The expression, “good stories never die,” can go all the way back to Greek mythology. Many stories about a Greek god can be linked to the past, present, and future. Specifically, in Homer’s Odyssey, values and concepts are addressed that are easily applied to our lives’ today.
In the Odyssey, love, hope, and courage are only just a few things that are portrayed in this myth. We see this with Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, who stayed faithful and courageous, while Odysseus was away for 15 years. Penelope was hopeful and loyal even though she knew there was a huge chance that Odysseus could have died.
Other powerful concepts involved in the Odyssey were strength, independence, fear, and hatred. Odysseus was not just strong physically, but mentally as well. He had to strategize how to get out of sticky situations, such as with the Cyclops. He also had to be true to his morals, and leave, what was a comfortable place with goddesses, in order to try once again to go home. Odysseus also struggles with his feelings for Poseidon. Odysseus fears that Poseidon is trying to kill him, and he doesn’t know how much longer he can escape this great god’s wrath.
Today we see many likenesses to the challenges experienced by Odysseus. The reasons as to why an individual has the difficult situation may be different, yet the struggles that an individual goes through are very similar.
The premise, “don’t judge a book by its cover” remains a popular subject matter in stories, such as with, “The Frog Prince” and “Beauty and the Beast.” A lot of different movies also portray the ideas: “don’t give up when the going get rough,” and “home is where the heart is.” It seems as though, with the exception of changing a few characters’ names, these themes are what many writers of today still revolve their stories around. There are even some songs that are popular today that may have been inspired by the Odyssey. One song would be “Home,” but Michael Buble. This song speaks of wanting to be...