A study in the theme of sleep and fatality as

The Journey

In the Journey, Homer uses the idea of rest to represent the concept of death, making the fight to remain conscious and the fight to remain surviving one in a similar struggle. Odysseus is constantly struggling with to remain warn, to avoid boredom. It is this kind of metaphorical sleeplessness that enables Odysseus to return to his native area. However , in the long run, sleep is an unavoidable part of getting alive, in the same way death is usually. Odysseus, being human, cannot avoid this. A way to wait if not to transcend both sleep and death though is through storytelling.

Sleep can be deaths rep on earth. The most important distinction that can in fact always be drawn among sleep and death is the fact death is known as a permanent situation, and therefore provides with that a more negative connotation. Penelope defines sleep as the oblivion of all/ items, both good and evil (20: 85). Such is death. Sleep has the ability to quiet (12: 31) as does death. Furthermore, the moment describing just how Telemechos slaughters the service personnel guilty of treason, Homer employs a metaphor by saying the sleeping, the fatality, given these people was hateful, / and so their mind were all in a range, and each got her neck of the guitar caught/ fast in a noose, so that their very own death would be most pitiful (22: 469-471). Death is therefore a much more hateful edition of sleep. This thought is present again in Homers description of Hades, by which one need to pass through the region of dreams in order to get to the residing place of spirits (24: 12-13).

In the same way the world changes uncontrollably when one dead, so too will the world alter uncontrollably every time a character drops off to sleep. Odysseus is definitely asleep the moment his guy seamen let it fly the gusts of wind and when that they eat Helios sacred cows. He is in bed when Alkinoors daughter understands him. He could be asleep when he arrives in Ithaka. Penelope sleeps through what will be her saddest and most happy moments: once her kid leaves her for the unknown, then when her husband extracts his revenge through the suitors. Athene even drifted a fairly sweet sleep above [Penelope]endow[ing] her with products immortal/ to help make the Achaians enjoy her (18: 187-191). Hence we see what setbacks and miracles may and do happen while the persona in question sleeps through these people. It is this kind of daunting reality leads Odysseus to shout out, Dad Zeus, and you simply other everlasting and blessed/ gods, using a pitiless sleep, you lulled me, to my dilemma (12: 371-372). It is this kind of confusion which the characters rise to, just like Ares and Aphrodite, after falling asleep with each other in appreciate, awaken to find themselves captured in the artistic bonds that were forged simply by subtle Hephaistos (10: 298). Similarly, a human character is usually trapped in whatever circumstance he discovers himself in when he wakes up.

Unlike Ares nevertheless , Odysseus, becoming human, need to struggle if he wakes up to break free from the bonds of his condition. Ares deliverer Poseidon would not save Odysseus from nearly anything, but in reality makes the oceans even harder. And so, simply by struggling against Poseidons oceans and Poseidons son the Cyclops, Odysseus is unable against death, the final elder scroll 4. Therefore he could be in a sense unable against sleep, as sleeping is simply loss of life on a small scale. This idea of unable against sleep, against a death of sorts, is definitely shown all the time in Odysseus struggle to steer clear of monotony. This individual escapes Kalypsoe, who provides him permanent monotony. This individual escapes the Lotus-eaters, would you have him forget his own home. He avoids the Sirens, who have him listening to all their songs till his death, which will be redundant, mainly because it would essentially be loss of life to listen all day to the honey-sweet voice (12: 183) with the Sirens. That is the nature of monotony.

Since it is usually Odysseus mother nature to have difficulty against loss of life, it comes after that he’d suffer from sleep problems, which is to have difficulties against sleep specifically. Without a doubt, Athene frequently puts Odysseus to sleep, because Odysseus is likely to spend his nights with an unpleasant/ lounger lay[ing] and wait[ing] [for] the throned Dawn in her wonders (19: 341-342). Once, Athene scolds Odysseus for his inability to sleep, saying, There exists annoyance in lying alert and on safeguard all night. You can soon become out of your troubles (20: 49-53). Hence Athene signifies that one must, in the end, acknowledge sleep. (Athene however under no circumstances scolds Telemechos for his newfound sleeping disorders, as Telemechos is learning to be a grown-up, and therefore need to learn to become an insomniac first. )

Just as Odysseus must agree to the rest Athene pushes on him, a human being need to in the end recognize death. In the same way Penelope says that it is will never possible for persons forever/ to visit without sleeping because the immortals have offered each man his own due reveal all over the grain-giving corn property (19: 589-593), so too have the immortals given every persona his personal due reveal of fatality. If the struggle against loss of life is what describes Odysseus what defines all of us as humans then finally dying should be equally important within our definition of ourself. And just while sleep the actual evil endurable, when 1 cries through the days, together with the heart regularly troubled, so too must fatality make existence endurable, in that we know that people finally come an elder scroll 4 of all points (20: 83-86).

Homer often shows that the way to avoid the inevitable sleep is story-telling. Storytelling makes the night endless and enables Alkinoos to hold out till bright daybreak (11: 372-375). Eumaios demands on experiencing Odysseus story because he feels that Too very much sleep is only/ a bore (15: 392-395). Therefore stories are a way of transcending the all-natural need to rest. Stories should also be a way, therefore , of transcending fatality. The very lifestyle of The Journey proves that. Odysseus story has long outlasted Odysseus. Both Homer and his primary character show the ability of story-telling to overcome sleep, of fine art to conquer death.

Homer allows the reader to better understand Odysseus struggle for lifetime against the forces of death by describing Odysseus struggle to be alert, both literally and figuratively, against the makes of sleep or boredom. But , ultimately, a man must accept his fate, or perhaps he must notify stories.