Circe and Nausicaa in the Odysseys Essay

These four reference works all have the homogeneous role at bottom the Odyssey and the Aeneid as they atomic number 18 all put in place as obstacles to the heros following. Odysseus and Aeneas both(prenominal) have arduous journeys to undertake and these characters atomic number 18 merely temptresses, there to prevent the heroes from fulfilling there quests and in my opinion put use up a greater threat to the completion of the journeys then the physical dangers both heroes have to endure. However although within these epics the characters have negative roles to play they themselves are victims of fate.With bulge each heroes underlying mission spurring them on it is reasonable to capture each of these women would have a good chance of having a long relationship with either Odysseus or Aeneas (indeed each character with the exception of Nausicaa put away in a brief relationship with the hero of there several(prenominal) epic) and the feature these relationships have to b e discontinued or unexplored seems unjust to the so called temptresses and because causes the reader to evoke sympathy for the characters. These women, although play indistinguishable roles, are in really different circumstance and are very different characters and therefore the level of sympathy we feel for them varies and I regard it is fair to say that it is Dido we feel the most sympathy forAn beta sustain of why we feel so much sympathy for Dido is the fact we teach so much of her circumstance. In book 1 of the Aeneid we meet out Dido is an exile from her home city of Tyre afterwards her br new(prenominal) Pygmalion killed Didos husband Sychaeus In blind lust for his gold (Sychaeus was apparently the wealthiest of the Phoenicians). Dido, by the advice of her dead husband, rounds up the men driven by savage offense or lively fear of Pygmalion and sets sail for a new home. This background is important as it gives the reader a sense of attachment with the character tha t doesnt seem to apply to the other characters, the fact that Dido has such a troubled past means we sympathize with her from a very archeozoic stage, which makes her ultimate down fall even more tragic i.e. this is a character we know rather then an other faceless characters that is sacrificed for the quest (such as Palinurus and Elpenor).The female characters of the Odyssey just dont arrive with this tragic background The knowledge the audience would have of calypsos and Circes background would be through legend, which regardless of how tragic whatsoever legends may be, are fantastical, which means the audience wouldnt relate to them comparable they would Didos background and doesnt give the goddesses the sense of vulnerability you tug with Dido. Nausicaa is a young princess of Phaeacia, so although her background isnt mention in any great detail in the odyssey, as the princess of a enlightenment it is un belike to be negative.A nonher impotent sympathy factor is the characte rs motif for falling for their respective hero. Calypso and Circe have the least sympathetic motives as they are simply looking for a companion (a modern dialect we would use is trophy husband) and as goddesses have more then likely had many companions before Odysseus. Nausicaa simply has a crush on Odysseus, and therefore her emotional attachment to him is not very high, the fact they never bring in a relationship also means their attachment isnt as matured as the other characters. Nausicaa and Dido do have unrivaled thing in common however as they are both victims of divine intervention. Nausicaas intervention by Athene (improving his appearance) however is not as direct as the intervention Dido endures (being forced into love by Cupid) as a leave behind the audience doesnt get the same sense of the cruelty of fate with Nausicaa that we get for Dido.Probably the most important aspect of the characters for which evokes our sympathy is the aftermath of being let down by our her oes. Although Dido is the only character whose plot continues after the hero leaves we can remedy make an educated guess as to what would happen to the other characters. Circe and Calypso are both goddesses and are likely to find other companions after Odysseus, both as goddesses are in control of there emotions when skirmish Odysseus which means they should be much more composed upon his departure (the fact Calypso takes Odysseus against his leave shows she should foresee possible heartache in the future).Nausicaa as a young girl is much more conquerable to heartbreak however as a young girl she has her whole behavior a head of her which means she is much more likely to find another man, and the fact no commitment is made means she is simply loosing a crush apposed to a lover which means her heartbreak will be less then that of the other characters. Dido as the most vulnerable (lost her husband and livelihood) has the furthest to fall, and assuming the educated guesses as to the outcome of the other characters are correct, by committing suicide Dido suffers the worst fate by remote. support 4 of the Aeneid dictates the devotion and downfall of Dido Dido lets her civic duties slide due to the bewitchery of Aeneas and the City of Carthages construction grinds to a halt. Dido states in her speech to Aeneas that her mass have lost all respect for her, and as a result she feels the only way to regain some respect is to kill herself. take 4 could almost be a tragic play Didos hubristic act of sleeping with Aeneas before marriage leads to her catastrophic downfall a downfall which can be said to be entirely down to the cruelty of fate and the gods. Dido is the most vulnerable with the most too loose, and as far as we know comes to the worst end so for me is far more sympathetic a character then the female characters of the Odyssey.