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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page paper which examines the ways in which competition manifests itself among mortals, gods/goddesses and genders. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGodycomp.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
some translations) to return home to his wife Penelope and son Telemakhos in Ithaka after being exiled for ten years as punishment by an angry god. However, as Professor
Ian Johnston points out, "The poem takes us on a long journey to various centers of civilization, explores many different aspects of the wilderness, subjects a civilizations values, as these
manifest themselves in the hero and heroine and the minor characters, to a series of tests, and illuminates for us the relationship between the gods and mortals, the present and
the past, visions of this life and the next" (Johnston). The defining quality of both journeys is the prevalent theme of competition. It is not only the mortal
men who compete either in sport or for a womans hand in marriage, but women (mortal and immortal) compete for social status and men and gods and goddesses also compete
for dominance of the cosmos. The competition takes the form of a battle of the sexes early in "The Odyssey" as the god Poseidon and goddess Athena are shown to
be frequently at odds with each other in a relentless power struggle (Cohen 65). According to author Beth Cohen, "This opposition is presented as an outright competition in the
story of their contest for recognition as the patron deity of Athens" (65). In Book I, it is revealed that it was Poseidon who imposed Odysseuss harsh punishment in
retaliation for his son being blinded. Meanwhile, his rival, Athena, seeks to release Odysseus and reunite him with his wife and son. The competition escalates into a dramatic
climax in Book XIII, in which Poseidon declares, "I should have taken / vengeance... on my own... The sleek Phaiakian cutter... / Let me impale her, / end her voyage,
...