Odysseus as an Epic Hero Essay Example for Free

Odysseus as an Epic Hero Essay What is an epic hero? Homers’ â€Å"Odyssey† is about an epic hero named Odysseus and his quest home. â€Å"The Odyssey† begins after the Trojan war had left Odysseus trapped, pointlessly seafaring for 10 years after angering Poseidon, the god of the sea. He tries desperately to return home to Ithaka and his wife, Penelope, and newborn son, Telemachus. Odysseus then has many hardships upon which he overcomes through his intelligence and wit. Odysseus is an epic hero because he is intelligent, he listens to the god’s advice, and he is witty; able to think on his feet. With the help of the gods he can survive things most men couldn’t. First, nearing the end of the Epic, Odysseus continues to use his intelligence to overcome obstacles and hardships. Upon one attempt to return home, Odysseus must pass the island of the Sirens. He has his men plug their ears with beeswax but not before he tells them his place in the plan: â€Å"Take me and bind me to the crosspiece half way up the mast; bind me as I stand upright, with a bond so fast that I cannot possibly break away, and lash the ropes ends to the mast itself. If I beg and pray you to set me free, then bind me more tightly still. Even though Odysseus gives into the weakness of the sirens’ song, he is unable to escape from the bonds of the rope and his previous intelligence saves him. Once he arrives in Ithaca, Odysseus once again uses his intelligence to overcome his suitors and reclaim his estate. When he first encounters the people of his land, he wisely chooses to remain anonymous, avoiding an unplanned struggle or fight. Odysseus then reveals himself to his son and few servants to plan an attack on the suitors. At a contest to see if anyone can string Odysseus’s bow, the hero plans his attack after stringing the bow and firing on the suitors. His son and servants have the other arms and they massacre the entire group of suitors. This was one of Odysseus’s final acts of brilliance to conclude the epic. Furthermore, there are many instances throughout the epic where Odysseus takes the advice of the gods to overcome the obstacles he is faced with. One of the first events is when Odysseus encounters Aeolus, the god of winds. Many men would not trust this god and not accept his secret bag of wind, believing it would be a plague of some sort. But, Odysseus accepts Aeolus’ bag of winds and treats him with hospitality. Another instance where Odysseus accepts the gods’ guidance is when the hero listens to Hermes on how to overcome Circe: â€Å"But Hermes met me, with his golden wand, barring the way-a boy whose lip was downy in the first bloom of mankind, so he seemed. He took my hand and spoke as though he knew me. † By Hermes insight, Odysseus eats the food that is given to him and patiently waits for the right time to strike. Odysseus subdues Circe and forces her to free his men from the bondage of swine. After living in luxury with Circe for a year, he listens to her advice on how to return to his homeland of Ithaca. Finally, one of the first obstacles Odysseus conquers is the defeat of the Cyclops. Once trapped in the cave of the one-eyed monster, Odysseus must devise a plan and fast, the giant had taken to consuming his men. This is where Odysseus’ wit comes into play. Cunningly, Odysseus gets the Cyclops drunk and allows him to fall into slumber. He then blinds the Cyclops with a red-hot spear, knowing intelligently enough that if he kills the Cyclops they will be trapped forever. Searching for help, the giant opens the cave. Earlier, Odysseus says: â€Å"My name is Nobody: mother, father, and friends, everybody calls me Nobody. When the blinded giant is seeking help from his brothers, he proclaims that, â€Å"Nobody† blinded him. Therefore, Odysseus and his men escape with their lives by the means of this hero’s wit.? In conclusion, through this intelligence and wit with advice from the gods, Odysseus overcomes all of his obstacles against all odds. Being a true hero, the Achaeans look up to Odysseus as a role model with his intelligence, wit, and godly insight. It is because of these three traits that Odysseus is considered an epic hero and is never to be forgotten.

Multilingualism on the Net :: Languages Technology Papers

Multilingualism on the Net What will be the effect of the Internet upon natural languages in the 21st century? It is widely accepted that, generally speaking, any new media change languages. For example, the prevalence of TV has dramatically homogenized spoken accents over the past few decades. Young people tend to speak in almost the same way as TV casters, and local dialects and accents remain only among the speech of older people. This TV effect, however, is insignificant as compared with the enormous effect of print media on languages over the past few hundred years. The prevailing print texts, especially newspapers etc., enabled millions of people who had never met each other to think about the same topics in the same language, thus creating a sort of community identity. This community identity was transformed into national identity, upon which in turn the nation-state was established, as discussed by political scientist Benedict Anderson [1]. Print languages are widely acknowledged as standard national languages, for which dictionaries are edited, and lessons are given in schools. On the other hand, other languages gradually declined. Since the market economy requires any printing business to have a certain amount of readers, print languages tend to be limited to so-called major languages spoken by millions of people. In short, the number of written languages on the earth decreased after the arrival of prin t media. What, then, will the arrival of the Internet bring about? ---- Roughly speaking, we can predict two distinct directions. The first one is English monopoly. The Internet has originated in the United States, and it is obvious that at present most international correspondence takes place in English. This is partly for the historical reason that the Internet has developed as a communication tool for the researchers of science and technology whose common language is English. Now general people in addition to science and technology researchers often utilize the Internet, but English is still the dominant language if one wants to look at foreign Web sites or send E-mail across state borders. Therefore there is the possibility that, sooner or later in the 21st century, English will become the sole common language for international communication, thereby accompanying the inescapable decline of other languages. In this case the term globalization means the hegemony of English-based, United Sta tes-centered single culture spreading all over the world. On the other hand, however, we may expect the second direction where various cultures in different countries thrive and interchange with each other, resulting in fruitful and plural global culture.

Examples of US Federal Government Authority Expansion Essay

If you were to ask one hundred Americans what caused the civil war I think ninety five out of that one hundred would say slavery. The Civil War was about the rights of states. They felt they had the right to secede from the Union. This was primarily due to the states feeling there rights were being taken away. This feeling was similar to how the colonies felt. We do remember that resulted in the Revolutionary War. The south was being force to purchase products produced in the north. Those products were more expensive. The southern states felt they were losing political power. Examples of U. S. Federal Government Authority Expansion Congress was authorized in 1865 to eliminate slavery. They did so by creating the Thirteenth Amendment. President Abraham Lincoln had already presented the Proclamation to stop slavery as an executive order. The Thirteenth Amendment made that Proclamation the law of the land. The Political Structure showed the second part of the Proclamation granted Congress the power to enforce through legislation what is considered the most important part. It gave them the ability to take further action against the Ten Confederate States. This would also give the government a way to introduce and pass further Proclamations in regards to the rights of slaves. Social structures showed that full civil rights were still a long way off. The law and public opinion are not always in alignment. While by law freed slaves and their descendants were citizens and had the same rights as whites, there were still treated differently. Segregation became institutionalized, under â€Å"Jim Crow† laws. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century brought violence against African Americans. They used force to get the change they wanted. Separate but Equal† was the norm until the civil right movement. Economic structures naturally changed. Without slave labor, the way agricultural business ran had to be changed, and profit margins sank until the market compensated. Wages were poor, but African Americans were free to set up their own businesses, and to travel to other regions to find work. The Eighteenth Amendment written in 1919 prohibited the manufacturing, importing, and exporting of alcoholic beverages. This is only one example of how the Federal governed started using the power to restrict trade goods in the U. S.  To do so many offices had to be created. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assures the quality of food and pharmaceuticals, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works to insure clean air and waters by restricting the use of toxic material in manufacturing processes, and the Drug Enforcement Agency restricts trafficking of illegal narcotics. The Eighteenth Amendment was later changed to the Twenty Fifth Amendment. Social structures changed, people found ways to work around the law. With the demand for liquor continuing to increase the black market started. Moonshiners and big Mobster Bosses reated organized crime. The moonshiners manufactured the liquor and the Mobster Bosses bought the liquor. The Mobsters then provided places where people could gather to consume the illegal alcohol. Prohibition was in full speed. The economic structures, showed two things that happened. First, breweries and distilleries either went out of business or shifted into something else. Second, an underground economy sprang into existence, flowing through the black market liquor business. The Twentieth and Twenty-Fifth Amendments each changed the terms of presidential succession. They changed such things as the date and time a newly elected President takes office. The Twentieth Amendment gives the House of Representatives the power to select the President in the event of death, when no line of succession is clear. It also grants the Senate the power to appoint the Vice President under the same circumstances. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides Congress with the power to decide to permanently remove the President from office, should he become disabled and unable to perform his duties, and declare the Vice President to be not just the acting President pro tempore but officially the President. The political ramifications of this are not so much applicable to overall Federal power, but to the power of separate political parties. If the President is the minority party, and the House majority is controlled by the opposing party, this could grant that party a great deal of power contrary to the will of the voters. The impact on social and economic structures remains largely hypothetical. It would depend on the party makeup of Congress, the issues at stake, and how the American people and America’s allies and enemies felt about the situation. Legislation that would have been vetoed gets passed, and vice-versa.

Being Recognized As A Mental Illness - 1190 Words

In today’s society, the phenomenon of malingering is not being recognized as a mental illness, but rather an intentional faking of mental illness. Malingering had captured the attention of many forensic psychologists and is now a growing concern due to the potential consequences of misdiagnosis in clinical or correctional setting. Malingering defined as a deliberate act by a person pretending to have some form of physical or psychological symptoms in order to avoid a negative outcome such as a prison sentence, or to gain a positive outcome such as financial compensatory. In a criminal or correctional setting, it is extremely important for forensic psychologists to determine whether an individual is malingering. For example, a†¦show more content†¦In other words, the defendant pretending not to be responsible for his or her action(s) during a mental defect. Therefore, it is important for forensic psychologists to determine whether or not the defendant know what he was doing was wrong. In addition, incarcerated inmates often malinger serious mental illness symptoms. The motives for an incarcerated inmate are to obtain a more preferred or comfortable correctional setting that may have more privileges including prescription medications. In a work injury claim, a malingerer may fabricate or exaggerate the symptoms of an injury for the sake of avoiding work or increase benefits. The worker might also claim to have suffered from a mental disorder such as post-traumatic stress disorder due to the (fake) injury he or she sustained in order to receive higher worker’s compensation premiums. An assessment or evaluation of malingering can pose a difficult task for forensic psychologists or evaluators. In other words, malingering can be difficult to detect. However, a series of psychological tests have been developed to help forensic psychologists detect a person who is faking symptoms of mental illness. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (M MPI-2) is one of the most frequent used psychological test in assessing mental illness. The MMPI-2 consists of various scales which accurately detect symptoms of false exaggeration. Another psychological test is the Structured Interview of