COMPARE AND CONTRAST

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Comparative mythology involves comparing myths from either similar cultural setups or diverse cultural settings in an attempt to reveal or rather expose the shared themes as well as the characteristics of those myths. This means that during the analysis of the literary works, one is likely to meet some similarities or differences between the pair of pieces of literature that are being compared or contrasted. It is, therefore, the purpose of this essay that the pair of work written by the ancient Greek poet Homer, “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” are explicitly analyzed to bring out the similarities in their stories as well as the differences in the plots of the two stories. The first paragraph of the essay covers the introductory statement as well as the thesis statement of the essay. Subsequent paragraphs make the body of the essay where numerous similarities and some differences between the two stories are discussed. The last paragraph of the essay is the conclusion and does confirm the thesis statement.

Compare and contrast “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” by Homer
“The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” can be said to be two of the ancient European and Western literature that still has space for survival in the current modern transformed world. Apart from being authored by one writer, Homer, “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” are so similar that some analysts argue out that “The Odyssey” is the sequel to “The Iliad.” However, the former is a great improvement in numerous aspects and its story is explained vividly without much support from the latter.

Despite the fact that the two literary works were written during different times, the stories share the setting location, themes, and character traits while having some differences in their plots. This essay, therefore, shows the similarities in the Trojan War, the Bronze Age and Mycenaean time setting, the nature and role of gods, and the purity of women among other similarities as well as the different cultures covered in the stories.
The Iliad is a Greece-based story that covers the final or rather late stages of the battle between the most powerful alliances in the history of Greece. Iliad can be said to be a story describing the battle of the two major Bronze Age alliances of the Greeks. The Iliad epic has its ending when the Achaeans. These are people from the modern day Greece, did sack Troy, a place that is believed to be located in current Turkey. While describing Iliad, a literature analyst can easily conclude that it is indeed a very long as well as a meandering epic. However, this long and meandering epic is marred by scenes of Achilles who is a god-like character. Achilles does make numerous struggles within the setting of Iliad majorly with purposes of being confronting his hubris as well as humanizing himself.
Having a closer look at the type of Iliad and the scope of this great epic story, one can easily draw a relationship between the happenings and events in Trojan with the numerous factions of Europe in both “World War I and World War II.” The Trojan can also be said to contain some similarities with the famous civil war that occurred within the borders of America between Northerners and the country’s Southerners. Indeed, Iliad covers a seminal war, a war that can be said to influence the shaping of history, and an intra-cultural battle (Macleod 13). This was a war that involved warriors of the same basic culture, people who had the common ancestors. Despite the fact that the two Bronze Age “Greek” alliances were protected by different gods, these gods belong to the same family of the famous “Greek gods.”
On the other hand, Odyssey is in contrast with Iliad. This epic story has its main setting and plot outside the common “Greek culture” as it explicitly covers the contact of the Greeks with the Mediterranean cultures that did exist before the Mycenaean Age (Leeming 27). This Homer’s epic has its main focus on the life of Odysseus, the main character, and the struggle of his family to recover from the after-effects of war in Trojan. Also, this Greek myth is also in the focus of the struggle that Odysseus makes to return to his home place eventually.
As Iliad does describe the Bronze Age clash between the two most powerful, equally brilliant as well as beautiful fighting groups of the “Greeks”, the Odyssey, on the other hand, has a description of the contact between “Greece people” and the “Other,” that is majorly represented as witches and monsters as well.
Iliad and Odyssey are two epic stories that cover the wartime of the ancient Greeks that existed from about 1600-1100 BC, the so-called Bronze Age and Mycenaean time. When relating this time of existence with the some of the Christian Doctrines, it can be concluded that both Iliad and Odyssey have similar setting of time frame with the period that Moses led the mass exodus of the Israelites from Pharaonic Egypt all along through to cover the time that King David did rule a Jewish nation that was united.
Having a closer look at the epic story of Iliad, one can see a lot of people die in combat. It is the war between honorable men against other honorable men (Macleod 20). This brings about the theme of morals in the story that covers Bronze Age clashes between the beautiful and powerful “Greek groups.” Just like the morals within the military environment, Iliad promotes discipline, state of honesty, respect, restraint, and honor among the honorable men that are expected to fight honorable battles to satisfy the honorable gods. However, the Odyssey has its main aim of dealing with the struggle that Odysseus strive to return to his home place. In this epic story, the morals of the so-called mortals are largely criticized by Zeus. This shows the difference in the theme of morals between the two Greek based epic stories. Furthermore, in Iliad, the main character, Achilles does challenge Agamemnon, his commander and seems not to like the devious behavior whereas Odysseus, the main character in Odyssey, employs the use of trickery to survive as well as overcoming the existing obstacles.
The two Homer’s epic stories can be said to be dealing with the act of gods interceding in the affairs of human beings. To be precise, the behaviors of humankind are explicitly exposed in both stories alongside the challenges that face human nature. It is evident that the mortals do struggle to overcome anger, fear as well as other aspects of the human existence that are based on their ego in both stories. The stories provide a great revelation of the minds of the people occupied the Troy region during these old days and also their point of view, as well as reality, is concerned. It is important to note that during the time of Mycenaean and Bronze Age, one of the common knowledge among the minds of most people was the reality of gods, supernatural beings. Therefore, the idea of both Iliad and Odyssey covering the act of gods interceding into human affairs and also the challenges that human beings faced during that time can be said to be a true reflection and revelation of the life in the old Greece.
The pair of Homer’s work, Iliad, and Odyssey can be said to be complimenting each other as they cover two distinct stories which both give the highlights of the famous Trojan War, the funeral of god-like being as well as the return of the Menelaus and Helen in Sparta. The way the two stories cover the numerous struggles and hardships of the mortal life is so explicit that one can easily conclude similarity between the two great works of the same author (Leeming 30). In the two stories, the praising and promotion of the women’s purity are also covered. For instance, there is a virgin princess, Nausicaa, who is honored while Penelope is a virtuous woman that keeps off all the lustful men that only have an aim of playing sex with. Penelope is, therefore, has respect of the societal members due to her firm stand on lust. On contrary, Clytemnestra commits adultery which leads to a feeling of dishonor. This shows that purity of women is promoted in the epic stories as it shapes the moral values of the female characters.
In summary, since comparative mythology is an estimate of similarities and differences of distinct myths from either similar cultural setups or diverse cultural settings but in an attempt to reveal or rather expose the shared themes as well as the characteristics of those myths the essay has revealed numerous facts from “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” stories. It is evident that the two stories cover the wars in ancient Greece, they capture the acts of gods interceding in the affairs of the human kind, they talk about good morals, they reveal the hardships of the human kind, and they talk about the purity of women but covers a different kind of clashes. “The Iliad” revolves around the intra-cultural battle between two powerful groups in Troy while “The Odyssey” focuses on the conflict of two different cultures.

Work cited
Leeming, David Adams. The world of myth. Oxford University Press, USA, 1992.
Macleod, Colin, ed. Homer: Iliad. Cambridge University Press, 1982.