Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Odysseus and the Trojan Horse--Sofi Tzouanakis

The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War, as told in Virgil's Latin epic poem The Aeneid. The events in this story from the Bronze Age took place after Homer's Iliad, and before his Odyssey. After a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of 30 men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greek army entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.

Odysseus's story is an epic; it is unlikely even my wildest dream of a journey will compare to his, waxing glory and conquest every day. My dream journey a much more modest endeavor. At seventeen, my travel exploits reach far and wide, and I find topping each excursion more difficult the more I travel. I do not believe my dream journey requires an exotic destination, or copious amounts of money, or other extreme characteristics. I want my next journey to be long--ridiculously long. I've never been away from home for more than a couple months, and I've never been homesick. I feel the only aspect of travel that could truly push me out of my comfort zone is the product of time. I want to spend a year steeping myself in the culture of a place truly alien to me. I want to immerse myself in outer worldly experiences, not just for a couple days, but for months and years--until those outer worldly experiences become normalcy to me. I find purpose and enlightenment through experiencing different cultures, and finding the common bond between all humans. I feel the only way to see this common bond is to go and experience the culture firsthand, and to take the time to experience it until it is truly a part of you.

"Trojan Horse." Princeton University. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2014. <http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Trojan_Horse.html>.
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4 comments:

  1. fleurOctober 1, 2014 at 9:19 AM

    The summary of the original story is concise and informative-I like the context that you give, being between the events of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The section about your travels is relatively well written, with an interesting purpose that becomes clear in the last few sentences. There is some disconnect in second sentence of this section-maybe a typo? The theory of normalizing other cultures by extensive travel is a really fun idea that I find appealing as well. You clearly make your point, without using too many words.

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  2. UnknownOctober 1, 2014 at 9:31 AM

    I enjoy your response to the story of odysseus and the Trojan horse because it is incredibly insightful into your wants and desires. Travel appears to be an immense and important part of your life. The response is also very humbling. You describe your journeys and miniscule compared to the war hero Odysseus

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  3. UnknownOctober 1, 2014 at 9:51 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. UnknownOctober 1, 2014 at 9:53 AM


    This is an absolutely beautiful response, I can tell that you really put in a lot of effort. Unfortunately this was not actually what you were suppose to write on maybe next time you should check this link:
    http://blogs.fcps.net/nwhitman/category/ap-lit/
    Seriously though this a very good response and your personal connection was very inspiring; I shed a tear.

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