In the Odyssey, Homer uses the idea of ​​sleep to represent the idea of ​​death, which makes the struggle for staying conscious and the fight to stay alive are one and the same. the same fight. Odysseus constantly struggles to remain vigilant, to avoid monotony. It is this metaphorical insomnia that allows Ulysses to return to his native country. However, ultimately, sleep is an inevitable part of life, just like death. Odysseus, being human, cannot avoid this. One way to delay, and even transcend, both sleep and death is through storytelling. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essaySleep is the representative of death on earth. The most important distinction that can actually be made between sleep and death is that death is a permanent state of affairs and therefore carries a more negative connotation. Penelope defines sleep as “forgetting all things, good and bad” (20:85). This is death. Sleep has the ability to “calm” (12:31), as does death. Furthermore, in describing how Telemechos massacres the servants guilty of treason, Homer uses a metaphor by saying that “the sleep”, the death “that was given to them was odious; I fast in a noose, so that their death may be most pitiful” (22:469-471). Death is therefore a more “hateful” version of sleep. This idea is still present in Homer's description of Hades, in which one must cross "the land of dreams" to arrive at "the abode of souls" (24, 12-13). Just as the world changes uncontrollably when one dies, the world also changes uncontrollably when a character falls asleep. Odysseus sleeps when his fellow sailors let go of the winds and when they eat the sacred cattle of Helios. He is sleeping when Alkinoor's daughter discovers him. He is asleep when he arrives in Ithaca. Penelope sleeps through what would be her saddest and happiest moments: when her son leaves her for the unknown and when her husband takes revenge on the suitors. Athena “even left a sweet sleep upon [Penelope]…endowing her with immortal gifts/for the Achaeans to admire” (18:187–191). We thus see what setbacks and miracles can and do occur while the character in question sleeps through them. It is this intimidating fact that causes Odysseus to cry out: “Father Zeus, and you eternal and blessed gods, in pitiless sleep you have lulled me to my confusion” (12:371-372). It is to this "confusion" that the characters awaken, just as Ares and Aphrodite, after falling asleep together in love, awaken to find themselves trapped in the "artful bonds which had been forged by the subtle Hephaestus" ( 10:298). Similarly, a human character is trapped in the situation he finds himself in when he wakes up. However, unlike Ares, Odysseus, being human, must struggle when he wakes up to free himself from the bonds of his situation. Poseidon, the savior of Ares, does not save Odysseus from anything, but makes the sea even rougher. Thus, by fighting against the seas of Poseidon and against Poseidon's son, the Cyclops, Ulysses fights against death, final oblivion. This is why he somehow fights against sleep, since sleep is only death on a smaller scale. This idea of ​​fighting against sleep, against a kind of death, manifests itself again and again in Odysseus's struggle to avoid monotony. He escapes Kalypsoe, who offers him permanent monotony. He escapes the lotus eaters who would make him forget his own home. He avoids the sirens, who would make him listen to their songs until his death, which would be..