In Homer’s The Odyssey, nearly all the physical deaths are either cruel or unusual having been caused by either murder or an act of the gods. No character dies a natural death that was not caused by another person or some act of the gods. However, there is another type of death apparent in The Odyssey. Rather than a physical death, there is also a spiritual death, which is a death that is possible when a character is alive. This also is often caused by a god or an immortal. Spiritual death occurs in The Odyssey when a character is bound to a place against his will, kept away from their home life, or when their thoughts or actions are being controlled by someone else.
- Poseidon and Odysseus
- Wanted to punish Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus
- Lengthened the amount of time it took Odysseus to get home after Troy to 10 years
- This killed all of Odysseus’ men over the course of the 10 years, leaving Odysseus to fend for himself
- Poseiden’s punishment is essentially responsible for all of Odysseus’ trials and tribulations
- Circe and Odysseus
- Spent an entire year on her island, feasting and making love
- His men were drugged, turned into swine
- Calypso and Odysseus
- Spent seven years on Ogygia with immortal Calypso
- Made love with immortal nymph
- This ceased to please him, and he would spend his days weeping
- While all this was happening
- Essential question: Is lost lifetime essentially death?
- If life moves on without you there to be a part of it, it is a living death.
- Odysseus was not there to watch his son grow, enjoy his house, spend time with his wife who has now aged twenty years
- While waiting for Odysseus, his mom died and his father aged before his time
- Everybody missed him
- Like the dog Odysseus bred who Odysseus never got to see in his prime, he built himself a brave and courageous life yet never got to fully enjoy the prime of his life with his family at his home
I like how the final point draws Odysseus’ spiritual death all together by zooming out and essentially detailing the life Odysseus lost. The fact that he lost a life on Ithaca makes his absence truly deathlike. To the people left on Ithaca, he is as good as dead.
However, I don’t see how the last point in your thesis ties in–“when their thoughts or actions are being controlled by someone else”. Perhaps you are still planning on adding that in, but make sure you don’t leave it hanging.
I think your introduction does a bit of a dance before arriving at spiritual deaths occurring during life. I’m anxious to see how you expand upon your conclusion keeping in mind that with or without Odysseus’ presence everyone’s lives continue, including his own. Good start, Patrick.
Hi Patrick,
This is a very interesting take on the topic, and I see potential here. Thoughts on claim and evidence follow:
CLAIM. As a reader, I have a couple of serious questions–primarily about your central term, “spiritual death.” I think you need to demonstrate WHY and HOW being deprived of freedom, home, self-direction, etc. amounts to a kind of death. After all, Odysseus never gives up, never loses his sense of himself or the stakes of his journey (though he comes close). So part of your job, here, is to equate his tribulations to an inner, spiritual “death.” And, to do that, I think you need to think about what *actual* death means and looks like in the Odyssey. How is what Odysseus goes through similar to how Homer depicts death?
Avoid simply equating suffering with death–something the essay in its current state risks doing!
EVIDENCE: It’s ok if, in refining your claim, you decide to focus solely on Odysseus, or to draw on a narrower pool of evidence. You have a great deal of material to work with; choose the examples that best and most clearly demonstrate your point.
Happy writing!
Prof Kolb