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Jonathan Edwards

Mrs. Field

LNG 311

09 December 2010

Men and women, human or god face difficult tasks throughout their lives.

These hardships they go through are to allow them to reach peace. In Homer’s work

“The Odyssey”, Odysseus is trying to return home. In Riordan’s work “The Lightning

Thief “, Percy Jackson is trying to return the lightning bolt back to Zeus. Odysseus

and Percy Jackson both have superhuman qualities to help them achieve their goals

in life, Odysseus and Percy have strong connections with the gods for help; however

Odysseus’ worry is to return home to his wife and son, as though Percy’s focus is on

locating the lightning bolt and returning it to Zeus.

Odysseus and Percy’s connections with the gods to allow them assistance on

their journeys. In “The Odyssey”, Odysseus finds himself in a lot of difficult

situations. Such as when Odysseus is on an island with his men who are turned in to

animals, and Hermes comes to Odysseus and tells him to eat of a poisonous plant

so the wine won’t turn him into an animal. In “The Lightning Thief”, Percy Jackson

becomes wound when fighting the daughter of Athena, but his father Poseidon

reaches Percy in his thoughts and tells him to go to the water to heal him. The

reasons the gods help Odysseus is because they see he is not like other humans. He

has the ability to strategies and think ahead of others. On the other hand Percy’s

father Poseidon keeps Percy focused on the tasks at hand of finding the lightning

bolt and his mother. Poseidon reaches Percy in his dreams to communicate with
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him. The reason being for the gods to help Odysseus and Poseidon help Percy is,

because Odysseus is an understanding human who knows humans don’t exist

without gods, and Percy is Poseidon’s only son who Poseidon must help as a duty of

being a father even though he is not allowed to see him.