Motifs- Birds, The Wound, Hades

Birds, Hades and Odysseus's wound are metioned often in this book, but what do thes motifs mean? A question pondered by many an in this paper I will tell you, to my understanding, what they mean.
First I will start with the motif of Birds. Birds happen to be mentioned quite often in The Odyssey, from the second book when the eagle flew over everyones' head, through book 22 when the drover, swinherd, Odysseus and telemachos are compared to as vultures. These birds can mean many things but I interpert them as a symbol vengance and death and future prophecies coming true. most the time the symbol is a great bird which killing or scarying something, and they always show up when a prophcy is made, showing that prophecy will come true. An example for both would be when penelopeia sees an eagle killing her geese. the geese are the suitors, the eagle is Odysseus and it shows the Prophecy of Odyesseus coming back.

The second Motif thatis mentioned quite a bit towards the end of the book is Odysseus's wound. I beleive this motif is to represent the past, rememberace and an identity. I say this because how he got the wound is a past memory. The wound is how he is identified by everyone in this book that doesn't beleive he is himself. Also the old maid only realizes it is him because of the scar, even when he is disgised as an old man. It's to show he is still himself even though he has been gone for many years.

The final and hardest to interpert motif is Hades. To me, Hades is a symbol of differences and ending. Everyone down there is dead. The book ends there and when Odysseus goes down there in the middle of the book he learns of the end of his mother's and Agammenon's lifes. It is the difference between the people living in Odysseus's world and the people in Hades in Loyality, at the end of the book. Everyone who lives on Earth are those that where loyal to Odysseus and those below are down there because of disloyality. the maids, Suitors, and Aggamenons because of the disloyality of his wife and cousin.