Odysseus is one of The Odyssey’s most memorable characters. The king, husband, father figure who left Troy and didn’t make it back to his family for twenty years. When he finally did get home, there were numerous obstacles in his way. The first that Odysseus faces isn’t a person but the land itself (Marshall). The land wouldn’t let him live because she was mad at the lack of hospitality he had shown her by not offering sacrifices while he was away (Marett 115). Telemakhos is Odysseus’ son who is trying to help his father by providing information about why they are being kept hostage on Ithaca.
The next obstacle is The Laestrygonians, The Cyclops, The Lotus Eaters, The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis in the narrows of Messina Strait to name a few. The characters themselves in The Odyssey are complex because they are written with their flaws in mind, but also show how individuals can become better people to society through hospitality. The three main characters who demonstrate this are Telemakhos, The Laestrygonians, and The Cyclops. Telemakhos is Odysseus’ son who is trying to help his father by providing information about why they are being kept hostage on Ithaca to suit Penelope’s suitors.
When Telemakhos was younger he didn’t feel like an important member of the royal family because he had no power, so Telemakhos left home to go find his father. The first people that Telemakhos comes across on his journey are The Laestrygonians who kill a few of his companions and made him save himself by fleeing for his life (Marett 116). After The Cyclops eats six of Odysseus’ men, The Odyssey states that “the savage one [The Cyclops] did not think human beings were in the ship.
In fact, he thought she was full of something to eat” until Odysseus tells The Cyclops that they are men to which The Cyclops then answers, “Well then bring out food and drink you and your friends” (Homer The Odyssey 116). The Laestrygonians and The Cyclops are the first two obstacles that Telemakhos faces in The Odyssey. The characters in The Odyssey show how much hospitality can do for any individual, especially a prince who doesn’t have power because The Laestrygonians killed some of his companions when they could’ve easily been helped if he had used hospitality to calm them down.
The Laestrygonians and The Cyclops were both going to kill Telemakhos’ men until he showed them hospitality. Hospitality calms not only a person’s fear towards death but also their fear towards a person who is considered an enemy or enemy force which is clearly shown through Odysseus when The Cyclops asks him “What country is your land in, and who are its people? ” Odysseus replied, “It’s a fair island in the wine-dark sea. The people there are of the stock of broad-shielded Danaans. They call their land Ithaca” (Homer The Odyssey 116).
The next obstacle The Odyssey gives Telemakhos to overcome is The Sirens which he does by using his men as decoys to drown out The Sirens’ voice (Marett 117) which will cause every character in The Odyssey to face an individual or multiple individuals with their strength and weaknesses that can be overcome through hospitality. The Laestrygonians were killed when they attacked Telemakhos and The Cyclops was tricked into believing that The Odyssey’s crew were his friends when they were his enemies.
The third obstacle The Odyssey gives Telemakhos to face is The Sirens who Telemakhos manages to overcome by using a different approach than Odysseus did to overcome them. The Laestrygonians and The Cyclops both had to be tricked for Telemakhos’ men to survive but The Sirens’ music would’ve drowned out their voices so they couldn’t trick The Sirens, so Telemakhos uses a different technique all together which is to use rowing as an instrument of sound (Marett 118).
The character of hospitality also plays a role in The Odyssey not only with The Laestrygonians, The Cyclops, and The Sirens but also when The Odyssey speaks about Odysseus’ time in the Underworld. The fourth obstacle that The Odyssey gives Telemakhos to face is The Wandering Rocks which Telemakhos successfully overcome by sailing wide around them (Homer The Odyssey 124-125) so The Wandering Rocks show how hospitality can also cause one to be safe from traveling to an unpleasant place.
The best example of hospitality in The Odyssey comes when Odysseus makes it back home to Ithaca for Telemakhos to prove himself worthy of being king. When Odysseus gets home he sees all the suitors that The Odyssey describes as “kings who rule neighboring islands – Dulichion, Same, and wooded Zacynthus” (Homer The Odyssey 1. 46) which The Odyssey states that “they were eating the people’s food and wooing Telemakhos’ mother” to where The Ithaca state that they have been there for a year and The Odyssey says that “the warlike suitors had turned her [Penelope] into a bitter shrew” (Homer The Odyssey 1. 5). The suitors become Telemakhos’ next obstacle because he has to kill them to get back his home from them so hospitality is what allows both Odysseus and Telemos to overcome their obstacles in The Odyssey even though The Odyssey doesn’t show The Laestrygonians, The Cyclops, The Sirens, The Wandering Rocks or The Suitors being overcome through hospitality.
The character of Telemakhos and Odysseus in The Odyssey use hospitality to help them in their journey to kill The Laestrygonians and The Cyclops with Telemakhos using it on his own when he overcomes The Sirens and The Wandering Rocks which makes him just as worthy of being king as Odysseus is because they both use the same technique of hospitality when overcoming these obstacles making them both ends of the spectrum.
