An epic poem is a poem that is a long very serious poem about a certain event

usually a journey or adventure, they also have heroes. The epic poem " The
Odyssey" Man named Odysseus goes on a journey home to a place named
named Troy. In the many years he hasn't returned it has fallen. His wife,
Penelope stood there in Troy and so did their son, Telemachus. Many suitors
have swarmed to Penelope seeing as that it looked like Odysseus may not ever
return. Meanwhile Odysseus is fighting many things, some things unknown to
him. His men are dying and he questions if he is going to survive this journey
back home. For ten years Odysseus is gone, but he makes it to Troy. He then
has Athena (goddess of wisdom) disguise him as an old beggar so he can enter
his house undetected. Penelope soon decides what the men shall do to win her
hand. She chooses something only Odysseus knows how to do. He shoots an
arrow through 12 axle handles. He then changes back into himself and kills the
suitors and unloyal staff with Telemachus.
Before Odysseus ever came home he had to deal with many things. Like Circe,
the witch-goddess who turned Odysseus's men into pigs. Hermes (messenger
god) then helps Odysseus and makes Odysseus circe's husband. He lives in
luxury and Circe offers to keep it this way, Odysseus refuses and soon leaves.
Calypso is a nymph who fell in love with Odysseus and keeps him and his men
there for seven years. Again with the help of Hermes she lets them go.
Polyphemus was a cyclops who tried to eat Odysseus and his men but Odysseus
was clever so he tricked and blinded him which led to their escape. Tiresias was
a prophet who lived in the underworld. Tiresias was the one who told Odysseus
that all of his men would not survive the journey.
One major symbol that I saw throughout the story was Troy. Troy was the
symbol for home. All Odysseus and his men wanted to do was get home to go
see their families again to go and live their lives happily in Troy, their home.
Another symbol was The Sea. The sea sublimes the many problems that
Odysseus had to go through. Like the sea, Odysseus troubles would keep
coming and coming. But their was no way around these obstacles because it was
the only thing there. The reason they stated in the sea for 10 years was because
after Odysseus blinded Polyphemus he angered his father, Poseidon (God of the
sea) Polyphemus wished for Odysseus's journey to be long and hard and it was.
Other epic poems are similar to The Odyssey. They start in the Trojan war, with
different main characters going to different places. For example Aeneid was an

epic poem written by Virgil, it was about a man named Aeneas who fought in the
Trojan war and was trying to return home to Italy. This poem was written in
dactylic hexameter which was different from iambic pentameter (style used for
stories like Romeo and Juliet). There were many different poems that were like
this. This is because an epic poem always has a hero a journey and many other
qualities like these. If you take any two epic poems you would see that they both
have many likenesses in them.
The real world connections I found in this poem were the problems that
Odysseus had with the suitors and his wife. In the real world a man fights with
men to keep the woman they have at the moment. Although they might not kill
each other over it they still have many conflicts. Even in the real world a man and
woman will break up or end their relationship, sometimes the mans friend will
want to go after his friends newly single woman. Another real world connection is
the relationship that Odysseus had with his staff. Some of the staff was loyal and
true to Odysseus while others were not. The ones that were were so happy that
he was back. If a person in the real world was gone for a certain amount of time
and you see them again, you would be happy. Here family members go off to war
in the army air force navy etc. and their family doesn't get to see them often but
when and if they do come back it's a joyous moment.