Thursday, September 29, 2016
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?
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Immortality is most definitely not a big deal and we, as mortals, shouldn’t even think about it. I’m sure the gods are just used to living as immortals now since they have basically been living forever. Ten centuries to us mortals probably feel like ten minutes to the gods. First, Odysseus made the right choice because he was wise enough to understand that forever life does not translate to forever youth or forever happiness. Even though Odysseus had suffered through countless hardships, he was still determined to go home because it’s not like he would have infinite life and youth before he could go home. He had to go home before illness or death struck him because that is what happens to mortals. Next, immortality is definitely not desirable because the ones you cherish will die and you will be alone. Take Dawn’s lover Tithonus for example. He, as a mortal, chose eternal life and continued to age decade after decade, century after century, until he was nothing more than a shriveled ant, forever in misery and pain. Odysseus never desires immortality, he only desires to go home to his loved ones. After that, our impending death does not make our lives meaningless, it enhances are lives because we know that our time is very limited. Our knowledge that we will die one day makes us treasure our life experiences more and we therefore, try to make our lives more meaningful. We should not fantasize about living forever like Gilgamesh because according to the Mesopotamians and Greeks, 99.99% of mortals will never be immortal. The mortals that do turn immortal just got lucky and honestly, they don’t seem happy. We need to face the fact that we will die one day and make the most out of our mortal and limited lifetime. Finally, we shouldn’t feel any type of way towards the idea of living forever, we should just not think about living forever because almost definitely won’t happen to us. You could compare it to winning the lottery. There is a miniscule chance that you will win, but since there is still a chance are you going to spend all your money and energy trying to win. No, because there are more important things in your precious life than the idea of living forever and the idea of constantly trying to win the lottery. In conclusion, immortality is not a big deal at all and we should just not think about immortality because it will almost certainly not happen to us.
ReplyDeleteBeing immortal is not that great because life becomes meaningful and boring once everything that can possibly be done has been done. Gilgamesh, who was always afraid of dying, sought eternal life was because he was not as wise as Odysseus. He saw dying as the end of everything, and this thought scared him. But on the other hand, Odysseus must have known that having eternal life be a hell of its own, being stuck with the curse of not being able to die. Having eternal life would mean living on the same island and doing the same thing for the rest of eternity. After he learns the place of every grain of sand and everything on the island, life would mean nothing more. Odysseus made the right choice by leaving because being able to have adventure in his life. Immortality is not something desirable because after a certain amount of time, everything becomes meaningless and redundant. After everything that can be done is done, and everyone he cares about (that is mortal) is dead, he will have nothing else to live for. This makes it meaningful because you actually have something to live for in the amounts of time left to live. Living forever means you have an unlimited amount of time to do anything, but once you do everything a certain amount of times, life becomes boring. So in conclusion living forever is boring and isn’t worth it.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus made the right choice because a life that ends has meaning and is better than an eternal life of isolation and repetitiveness. The life Calypso offered Odysseus is a life full of loneliness, emptiness, and lust. Though it also involves infinite happiness, this “happiness” consists of temporary or superficial things that quickly lose their significance. Eternal happiness in Calypso’s perspective equals pleasurable things. However, true happiness originates from things such as memorable moments with loved ones, from success, and even from things that stem from struggle. One has a strong motivation to fulfill their dreams and goals knowing that their life will eventually end because it makes their accomplishments have value and importance in their lives. However, if one becomes immortal, they would lose this sense of motivation to prioritize their goals and the value of their achievements and aspirations would disappear. Additionally, our impending death does not make our lives meaningless; in fact, it can motivate one to do something with their life that is considered meaningful. When Calypso offers Odysseus immortality, Odysseus replies with, “Nevertheless I long—I pine, all my days—to travel home and see the dawn of my return” (5.242-5.243). Odysseus’s strong desire for his return home outweighs any desire for immortality. When he chooses his native land Ithaca and everything that it follows—his family—it shows he values the people in his life, accomplishment, and love. Though his trip back home encompasses suffering and hardship, he believes it is worth it because a life of accomplishment and family is better than an eternal life of fabricated happiness.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus makes the right choice to journey home when faced with the choice of “eternal paradise” or eventual death. Odysseus left a life of pleasure, immortality, longing, and ultimately boredom for a life of mortality, suffering, love, and meaning. Immortality is not desirable; in fact, it is unwanted. Immortality makes everyday life meaningless. The idea of “once-in a lifetime opportunities” become nonexistent. Things that someone may consider special become ordinary, because they can happen an infinite amount of times. Our lives are special because we only have a short time to live, and every moment matters. We create memories that we carry with us everywhere we go. We celebrate things like weddings and anniversaries, and birthdays, because we know that the years we have to live are special. Calypso viewed immortality as never-ending pleasure. However, Odysseus views immortality as a temptation keeping him from reaching the home he left behind. “Nevertheless I long- I pine, all my day- /to travel home and see the dawn of my return” (5. 242-43). He feels that ultimately a life with death and suffering is better than a life devoid of love and meaning. Our impending death is the reason things become meaningful. If Odysseus stayed on the island he would have faced loneliness and longing. He would have no one to love and nothing to do. By leaving the island he journeyed toward his wife and son. Odysseus left to find love and hardships, he left to find mortality.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus did make the right choice to continue his venture home. By going home and seeing his loved ones, he will have more happiness than just staying at the island. Even though he must go through many hardships to see them. If he chose to stay on the island, some would view it as the equivalent of being dead. Reason being is that he would never be able to go anywhere else will only have contact with one other person, and he will never have new experiences. Although, with spending all eternity on this island, something is bound to happen every once in a while, but that does compare to making all of his limited days little or big adventures. In which, he has completed so many of those so far in his mortal life. Most people who want to be immortal either have not done what they want to accomplish in their life, have narcissistic disposition that make them believe that they have the right to live forever, or just have a fear of death because it is unknown what comes with it. Death makes living more meaningful. If no one ever died, eventually the earth would just end up with a population of an uninspired individuals that would just be moping around in this "hell" that they cannot escape. Living forever is a grander task then people make it out to be, but the real consequences must be thought out on a larger scale.
ReplyDeleteMortality in Ithaka is better than immortality on the island. Living forever is a curse because death is a release. In death people leave Earth, and everybody knows this. As a result of this knowledge, everybody will eventually come to terms with it. Deep down I know one day I will cease to exist, and to me that means I have 1 life to live. Having only one life gives it meaning because with a scarce quantity of something, that thing gains value and doesn't get taken advantage of. If I live forever, after an eternity opening up my eyes in the morning will seem like a burden. It doesn't matter how much you love something, after an infinite amount of time you will eventually resent it. This is proven in a multitude of ways. After 1000 days of eating only your favorite food, it will taste bland because it oversaturates it's flavor. After a lifetime playing a sport professionally, most passionate sport players don't love it as much as they did. The same thing would happen with Odysseus and his own life, and soon being undying would be a curse. Some might say he needs to find meaning to wake up in the morning, but you can only find meaning for a finite amount of time, and Odysseus has an infinite amount of days. Meaning, his life has an infinite length of 0 meaning; and a life with 0 meaning is worse than no existence at all. Having no existence at all, never having lived, means that there is no 'you' to expect anything. But, having a life with 0 meaning means that all you do is exist and drift on, contributing nothing and only taking--which would be harmful to his psyche because he would know that he is eating like a king, he doesn't even enjoy it anymore, and people elsewhere are starving.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus believes that it is better to live a short but fulfilled life than a long and boring eternity. Odysseus cares about his wife and wants to see her again even if it takes him a hard journey to get back. He wants to get back to the family that he loves and wants to live a life where he is with his loved ones, living life to the fullest, learning something new. Odysseus understands that Calypso would make him into a god and he would have to say at her island and satisfy her needs for eternity. But his life would be the same every day and he would get bored from it quickly: sex and food every day would not be interesting for an eternity. He believes that immortal life is pointless because there is nothing to live for since he lives forever, so he wants to live a life and die with an accomplished goal. “Nevertheless I long - I pine, all my days- to travel home and see the dawn of my return” (5. 242-243). Odysseus also does not want to make the same mistake as Tithonus, who fell in love with the goddess Dawn and asked her for immortality. Tithonus became immortal, but he didn’t get eternal youth, so he grew older with each year and eventually turned into a cricket. Odysseus does not want to have such a horrible immortality as Tithonus. And even if he had eternal youth, he would not enjoy it because he wants to have a point in living. Another reason why Odysseus wants to come back home is because he wants to be famous and remembered. If he stayed at Calypso’s island with all his needs satisfied, he would not be remembered since he can’t leave the island.
ReplyDeleteI believe Odysseus made the correct decision, leaving Calypso in Ogygia. This is true because Odysseus needs to see his family and friends and return back to his kingdom. Family is very important to Odysseus and he is lost without them. Not only is Odysseus lost without his family, but his family is also lost without him. They are a very vital part of his life. He is not only a good leader but a loved one in his own home. This is shown when Odysseus sees his mom in the underworld. His mother tells Odysseus of her death. She tells Odysseus, “No, it was my longing for you, my shining Odysseus-/ you and your quickness, you and your gentle ways-/ that tore away my life that had been sweet” (11.230-232). Odysseus’s mother shows despair because her son has been gone for so long she is lost without him. Her love for her son was so strong she needed him to make her life complete. This decision was important for Odysseus because there was a lot at stake for him to choose. If he had stayed at the island with Calypso, he would be offered immortality. But if he had chosen to go home, he would have his family and friends back. Odysseus thought not only of himself in making his decision. He had to think about going back to his family and caring for them. Odysseus untimely make the correct decision to travel back to his family and his kingdom.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus made the right decision when it came to leaving the comforts of Calypso’s island to reach home, no matter how dangerous the journey would be. This is because choosing love over lust, being surrounded by family over being alone, boredom over accomplishment, no matter how hard it is to reach, was the right decision on his part. Over all, the most important thing that brought him home was his need for love over lust, whether that be from his wife or his family. Yes, he was overwhelmed with love from Calypso, but he did not feel the same for her; it was all lust, because he always found himself,
ReplyDelete“sitting, still, weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away with the
tears he wept for his foiled journey home… [A]ll his days he’d sit on the rocks
and beaches, wrenching his heart with sobs and groans and anguish, gazing over
the barren sea with blinding tears” (5.167-75).
Here, this shows that Odysseus, while he was indeed promised the gifts of immortality and pleasure, would chose a dangerous journey to reach his wife and family with love, over spend his days weeping his homesick heart out and nights with pleasure full of lust. He trusted that, on Ithaca, his loving wife Penelope felt the same way, and he relied on that through his journey to reach home. Indeed, he was correct, “a cloud of heartbreak overwhelmed [her]” (4.807). Additionally, Odysseus knew his life on Calypso’s island would be constant boredom, because nothing was limited to him, he had everything. On his home land, he would appreciate everything that was his, specifically Penelope.
In my opinion, Odysseus made the right choice, and Gilgamesh was a fool to attempt to try and find the secret to immortality without also trying to find the secret to eternal youth. Calypso told Odysseus that she would give him immortality, but the gods are like genies, very tricky and specific. Since Calypso never said anything about giving Odysseus eternal youth, which in turn would give him the same fate as Tithonus: immortality but you keep aging and end up shriveling up in pain forever, without death. This is why immortality is definitely not desirable, and is actually more of a curse than a desire. The only time I see immortality being desirable is when it is packaged with eternal youth, although in my opinion, I wouldn’t want eternal youth even if it was offered to me. Odysseus did not want to stay on the island with Calypso because he wanted to see his wife and kids, and make his life worthwhile while it lasted. I see life similarly in the sense that I want to make it worthwhile. If someone wanted to be immortal, at first they would be happy, and go on great adventures knowing they wouldn’t die. If you aren’t immortal, you will realize that you will not live forever and want to do something with your life, using it kind of like a motivation. In conclusion, living forever with, or without is a curse in my eyes, while living only as a mortal will make you cherish more in life, and make what you do mean something
ReplyDeleteI believe Odysseus made the right choice leaving Calypso’s Island. If Odysseus had stayed on Calypso’s island he would have gained immortality, but he knew that if he did not return to Ithaca. He also knew that he would never see his family again. Also if Odysseus lived forever on Calypso’s Island, he would just do the same exact thing every day and eventually get bored and want to return to Ithaca. Also, if Odysseus stays and lives on Calypso’s island his journey would never be truly finished and that is a hard thing to live with. I do not believe impending death makes life meaningless. Also, Odysseus would never be happy if he didn’t return to Ithaca to finish his quest. While Calypso clearly likes Odysseus romantically, I do not believe Odysseus likes Calypso in that way. Odysseus only has real emotional feelings towards Penelope. The same goes for Penelope. Penelope wants nothing more than for Odysseus to return to Ithaca. She just wants to see Odysseus and have all of the suitors leave. Odysseus followed his heart even though his head was telling him to stay on Calypso’s Island. Living forever would be amazing but not if it’s worth throwing away everything in your life for another life that will eventually get boring and meaningless. This is what Odysseus would be doing if he stayed on Calypso’s Island. I do not believe that Odysseus will ever regret his decision to leave Calypso’s Island and return to Ithaca even though some may think that he made a short term decision.
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