Many of these ideas are as prevalent today as they were among the Hellenes, if in a different social context.

             Honor and duty are seen as important in each literary piece. Agamemnon struggles with the internal conflict of love for his daughter against duty to his own honor and good name. While his heart may break at the thought of harming his beloved daughter, Agamemnon feels that he has no other option- to refuse was to invite the wrath of the gathered host upon himself and his family. He feels trapped by his situation and laments his station in life and the problems it brings him: "What an advantage humble north possesses! For it is easy for her sons to weep and tell out all their sorrows; while to the high-born man come these same sorrows, but we have dignity throned o'er our lives and are the people's slaves.".

             Religion was all important in Classic Greek life. The importance of this is stressed in both works. Where the Odyssey has a more reverent tone concerning the gods, Euripides was more skeptical and challenged the unquestioning obedience of religion into question. After learning of the impending sacrifice of her daughter, Clytemnestra rebukes Agamemnon, confronting him with the prospect of sacrificing his child to recover Helen for Menelaus. "An honourable exchange, indeed, to pay a wicked woman's price in children's lives! 'Tis buying what we most detest with what we hold most dear." The Queen continues on to descirbe her own sorrow at her missing daughter's "empty seat" and "empty chamber." Valiantly, she defends what she knows to be morally true in her heart- that nothing is worth destroying the life of a child.

             By contrast, the Odyssey holds the gods supreme in all things, and this reverence is upheld by even the lowliest of characters in the story. When the suitors of Penelope have planned to lay a trap to kill Odysseus' son, Telemachus, they are dissuaded by a young man who reminds them of the supreme will of the gods.