"Sing into me, Muse, and through me tell the story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Don't they should be forbidden" Get the original essay of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, tormented for years and years, after having plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy. He saw the cities and learned the minds of many distant men, and endured many bitter nights and days deep in his heart at sea, as he fought just to save his life, to bring his shipmates home." (Homer 1.1-10) Odysseus/Ulysses is a classical figure who reappears historically in the poetry of numerous writers. Having recurred in the classical works of at least three poets - Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Inferno and Alfred Lord Tennyson's Ulysses - it is clearly magnetic in its appeal to numerous cultures, regardless of context. However, the contrasts between the Odysseus of ancient times, the Middle Ages, and the Victorian era communicate shifting tensions in the context of culture. Since Odysseus occurs so often in Western history, it seems that he is some sort of indicator of the culture's beliefs. In this article I will explore the more thematic characteristics of the character of Odysseus as he returns home in the Odyssey, as he burns in hell in Dante's Inferno, and as he exemplifies perseverance and courage in Tennyson's Ulysses. portrayed as a hero who longs to return home to his family after the Trojan War, but faces countless hardships in the process. Dante, rather, coming from the Trojan/Roman side of the Trojan War, paints Ulysses as cunning and proud, also comparable to Icarus in his need for excess. And Tennyson, in the age of British colonization, looks to Odysseus as an adventurous hero with the strength and determination to persevere in the face of adversity. Regardless of the different points of view in viewing Odysseus, each shows a very human interest in maintaining integrity. It is in their works that you can see the change in the definition of virtue and the abstractions that indicate virtue. I will begin with the Odyssey because it concerns Odysseus as he first appears in our story. Homer uses a number of techniques to characterize. Before making a speech or in the middle of a dialogue, Homer used a series of adjectives to describe the character of the person who was about to speak, in relation to his response. As an author, Homer is closest to Odysseus and therefore, when he describes Odysseus as "the cunning Ulysses" or "Odysseus, the great tactician", the impression one gets is more qualified and direct than the interpretations we might have looking from our own culture. Ulysses' dialogue. The Odysseus of Homer's time was a hero. As such, the characteristics he embodied had predominantly positive connotations. Homer called Odysseus: "the noble and enduring man" (Homer 26.219), "the royal man" (Homer 15.588), "that cunning and cunning man" (Homer 14.457), "the great tactician" (Homer 11.438) and "the strategist" (Homer 5.223). It is clear from these descriptions that Homer considered Odysseus an admirable man. Cunning, cunning and tact are the qualities most alluded to, and they were obviously respected. Cunning has clearly undergone a change in connotation since Homer used it. But the change in connotation exemplifies the differences in context. That cunning was a positive trait in Odysseus' time, and Homer addresses the value of language in their culture. Odysseus was capable of using language to manipulate the situation in favor of his interests. It's not that Odysseus often exactly lies to his audience, but instead says everything he needs to say to make the necessary preparations. Toexample, in an attempt to leave Kalypso's island without offending Kalypso, he almost insults his wife. He says to Calypso: "My quiet Penelope, as I know well, would seem a shadow before your majesty, death and old age being unknown to you, while she must die. Yet, it is true, every day I long for the house, I long for the sight of the house" (Homer 5,224-229). The "cunning" in Odysseus' response lies in his ability to hide his intentions and feelings by skirting the issue. Kalypso wanted to know why Odysseus would leave her unless she was inferior to Penelope, instead of focusing on a confrontation or defending his wife, he instead focuses on his desire to see her home. He intuitively knows what the situation needs and uses language to make him avoid any obstacles that come between him and his goals. The point, that "strategist," "noble and enduring man," and "tactician" have positive meanings alludes to the importance of rhetorical skills in ancient times. Attention to tact and strategy shows the value of language in a culture where Oratory skills were crucial to the outcome. Interaction and conflict could not be enacted through the telephone, and control could not be influenced through bureaucracy. In such a context, the intuition of knowing what needed to be done and how to say what he needed to say were qualities that made him a hero and a great warrior. Dante, however, placed the sly and cunning tactician Ulysses in his Hell. In Canto 26, Dante followed Virgil into the eighth circle to find Odysseus there as a "counselor of fraud in war" (Dante Canto 26). Dante prefigures his look at Ulysses by saying: "I keep my wit in check more than is my custom, so that it does not run without virtue guiding it" (Dante 26,20-22). It is as if he says: "I am in the eighth circle and I see what is happening, but I will not let myself be caught and I will remain cautious, unlike Odysseus." Ulysses erred, in Dante's eyes, in his intent, rather than in his means. Ulysses, in Dante's eyes, used wit to satisfy worldly emotions such as anger and revenge. Dante focused on Ulysses' ethical indifference. The thought of Dante hoping to use his wits only to pursue virtue was a warning and allusion to the incorrect way in which Odysseus used his wits. This marks a change in the meaning of virtue. Odysseus was a hero in his time due to his ability to execute the necessary plan. This, in fact, made him virtuous. Virtue revolved around the protection of country and people. Dante's perspective implies that Odysseus went beyond virtue and bordered on pride or greed. However, he did not place Odysseus in the fourth circle of Avarice. He instead focused on Odysseus as a fraud advisor in war. Fraud is intimately intertwined with cunning. Dante, then, puts Odysseus in hell for his wartime dishonesty, because dishonesty was worse than pride. In Canto 26, Dante highlights Ulysses' guilt and dishonesty towards Achilles. In the Iliad, Achilles was a heroic figure because he avenged the death of his best friend, Petroclus. Once again, the behavior of both Achilles and Odysseus highlights a stark difference in what a hero looked like in ancient times and the Middle Ages. In a way, it seems that to be virtuous/heroic in Homer's world, a character must be guided by emotion and, in the pursuit of honor (honor in contrast to the medieval world), be willing to go to any extreme to support the original goal. It's not that Dante shows no respect for honor. But his perception of honor is different from that of classical figures. Dante's sense of honor is a Christian honor, while Ulysses' pursuit of honor is an unconditional pursuitof worldly honor. This is reflected in Virgil's words as he leads Dante through the eighth circle. Looking at the fires, Virgil said: "Inside the fires there are the spirits; each is wrapped in what burns him inside... Ulysses and Diomedes are punished in there; so together they go to punishment as they went to wrath... there inside they cry the art that makes Deidamia, although dead, still cry for Achilles" (Dante Canto 26,47-62). The art that separated Achilles from Deidamia was the cunning and wit of Ulysses. They were swallowed up by what it burned them internally (represented figuratively as fire), showing Dante's perspective on Odysseus's anger and an uncontrolled anger regarding worldly needs rather than sacred ones. Odysseus was clearly a bright guy, but his pride, still a once entwined with anger, comes vividly in the Odyssey in the scene of book 9, in which he boasts as he leaves Kyklops. His pride brings upon him the wrath of Poseidon. Once again, pride has prevented his return to Ithaca, to his family and his responsibilities. He seems to want to return home but is so vaingloriously conceited that he repeatedly offends those who influence his fate. Once again we can observe a change in the definition of virtue. It is not that Ulysses focused on excessive honor, or honor beyond reason that Dante damned; it was instead that he wanted worldly honor, which was a desire for honor for the wrong reasons. He was consumed by feelings, and rather than feelings acting in the physical interests of all involved (the Greeks, the Trojans, the warriors, those at home), Odysseus, as well as Achilles in the murderous spree that followed the death of Petroclus , acted with passionate and fiery anger. The fact that Odysseus was so observant, cunning, and witty made him an even more dangerous figure because he was so capable of disguising his passionate intentions under the guise of virtue or honor. Not only was he deceitful, but he didn't realize that his behaviors were sometimes too fantastical. It is reasonable to see that Odysseus would become insatiably enveloped in honor. It's like the modern capitalist who is so caught up in making money that he never gains a realistic perspective of the actual role of money in life. Ulysses seeks signs of success not out of physical necessity, but out of pride and an endless search for recognition. Dante lived in the Middle Ages and in the Inferno you can clearly see where religious tensions in the culture influenced his perspective on deception. Medieval themes write about the need for reform of the Roman Catholic Church. A constant question that echoes in Middle Age texts is that of appearance versus reality/intent. At a time when integrity is so openly questioned, the tact, cunning and wit of the cunning, cunning Odysseus could no longer have a positive meaning. Furthermore, such characteristics reflect his concern for control in a worldly rather than the sacred way. In support of this is the behavior of Ulysses and the speech addressed to his peers to attract them into the adventure with him: of our senses that remains, do not deny the Experience, following the sun, of the world without men. Consider your sowing, you were not made to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and science'” (Dante, Canto 26,112-119). Here an important rotation of the idea of ​​virtue and knowledge takes place. Odysseus' speech shows that he believes that virtue and knowledge are acquired through experiencing the world. Such a belief clearly indicates the dramatic difference between the worldviews of the ancients and those of the Middle Ages. Virtue and knowledge in Odysseus' time were acquired through experience rather than thought. This can also be seenin the Odyssey when Athena mourns the fact that Odysseus was not there to teach Telemachus to be a man, as if being a man consisted of knowing worldly and physical things. Thus, in the Middle Ages, a transition occurs from respect for the experience of the world to disdain for worldliness. Tennyson's angled view of Ulysses marks a return to knowledge gained through worldly experience. In Tennyson's Ulysses, Odysseus is a primarily heroic figure in his ability to continue in the pursuit of knowledge regardless of the misfortunes bestowed upon him. This theme, in fact, closes the poem: "We are no longer that force that in ancient times moved the earth and the sky, what we are, we are - Only one equal character". of heroic hearts, made weak by time and destiny, but strong in the will to strive, to seek, to find, but not to yield" (Tennyson, "Ulysses" lines 67-70). Again, it is obvious that Tennyson sees Odysseus seeking adventure if necessary. In Tennyson's time, under the Queen Victoria, Great Britain had become the world's leading industrial power (Oxford Encyclopedia of World History 705). as such, the conflict between the physical sciences themselves and the spirituality of Christianity was in conflict, as it still is today in many contexts. The Middle Ages revolved around spirituality and intellectual integrity, as seen with Dante and his excommunication he Victorian age, like the times of the original Ulysses, required experience of the world because of the physical reality that shaped their context. Virtue, in Tennyson's poetry, once again focuses on the pursuit of knowledge. By gaining knowledge through experience and conflict, Odysseus shifts virtue back into human experience, marking the shift from a person's value measured externally (e.g., by God in the Middle Ages) to value measured internally, knowledge gained through physical experience. Such themes suggest that the only path to knowledge is experience. The focus therefore shifts from the success of the whole to the success of the individual, as can also be seen in Greek literature. If knowledge is based on experience, an individual can acquire knowledge, but because he has acquired it through his own experience he is unable to translate that knowledge into pure form. It is necessary to believe in this theory in order for industrialization to be sustained. Odysseus says in Tennyson's "Ulysses," "I cannot rest from the journey; I will drink/ Life to the lees. All times I have enjoyed/ Much, I have suffered much" ("Ulysses" lines 7-10). The language of Ulysses and the preference for experience have pervaded culture since industrialization. Curiously, Tennyson does not mention Odysseus' questionable characteristics. By using Odysseus as the narrator, Tennyson's attitude towards him is slightly unclear. With the exception of endurance, the attributes - tact, cunning, cunning, perseverance - that make Odysseus a hero of the ancient world are mostly absent in "Ulysses." Odysseus is clearly a positive figure for Tennyson. His virtue is measured by his persistence in exploring the world, while the world remains unknown. The motivation behind Odysseus' behavior in the Odyssey and Odysseus, as depicted by Tennyson in "Ulysses", is different, regardless of the similarity in context (very physical realities). While Tennyson focuses on honor in perseverance, the Odyssey's Odyssey and the narrator of "Ulysses" want the honor that comes from conquering other lands and other peoples. This can be seen in the way Odysseus sees his son in "Ulysses". He judges that life at home is not for him, but is instead for his, 1998.