The Odyssey

In “The Odyssey”, Odysseus is trapped on an island by a goddess by the name of Calypso. Some individuals believe he is dead, while some still have faith and believes he is alive, which he is. In each book of one through four, we hear of Odysseus, but never see him. By doing this, I believe it shows the importance of Odysseus, as well as indirectly showing how long he has been away.

Even though Odysseus was away throughout the first four books, he was mentioned in each one. This definitely shows how important he is as a character. Usually, when someone is not present during a particular time in a book, you don’t hear much about them until they return. However, even though he was not present, the root of the chapters surrounded him. Also, it was not just his family that was worried about him—it was the gods that actually helped him home. If Odysseus was not such an important person in the text, most individuals, especially the gods, would not be repetitively discussing him after being missing for ten years.

Another importance of not showing Odysseus until the fifth book would be to give readers a glimpse into how long he has actually been away. It would not give us much description by simply saying he has not been home for ten years after the war. Even though four books is nowhere near close in comparison to ten years, it still is a long time to see the main character of a text. However, since we don’t see him, in a way, it helps us relate to the other characters because we are all waiting on him to make his appearance.