A vast body of blue-green salt water, where if you tried to look as far as the eye could see you might perhaps glimpse land on the other side ; a simple door; the first day of college; and even another world beyond one's own, are all terms and phrases that at first glance seem unrelated, but are actually all examples of a broader term that groups them all together yet separate: a boundary. That blue-green body, an ocean, is a representation of one of these boundaries: the physical one. Likewise, the door represents a physical boundary, as it can separate the smaller interior from the larger exterior. While these two examples of physical boundaries are tangible, intangible boundaries can exist in the form of interpersonal/emotional and metaphysical boundaries, which separate the current lifeworld from other worlds. While all of these examples of boundary crossing are similar in the sense of separation, the action of crossing the boundary involves something different and a change in experience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayJust as I personally experienced crossing an interpersonal boundary when going from high school to college, multiple types of boundary crossing can be observed in The Odyssey, in two passages from Joshua, in “The Taking of Jaffa.” and in excerpts from One Thousand and One Nights. The whole of each of these texts demonstrates the metaphysical crossing of borders as the characters within each text demonstrate the crossing of the physical border, the crossing of the interpersonal border, the crossing of the figurative border, the crossing of the geographical border and crossing the social border. Some of the characters in these texts experience border crossing in part because of travel, conquest, or returning home. Joshua and “The Taking of Jaffa” both focus on the physical crossing of borders in a walled city through the aspect of travel. of some individuals seeking to expand their territory through conquest. The acts of conquest are accomplished through Joshua in Joshua and by Djehuty in “The Capture of Jaffa. “Joshua sends two spies to explore Jericho and eventually, with the help of a prostitute named Rahab, they succeed in fulfilling their duty by crossing the physical border into the city of Jericho and returning to report successfully: “Then the two men went down again from the hills and crossed.” Likewise, Djehuty succeeds in his physical passage to Jaffa through deception by getting the rebel drunk, falsely surrendering to him, and releasing his men from the "gift baskets" to bring chaos to Jaffa. Although these two examples from the texts seem to portray and focus exclusively on the more obvious physical crossing of the border for conquest through a walled city, it is important to realize that these two texts originated from different places and at different times to weave together a common motif . in the ancient world, cities were entered through deception rather than directly through the door. This narrative element crosses the boundaries of time and space in the journey to cross boundaries from one culture to another. Going beyond these two border crossings mentioned in Joshua and the "Taking of Jaffa" in the first lecture, it is also crucial to connect it to another lecture on the Odyssey to realize further crossings, such as the metaphysical border crossing, since our world earthly is crossed with the realm of the divine. Although briefly stated in the lecture on Joshua and “The Taking of Jaffa,” the wholeof the plots of these texts revolves around the metaphysical border with the divine. The first two chapters of Joshua include the story of Joshua receiving God's word to extend their present territory to include Jericho, “the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' servant, 'My servant Moses is dead. Prepare to cross the Jordan, together with all these people, into the land that I am giving to the Israelites'”. This is a clear depiction of the crossing of boundaries from our world, as Joshua is a human, to the divine world, as God speaks directly to Joshua, the earthly man. Similarly, in the literary composition entitled “The Capture of Jaffa” After defeating the prince of Joppa, Djehuty sends a message to the king that includes this excerpt: “Send people to take them captive so that you can fill the domain of your father Amonre, king of the gods". This once again shows the metaphysical border crossing the human and divine worlds as God is communicated easily. Going beyond crossing the divine world, Odysseus' return journey to Ithaca represents the flyover to the world mythological creatures, such as Cyclops, Cicones, Lotus Eaters, and Nymphs, to name a few. In Book 9, in particular, Odysseus' men encountered the Lotus Eaters who provided them with lotus fruit, the equivalent of a substance similar to a drug in the real world, which caused his men to lose "the will to return and bring news to Odysseus. Despite the metaphysical border crossing in the three texts discussed so far, a critical border crossing in the Odyssey is the geographical one." , as mentioned in the lecture on caves. Odysseus travels to many of these caves on various islands on his journey back to Ithaca, demonstrating the obvious boundary crossing of geographical travel between the caves of these islands as he goes from cave to cave from island to island in a different geographic location. These caves, however, not only show his geographical travels, but rather also illuminate Odysseus's figurative and interpersonal border crossings. As stated in Smith's lecture on the caves, the inhabitants of each cave are not human (which goes back to the metaphysical crossing of boundaries – such as that of the cave of Polyphemus or the goddess Calypso), making Odysseus the only human inhabitant of the caves. This fact makes Odysseus a border crosser, both literal and figurative, for the mythological gods/goddesses. However, it was not mentioned during the lesson that Odysseus personally experiences crossing the boundary between masculinity and femininity. Odysseus spent many years away from his family as he fought in the Trojan War, violently defeating and slaughtering the Trojans - his male and prevailing war front. In book 4, Helen describes Odysseus to her son, Telemachus, as a war hero, "he used his long bronze sword to slaughter many Trojans." This act of slaughter and violence is associated with Odysseus' masculinity and warlike side. After spending 10 years at war, Odysseus traverses these two sides for another 10 years after returning to his position as husband, father and king of Ithaca - where his peace should ultimately prevail, though, as seen in Book 24 , don't don't do it. On his 10-year journey home, Odysseus still has many geographical islands to cross, as well as creatures and goddesses to deceive. Athena, a female goddess, assists Odysseus in his exploits, and thus influences his transition to the feminine side in overcoming villains through deception, rather than male strength to physically overpower them. For example, in book 9, Odysseus defeats Polyphemus by intoxicating him to the point of drowsiness, "all victorious sleep overtook him" where he then blinded him and fled from him under the ram. AND.