Loyalty Conflicts between Family and State in Homer’s Odyssey, and Soph

Loyalty Conflicts between Family and State in Homers Odyssey, and Sophocles Oedipus the King and Antigone Everyday we are faced with hundreds of decisions. both(prenominal) of the decisions take very little meter and are made without a second thought. Other decisions hold more at stake and fire tear a person in two while move to make the final decision. The basis of many of the hardest decisions is the involution between family and state. The decision between pursuing a career and starting a family outgrowth is an example. Once a family is started, there are endless decisions about daycare, fleck meetings, and school activities to decide which go away take priority. These decisions can become harder during a time of war. People are forced to choose between their ad hominem lives including education, family and careers, and their duties as a citizen. Some of the earliest recorded literature presents this troth between family and state. Homers novel, The Odyssey, deals with the issue at a time of war. Sophocles also addresses the conflict in two of his famous plays, Oedipus the King and Antigone. In the Grecian language, this is a conflict between oikos1 and polis. 2 This essay will present the separation of loyalty between oikos and polis as is evident in early literature and in decisions of today. A modern example of the conflict between oikos and polis at a time of war can be seen in one National Guard soldier, Ryan. In February, 2003, Ryan was twenty-one eld old and had just received a degree from a biyearly college. He had met the woman he wanted to marry and had recently proposed to her. The fit had not set a date, but was looking at the kick back of 2004. Everything was headed towards a bright f... ... New York Penguin, 1979.Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York Penguin, 1996.Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York Penguin, 1984.Notes1 Oikos is the Grecian word meaning the family.2 Polis is the Greek word meaning the government.3 The Greek word for assembly is agora, which is the typeset of the meeting and the meeting itself.4 Greek word for tradition, custom.5 Greek word for multitudes.6 Finley.7 Greek word for king.8 Greek word showing the might that the king has.9 Finley, 91.10 Homer, 228.11 Finley, 120.12 Auge.13 Auge.14 Sophocles, pg 63, lines 85 92.15 Sophocles, pg 97, line 824.16 Sophocles. pg 97, line 825.17 Sophocles, pg 82, lines 503- 508.18 Sophocles, pg 94, lines 756-761.