After the years of suffering and trials he has gone through, Odysseus is reflecting on his own triumphs and failures and on the generally imperfect life that he, or any man, inevitably leads. In some sense, Odysseus blames himself for the length of time it has taken him—ten years—to return to Ithaca. This also needs to be seen in the context of not having wanted to leave Penelope and his infant son, Telemachus, in the first place to go to war. He spent years living with another woman, namely, the goddess Calypso, and he became the lover of the sorceress Circe all while still being in love with Penelope and wanting to return to her and his son. He must also feel that some of his decisions during the return journey backfired, such as the blinding of the cyclops Polyphemus and, as a result, making an enemy of the cyclops's father, Poseidon.
After twenty years of both the war and the return journey, Odysseus has experienced literally everything that the gods and general misfortune could inflict upon him. He has learned more about himself, the world of men and women, and the gods than even the other participants in the war, both the Greeks and Trojans, have been able to learn. These experiences have developed his inner psyche to the point that the statement about being a man reflects the turmoil, contradictions, and imperfections of the human condition in the intensified form in which he has seen them.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
How does Odysseus's quote, “I am a man no more no less,” show how he has developed over the course of the hero’s journey?
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