Temptation

Throughout the past two books we have read, we have seen many examples of Odysseus and his men succumbing to temptation. The first example we see is when Odysseus enters the land of the cyclopses, and home of Polyphemus, Poseidon's son. Once Odysseus blinds Polyphemus, he lacks modest and control and yells his own name to Polyphemus out of temptation.Odysseus yells, " Cyclops - if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so-say Odysseus, raider of cities" (9:559). This ultimately messes up Odysseus's voyage home because Polyphemus informs his father about Odysseus and tells him to do anything he can do to make sure Odysseus does not reach his home in Ithaca. In book ten, Odysseus receives a special bag of winds from the owner of the Aeolian island as a gift. This bag of winds can stir up westwardly winds to send Odysseus and his crew home. Odysseus's crew becomes curious and greedy and one man demands, " hurry, let's see what loot is in that sack, how much gold and silver. Break it open-now!" (10:49). After the crew opens the bag bag, a storm arises and Odysseus could not ask the man for another bag of winds, therefore they could not reach home. Another example of when temptation plays a role in this book is at the end of book 9 when one of the members of Odysseus's crew becomes drunk, which extends their trip home. Though temptation is a common theme with humans, and is something most of us can not resist, in the Odyssey indulgence results in bad situations and a longer travel home to ithaca.