Greeks

5 Pages 1349 Words

The Greeks in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries B.C. were creative. Unlike the societies before them the Greeks emerged as a group of people not remembered for their building designs, but rather for their creative ideas they created about life, society, and philosophy. The ideas they created would go on to spark a revolution in thinking that had never been done before in past societies. As a result from this new wave of thinking many philosophers is more important in Greek society than Homer. Homer reflected Greek ideas in his writings of the Iliad and Odyssey. The ideas in these books would go on to influence the society in which arête (manliness) would become a very important virtue to the Greeks.
Homers Odyssey is an epic adventure that follows the adventures of Odysseus. Odysseus is a man that encompasses all the characteristics of the ideal man in Greek society. These Greek ideals of a man include physical prowess, courage, fighting ability, personal honor, and protection of one’s family and property. Each of these virtues becomes apparent in the readings of the Odyssey. The Odyssey is also the story for the coming of age of Odysseus’s only son Telemachus.
In the Odyssey Odysseus’s only son Telemachus finds himself to stand courage against the many suitor who pursue his mother, and their family riches. Chapter 2, and 3 embark young Telemachus on a journey to find the fortune of his fathers’ disappearance. In the beginning of chapter 2 young Telemachus is overwhelmed by the persistence of the suitors to marry his mother. Telemachus then proposes to the suitor that he will embark on a journey to find his fathers where about. Telemachus proposes that if his father is dead, than he will allow one of the suitors to marry his mother. However if he finds out that his father is still alive then he will wait for another year for his father to return, and if he does not he will then wed one of the suitors to his mother...