odysseus essay

Translating into ‘one who causes and/or receives grief’, the meaning of Odysseus’s name functions as an integral role for a major theme in Homer’s The Odyssey. The relationship between Odysseus’s name and Odysseus’s character traits, are in a sense, ironic, in that Odysseus’s courage and guile are at times overshadowed by the grief he induces upon himself and also the people/beings he encounters. Here, nearly all of this grief can be traced back to Odysseus’s desire for glory. Through the use of Odysseus’s name and character traits, Homer demonstrates how grief is consequential of glory seeking.
Odysseus lives up to his name by causing grief to himself and to his men when he chooses to remain in Polyphemus’s lair. Overriding his men’s plan to quickly raid the beast’s cave and then “put out to sea at once”, Odysseus resists, and requests that they wait until the beast comes back. (Homer 307). Instead of choosing the most pragmatic and innocuous path, Odysseus daringly yearns to meet the infamous Cyclops in order to test how much the “ruthless brute” would afford over to him (Homer 308). In other words, Odysseus’s reasoning (or lack of reasoning) is driven by the glory to announce how he had bartered with an uncivilized beast. However, Odysseus’s plan backfired. Polyphemus rejected Odysseus’s plea for hospitality, and as a result, not only were he and his men trapped in the cave, but also, a number of men died. By seeking glory over safety, Odysseus caused much grief to himself, and to the men in his party.
Odysseus’s desire for glory further endangers himself and his men when they have finally set sail after escaping from the Cyclops. Upon using his adored cunning to defeat a beast with strength comparable to the Gods, Odysseus and his men nearly escape home unscathed. However, when he and his men are on the ship sailing away, Odysseus decides to taunt the beast proclaiming,
“Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus” (Homer 313).

Here, Odysseus reveals himself to Polyphemus in order to brag about who had truly blinded and outwitted him. This is ultimately an attempt by Odysseus to glorify his name and to establish himself as a dominant persona throughout the Homeric world. This glorification however, works against Odysseus in that Poseidon (Polyphemus’s father) now knows that Odysseus was the blinder of his son and wages his wrath in return, which will be suffered by the Acheans. Again, it is through Odysseus’s desire for glory that causes grief and suffering among others.
In conclusion, Homer portrays glory-seeking as a character flaw in which grief and suffering is it consequence. Homer cleverly depicts this theme by awarding this flaw to a hero whose name translates to ‘one who causes grief’. It can be then drawn that grief is characteristic of glory in the Odyssey. Whenever glory was sought after by Odysseus, grief never failed to follow. In other words, Odysseus established himself as ‘a man of constant sorrow.’