aeneas went through a parallel journey while finding their way back home. After abandoning the troy, Odysseus began his journey to the Ithaca homeland while Aeneas tries to find his way home to Rome. However, in the courses of a journey of both heroes, their actions were different.
Odysseus, on his side of the journey, took approximately ten years to cover his journey from Troy to Ithaca. He was being driven by self-interests leading him to astray where he encountered the Cyclops, the Circe, and the Calypso. All these endangered his life and the lives of his followers, making him betray his loyal wife back at home. After returning to the land of Ithaca, Odysseus found out that there were suitors who were begging to marry his wife. He decided to kill them regardless of his wife, proving to be faithful. “Not for the whole treasure of your fathers…would I hold my hand? There will be killing until the score is paid.” (N. A 496, 61-64). He was doing all this because of his personal glory and also to receive fame from the people of the land of Ithaca.
Aeneas, on the other side of the journey, but the people of the Roman as the priority. Aeneas, directly told by Mercury, is being given the task by Gods. He is ordered to leave the Carthage and work out to build an empire in Rome. On receiving the message, Aeneas had to become obedient. “As the sharp admonition and command from heaven had shaken him awake, he now burned only to be gone, to leave that land of the sweet life behind.” (N.A. 1093, 364). The end of the sentence reveals that Aeneas was willing to obey even though he knew he would leave a sweet life behind him. He will also have to leave behind his loved wife, Dido, and the right, peaceful life he could have had. “Duty-bound, Aeneas, though he struggled with desire…took the course heaven gave him and went back to the fleet.” (N.A. 1097, 520-526). This is evidence that Aeneas had to let go of his personal life, his happiness to make his people have a cheerful experience.
The work Homer is part of the Trojan Cycle. The work represented two significant themes that are the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad is the story of war, while the Odyssey is the journey part. Virgil, on his side, combined the two themes making the Aeneid, although in his element, it starts with a journey, then it is followed by the story of the war. Both Homer’s Odysseus and Virgil’s Aeneas approached the war in two different ways.
Aeneas fought for reasons that were above him. Aeneas’ father in the underworld, the word of the dead, told him, “What glories follow Dardan generations in after years, and from Italian blood what famous children in your line will come, souls of the future, and living in our name.” (N. 1120, 619-622). This made Aeneas knew that his efforts and fights were meant to benefit other people, which motivates him to fight even harder.
In the whole journey, Odysseus intentionally involved himself in the conflict with one primary reason, glory to his name. If it was not because of personal beauty, Odysseus could have kept away from the battle with Polyphemus that made Poseidon attack them.