The Gods Must Be Crazy: Is Immortality Such a Big Deal?

After the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh realizes his own mortality.  In order to find meaning in his life, he risks life and limb to track down Utnapishtim to find the secret of immortality.   Odysseus, on the other hand, rejects the offer of immortality from Calypso.  Despite a life devoid of suffering and full of sensual pleasure, Odysseus prefers his own life with all its hardships and his eventual death to eternal "paradise" with a goddess.  Did Odysseus make the right choice?  Is immortality something desirable?  Does our impending death make our lives meaningless?   How should we feel about living forever?

Growing Up

At the beginning of the Odyssey, Telemachus seems young and powerless. He is completely passive in the face of the suitors abuses and they treat him like a pushover. As he embarks on a journey and the epic wears on, how and why does the character of Telemachus change?

Whose Fault Is It Anyway?

Zeus complains in Book I of the Odyssey:
Ah how shameless--the way these mortals blame the gods.
From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes,
but they themselves, with their own reckless ways,
compound their pains beyond their proper share (1.37-40).

What is Zeus saying? Is he right? Whose fault is it anyway that Odysseus has been wandering for ten years -- that the suitors are eating him out of house and home? From what we know of the story so far (think of the story of Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus and Nestor as well as Odysseus), are the gods to blame for our suffering and successes-- or are we?