Author: n.kabir

In Hafez’s poem, I love how he creates a conundrum within himself. Hafez talks about his love towards Islam and God, but at the same time, he presents the reality that exists. He quite clearly states and showcases his admiration towards drinking and indulging in pleasure through women. Many of which is prohibited in Islam. He takes a unique approach to showcasing his love and appreciation to Gods creation. I am a practicing Muslim myself and I have often given in to such pleasures in life. I found his approach to be very unique creating a ‘state’ a ‘route’ to portray his own form of love and devotion.

Plato’s Symposium, showcased many-a forms of love and their unique way of describing each form was quite intriguing to me. I enjoyed the description of love and reproduction in Diotima’s speech. She says the purpose of love is a reproduction in beauty. All people are pregnant in body or soul. Such love expresses itself through pregnancy and reproduction, either through the physical kind of sexual love or through the sharing and reproduction of ideas. Physical relationships are a necessary step in the ascent to love, but loving souls is a higher rung than loving bodies.

In all honesty my view of Odysseus had changed throughout this play/epic. As the play started off, I felt deeply for Odysseus being kept away from his family through a string of mishaps and unfortunate events. But as the play went on, and the more Homer revealed the mindset of Odysseus and his infamous “polytropos” outlook, the more I began to doubt Odysseus’s true intentions. Odysseus has had continuously given in to desires with Calypso, Nausicaa and Circe and time and time again he had stretched out his stay at the islands.

But one might say that going against the Cyclopes and Scylla and many such monsters do showcase his intentions and desire to get back home. Instead, I believe this is just a part of his polytropos. He more often runs into such predicaments because of his own fault, i.e. leading his men on to kill the Sacred cattle of the Sun. Secondly, I believe his true concern is his own thrown/kingdom, I don’t really believe he cares much about his family but it is more of a concern to him that he was being dethroned by the suitors. This is where his true intentions really lie, his own greed for sexual desires, his hubris and his desire for power and wealth that are rooted back home.

As for Homer, I believe I asked this question in class too. It seems that though Homer writes and portrays Odysseus making poor decisions and or giving in to his desire for women, Homer actually wants to emphasize on the hardships that Odysseus actually endures to return back home. One monster after the other, storms hitting his ship and his crew that continuously slowed him down, but yet Odysseus manages a way out. Thus in doing so, Homer builds up Odysseus’ loyalty and true desire to get back home to his family.