The Oddyssey
The Odyssey Essay Both The Odyssey, written by Homer, and The Lion King, produced by Disney, conform to the same epic hero cycle elements explained in Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces, including the call to adventure, the ultimate boon and the freedom to live. Both the stories of The Odyssey and The Lion King begin with the call to adventure. The heroes of The Odyssey and The Lion King, Odysseus and Simba, respectively face widely different obstacles in their quests to return home; however during their rigorous journeys they both encounter a situation where a herald calls upon them to be released. In The Odyssey Kalypso is inhospitable towards Hermes, the Wayfinder. In response, Hermes replies saying “Thus you shall send [Odysseus], then and show more grace in your obedience, or be chastised by Zeus”, signifying the call to adventure for Odysseus (5.153-154). When Odysseus hears of Kalypso’s plans of letting him go, he begins to flatter her with manipulative language. “Penelope would seem a shade before your majesty, death and old age being unknown to you, while she must die” (5.225-228) as said by Odysseus, meaning how there is no comparison between Penelope and Kalypso herself. Furthermore, Odysseus does not believe that Kalypso would let him go, suspecting that it is a trick or that she is testing him. Such as when Odysseus says, “After these years, a helping hand? O goddess, what guile is hidden here?” (5.183-184) illustrating how Odysseus becomes weary because after 7 years that Kalypso decides to release Odysseus resembling the element refusal of the call. Similarly, in The Lion King, following Simba’s departure from the Pride Lands of Africa, he meets several new friends in whom he has a carefree life and puts aside his thoughts of his own homeland. As time passes, Simba begins to mature and grow physically. Simba is approached by a lioness named Nala. Nala tells Simba that the animals on the Pride Lands of Africa has become into