In the Odyssey, Homer uses the idea of ​​sleep to represent the idea of ​​death, which makes the struggle to remain conscious and the struggle to remain in life one thing only the same struggle. Odysseus constantly struggles to stay alert, to avoid monotony. It is this metaphorical insomnia that allows Odysseus to return to his homeland. However, ultimately, sleep is an inevitable part of being alive, just as death is. Odysseus, being human, cannot avoid it. One way to delay if not transcend both sleep and death is through storytelling. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Sleep is the representative of death on earth. The most important distinction that can in fact be drawn between sleep and death is that death is a permanent state of affairs, and therefore carries with it a more negative connotation. Penelope defines sleep as "forgetting all things, both good and evil" (20:85). This is death. Sleep has the ability to “calm down” (12:31) as does death. Furthermore, in describing how Telemechus massacres the handmaids guilty of treason, Homer employs a metaphor saying that "the sleep", the death, "given them was hateful; / so their heads were all in a row, and each had his neck entangled / they fast in a noose, so that their death is merciful" (22.469-471). Death is therefore a more "hateful" version of sleep. This idea is still present in Homer's description of Hades, 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, so too the world changes uncontrollably when a character falls asleep. Ulysses sleeps when his fellow sailors unleash the winds and when he eats Helios's sacred cattle. He is sleeping when Alkinoor's daughter discovers him sleeping when he arrives in Ithaca son leaves her for the unknown and when her husband gets his revenge from the suitors. Athena even “fell a sweet sleep on [Penelope]… endowing her with immortal gifts/ for the Achaeans to admire” (18:187-191). So we see what setbacks and miracles can and do occur while the character in question sleeps them. It is this disheartening fact that leads Odysseus to cry out, "Father Zeus, and ye other eternal and blessed gods, with merciless sleep have lulled me, to my confusion" (12:371-372). It is this "confusion" to which the characters awaken, just as Ares and Aphrodite, after falling asleep together in love, awaken to find themselves entangled in the "cunning bonds that had been forged by subtle Hephaestus" (10:298). Likewise, a human character is trapped in whatever situation they find themselves in upon awakening. Unlike Ares, however, Odysseus, being human, must struggle when he wakes to free himself from the constraints of his situation. Poseidon, the savior of Ares, does not save Odysseus from anything, but actually makes the seas even rougher. And so, fighting against the seas of Poseidon and against Poseidon's son, the Cyclops, Ulysses fights against death, the final oblivion. So in a sense it fights against sleep, because sleep is nothing but death on a smaller scale. This idea of ​​fighting against sleep, against a kind of death, is shown over and over again in Odysseus' struggle to avoid monotony. He escapes from Kalypsoe, who offers him permanent monotony. He escapes from the Lotus Eaters, who would make him forget his home. Avoid the Sirens, who would have you listen to their songs until you die, which would be redundant, as it would essentially be death..