Greed is a natural instinct of survival. We all have and must of us suppress it, and still can be satisfied with what we have. In the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, the characters who do fall to greed die or end up worse than before. All the suitors of Ithaca and Odyssey’s own crew die and the main cause seems to be the human failing of greed. In Homer’s Odyssey, the mortal characters, falling to their own greed, anger the gods and end up worse than before.

The gods distaste for greed and how the mortals fall to it is expressed almost immediately in The Odyssey, “My word, how mortals take the gods to task!/ All their afflictions come from us, we hear./ And what of their own failings? Greed and Folly” (Book I Lines 50-3). The first book also introduces the suitors, the ultimate symbol of greed in The Odyssey. Competing for Penelope’s hand in marriage, and more importantly control of Ithaca, they eat all of Odysseus’s livestock, drink all of his wine and turn his palace into a drunken joke. By these actions the suitors are extremely greedy, trying to take more than they need, as well as selfish as they only think what is best for them and not Odysseus’s own family Penelope and Telemakos. Throughout the poem the reader sees the suitors as greedy and evil, plotting to kill Telemakos on his return, shooting him down in council, and making a mockery of his home. So naturally at the climax of the epic the reader is happy that the greedy suitors are about to get slaughtered, Odysseus’s speech puts the suitors failures best, “You yellow dogs you thought I’d never make it/home from the land of Troy. You took my house to plunder/twisted my maids to serve your beds. You dared/ bid for my wife while I was still alive/Contempt was all you had for the gods who rule wide heaven/you’re last hour has come. You die in blood” (Book XXII lines 37-43). Odysseus expresses Homers idea that greed is a evil and vile thing. Homer further proves his idea that greed will end in death when Odysseus takes revenge on the suitors for greedily trying to gain power and material goods for their own good.

Odysseus’s own men are not the symbol of charity and patience however, in fact they are almost as greedy as the suitors, and this greed leads to the death of every single one of them. The most immediate of the greed stricken adventures is that of the Kikones. Odysseus and his men sack the city, “Plunder we took, and we enslaved the women,/ to make division, equal shares to all” (Book IX lines 48-9). After plundering the city Odysseus’s troops got drunk off the wine they stole and fate came back, Odysseus’s men suffered massive losses when reinforcements troops came and slaughtered them. The story of the Kikones shows yet again how Homer believes that greed and plundering that could have been avoided, will ultimately end with hardships for the greedy individuals. As they continued on Odysseus received a bag of wind from Aiolos the wind god, that would keep the ships sailing towards Ithaca. His men thought he was hoarding gold and the wanted it themselves “And who has gifts from Aiolos?/ He has. I say we ought to crack that bag,/ there’s gold and silver, plenty, in that bag!” (Book X lines 48-50) after the crew falls to their greed and opens the bag they are blown far from Ithaca which was already in sight . This is the most horrific punishment for greed in The Odyssey. This is because in Greek culture the idea of home and the desire to get back home when you are gone is extremely important they even have a word for this desire, νοστος (in English nostos). And when the crew sees Ithaca, their home and had to be torn away from it, sent back to open sea, it is the most awful punishment that the gods bestow on Odysseus and his crew.

Greed is a powerful force. The Mortals who can not resist it and they pay for it, the suitors and Odysseus’s crew all die for their greed. Although it is a natural instinct, suppressing greed is something that separates us from the animals. Homer seems to have seen how men turn into monsters because of greed, and he sees it as one of the most evil and vile human qualities.