The Odyssey And Inferno Analysis

In this paper, I will look at the themes in The Odyssey and Inferno. The theme I will look at first is journeys. In the Odyssey, Odysseus struggles to return to his home and family. His journey takes ten years to complete. Unlike Odysseus whose journey is physical in the Inferno, Dante’s journey encompasses the struggle between good and evil within himself. Dante see’s the afterlife as consisting of three level heaven, purgatory and hell. In the Odyssey as Odysseus is traveling back to Ithaca he encounters a number of mythological and supernatural creatures like Poseidon, Circe, and Polyphemus that he has to defeat using his cunning and guile. Odysseus fight against external forces is where he differs from Dante.
Dante has been cast out because of his political beliefs and because of this his journey is spiritual as he tries to ascertain if he has made the correct ones. Dante looks at his choice as an allegory between good and evil. This is shown in how at the beginning of the book Dante becomes …show more content…
In Inferno and the Odyssey both there is a sense of divine justice. The gods of the Odyssey seek to punish people who anger them, for example Poseidon and his desire for revenge justice on Odysseus, and Athena, who put an arrow in the heart of a man and his father because he had thrown something at a beggar. This is because the polytheistic people of Ancient Greece believed that while they did have laws and a justice system. The gods where the ultimate judges of someone’s actions. The ancient gods, however did not punish people for their actions against each other (unless asked), but their actions against the gods. On the other hand, in Inferno punishment is more karmic, in that it must fit the crime for which they are in Hell. As with the gods and goddesses in the Odyssey, Dante’s god is not really concerned with the injustices people put on each other. He punishes those who break his commandments or the laws of the