"Forever Linked to the Ancients" -describes how Homer's "The Odyssey" is still very much relevant today. -explains how human nature links us to the ancient greeks of Homer's time

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Throughout the ages very few things in history have remained constant. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, entire cultures have flourished and died off, many great empires have risen to magnificent power and crumbled to dust, and great wonders have been built, only to be eroded by time and forgotten. Humans have succeeded in retaining only one thing throughout their existence and that is their own human nature. We possess universal human characteristics that transcend time and place. Human nature has yet to change and it is more than likely that it never will. By observing the heroic epic The Odyssey, one could find that the ancient Greeks possessed many of the same traits as modern people do today such as love, greed, and deceit.

One of the major elements of human nature that dominates The Odyssey is love. Love is what drives Odysseus to endure ten years of grueling hardship during his journey back to Ithaka. He overcomes many great obstacles in order to get back to his beloved wife Penelope who he has not seen for over a decade. A great example of this is when Odysseus is sitting on the beach of Kalypso the goddess and sea nymph's island and weeping for his wife Penelope and his home in Ithaka. "...found him (Odysseus) sitting on the seashore, and his eyes were never wiped dry of tears, and the sweet lifetime was draining out of him, as he wept for a way home, since the nymph was no longer pleasing to him." Despite the fact that Odysseus is chosen by the goddess Kalypso to be her lover and live in paradise, he can not be happy with this because he longs for his home and his wife Penelope. He would rather face the long,