The Argument Regarding Odysseus" Fate.

             Odysseus, the great epic hero, leaves his beautiful Ithaca, spends ten years of his life fighting bravely against Troy, and then spends another ten years reaching home. At this point he leaves Troy again. He leaves his family and loyal subjects to go exploring and questing to satisfy the wanderer inside him. Everyone agrees of the facts, but they do not agree of what to make of Odysseus. Pindar, said to be the greatest of Greek poets, makes Odysseus into a deceitful villain. Philoctetes of Sophocles portrays Odysseus as a rascal who believes in telling the truth only when he can afford to. Odysseus is also seen as an uncaring, icy man as he justifies his sacrificing of Hecuba"s daughter in Euripides" Hecuba. I am not sure of the reasons for these portrayals, but the thoughts and reasoning of Kazantzakis, Tennyson, and Dante are heartbreakingly clear. The works of these three men bring up some questions. Does ambition justify his leaving Ithaca again? Should he be damned to the Inferno, or does his actions prove to be his salvation? Kazantzakis believes that his second journey form Ithaca is his salvation and that he grows in spirit from the experience. Tennyson and Dante do not share this idea with Kazantzakis. In fact, they believe Odysseus is damned. Thus, the argument begins.

             Nikos Kazantzakis presents Odysseus as a wise and spiritually dominant man in his epic poem Odyssey: A Modern Sequel. The adventures of Ulysses that begin after his return to Ithaca are parallel to Odysseus" spiritual growth. Nikos says there are seven stages in man"s advancement from being a savage to obtaining a pure soul. One of the epithets Kazantzakis uses in his epic is "seven -souled." Not only is this epic about the modern man in search of a soul, but also it is an exploration of the meaning of freedom. In Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, Odysseus is seen as being out of place in Ithaca.