odyssey theme

The theme in the Odyssey is to always be loyal to your leader and to always do what the say and respect them.  Your leader can get you through alot of bad things almost anything and if you are disloyal that doesn't go to well with your leader and it will blow up in your face and you might die because of it.  I think this theme is present in alot of the books in the Odyssey and I feel it is the most important theme that coulod apply to real life. 

In book 12 Odysseus lead his men through many difficult adventures and they have to perform specific tests to survive.  Without there leader I dont think Odysseus men would be able to get past all of these obstacles.  Odysseus and his crew reach Thrinancia but they are stuck on the island for a month.  Odysseus tells his men not to touch the cattle but they men are stuck on the island for so long they are tempted to eat the cows because they are starving.  So eventually the crew touch the cows and they get killed by zeus.  This shows that you need to listen to your leaders or else it will get back at you in the end.  A quote about this is on page 281 line 349.  If the crew would have listened to their leader Odysseus then they wouldn't have died.

In book 19 Odysseus returns to his town and disguises himself as a begger.  He does this so he can test the loyalty of the suitors and his wife.  His wife stays loyal to him but the suitors don't.  They all want to marry his wife and they just have been overall very disloyal to Odysseus.  Disloyalty doesn't go down well with Odysseus so when they have the contest for Penalopope Odysseus wins it disguised as a begger but changes back into himself.  Then him and his son kill all of the disloyal suitors.  A quote that represents this is on page 391 lines 47 to 48.  This is also another example of how if you are disloyal and dont listen to your leader then you will be killed or there will be other severe consequences.