Odysseus
My men and I were all terrified at the thought of going ashore in the land of the dead, but I needed to speak to Teirêsias’ shade. We dug a pit, poured milk, honey, sweet wine and water around it and last scattered barley. I sacrificed the lamb and ewe; their blood draining into the pit. The spirits gathered around it and I had to keep my sword drawn to fend them off. Elpênor came and told us to give him a proper burial. I saw my mother and eventually spoke to her, learning that she had slowly pined away when I failed to come home. This brought me endless grief and I began to think my mother’s shade was sent to make me miserable. Teirêsias told me that Poseidon had it in for me because I blinded his son… oops! He said when we landed on Thrinakia we shouldn’t steal from Hêlios’s herd. I learned of the suitors at my house and the thought made my head blurry with anger. He also told me that if I made a sacrifice to Poseidon in a land where people don’t know the sea, then went home to make hecatombs, I would die a gentle death.
My men and I were all terrified at the thought of going ashore in the land of the dead, but I needed to speak to Teirêsias’ shade. We dug a pit, poured milk, honey, sweet wine and water around it and last scattered barley. I sacrificed the lamb and ewe; their blood draining into the pit. The spirits gathered around it and I had to keep my sword drawn to fend them off. Elpênor came and told us to give him a proper burial. I saw my mother and eventually spoke to her, learning that she had slowly pined away when I failed to come home. This brought me endless grief and I began to think my mother’s shade was sent to make me miserable. Teirêsias told me that Poseidon had it in for me because I blinded his son… oops! He said when we landed on Thrinakia we shouldn’t steal from Hêlios’s herd. I learned of the suitors at my house and the thought made my head blurry with anger. He also told me that if I made a sacrifice to Poseidon in a land where people don’t know the sea, then went home to make hecatombs, I would die a gentle death.
It's a big ocean, would I drown without the help of the gods?
It always seems as though I’m getting help from some god or mystical being. I wonder why this is, do they think I can’t do things on my own? I guess if I count how many times gods have saved my life maybe I can’t. I suppose I am not that different from Télémakhos in my dependency on the gods… Actually, my situation might be the slightest bit different. I am usually saved by a god when another god preys on me. So it could be thought of as evening the playing fields rather than just pushing me along. Can I still be considered a hero if the gods help me so much? I still solve many problems on my own. I escaped the Cyclopes without godly assistance. I went to go face Kirkê alone, even though I was afraid. Hermês did help me in the end, but I took the initiative to save my men. There no gods at my side at world’s end. I was given instructions but I was brave enough to follow them. To a certain point, a hero can get helped by gods (he’d be a fool not to be) I think it’s how he deals with the advice that makes him a hero. A lesser man might be too afraid to, for example, go to world’s end, even though the gods told him to.
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