The end of the Odyssey Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The end of the Odyssey - Essay Example There are various theories, criticisms, interpretations, and opinions on the ending of Homers epic poem, The Odyssey. Some have unique theories such as the solar eclipse theory, others are historically possible, as if the oral tradition and the lost scrolls, while some are theoretical that leave the audience with an immortal image of the text. In this easy, we will have a critical review of the ending of the epic chronicle. At the end of the chronicle of The Odyssey, the author, Homer refers to the occurrence of the total eclipse. The core phrase that by the then seer, Theoclymenus, depicts a foresight of the death of untamed and unruly men who had sought the hand in marriage of Penelope at the time Odysseus was at war. The seer makes reference the sun obliteration from the sky, with a cloud of bad luck invading the whole world (Homer & Lattimore, 1967). This idea is symbolic of the occurrence of a total eclipse, a situation where the moon blocks the sunrays. Although, this is not new it was up to the early years of the 1920 that astronomers were able to calculate the occurrence of such an eclipse over Greece. The eclipse had a possibility of occurrence in the month of April in the year 1178 BC (Homer & Lattimore, 1967). However, many individuals are convinced that the passage that has a reference of the solar eclipse is just but a mere mythical total solar eclipse. This argument supports the claims a poetic license as the Odyssey was written by Homer several centuries after the said events had taken place. On the other side, many modern scholars and critics are convinced by the possibility of the April 1178 BC solar eclipse occurrence (Bloom, 1988). This claim is supported by other passages in then poem that have a reference to other four independent astronomical events that occur independently to each other. Instead of just having a historical view of the occurrence of a solar eclipse, several astronomers have investigated the timing