The ending of The Odyssey was exactly just as expected however, it was still quite entertaining to read. We are subjected to the themes of nostos and kleos even more. Odysseus actually arrives back to Ithaca and meets his son, Telemachus! It was nice to see this encounter between them, being that Telemachus grew up with no father because of Odysseus leaving for the war and having trouble to come back. Kleos is especially prevalent when Penelope conducts the bow and quiver test to pick a suitor she will marry. No one is capable of putting the string to the bow, not even Telemachus, although he is close. Then Odysseus comes and complete’s Penelope’s task, revealing himself to her and the suitors before he kills them all. I believe that in that society, Odysseus did the rightful action of killing Penelope’s suitors because they were a threat to Odysseus, his family, and kleos. My favorite part of the ending was when Penelope still had doubt that Odysseus was Odysseus because who knows? It may just be a god in disguise and trying to woo over Penelope. So Penelope puts him to the test by telling a servant to move the bed and he essentially tells her that it’s unmovable because he made the bed. This act shows how much Penelope cares for Odysseus and how faithful she is to him. I thought it was a really sweet moment to include in the book.

I’ve always really wanted to read The Odyssey, we were supposed to freshman year in high school. However, my English teacher at the time ended up getting fire. So I’m grateful that the opportunity arose to read it for World Humanities. Reading not even half  page, I was hooked on. I really appreciate the plot and began comparing it to the Bible. We see the dos here in a more humanistic light because we are able to see their interactions for one another. We also see how they directly intervene in human’s lives. In the Bible, God only had direct contact with Adam and Eve. What I mean by direct contact is how God would walk in the Garden of Eden with them. After the Disobedience of Man we can see he only speaks to them with his voice, dreams, angels, and Jesus. However, in The Odyssey we can see how Athena, a prime example, disguises herself into Mentes and Mentor. We can see here how much the gods care because they go to great lengths to interfere in human lives. This is especially visible when Athena disguises herself as Telemakhos to get him a ship and crew. Furthermore this shows, that gods help create a situation to help fix problems of man. This reminds me of church, where sometimes there would be prayers made to have God intervene for us in a situation. Through faith some people have gotten their responses, however has it ever been in such a manner presented in The Odyssey? I just like to think about the possibility of having a supreme being among us, working for the betterment of our lives.