Admirability in Odysseus Odysseus is an admirable hero, right? Maybe not as much as you think. Throughout “The Odyssey” Odysseus does perform many heroic feats, such as saving his men from the Lotus Eaters or freeing his men from Calypso. Despite this, he also takes part in less admirable tasks, such as sleeping with Calypso and Circe or murdering the suitors without thinking of the consequences. Because of this, is he still an admirable hero? First of all, Odysseus can be exceedingly prideful. As a matter of fact, the majority of the unfortunate events in “The Odyssey” can be traced back to this hamartia. For example, if Odysseus hadn’t blinded Polyphemus, he wouldn’t have been cursed by Poseidon. According to Mahatma Gandhi, “An eye for
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Show MoreI think the Odyssey stresses Odysseus's fatal traits. Those being pride, anger, and having too much confidence. One example from the epic, is how Odyssey's pride delays his journey nearly a decade. Odysseus's pride wouldn’t let Nahbody get the credit of blinding the cyclops so he said his name and address. God put pride on the original sin list twice for a reason.
Odysseus’s crew being turned into pigs brought the loyal trait out of him because he needed to get his crew out of a spell that turned them into pigs and he was ready to sacrifice himself. Another one of Odysseus's traits is him being arrogant, as Odysseus is on his boat outside, he boasts about taking the cyclops’s eyesight to the cyclops. Homer, Author of The Odyssey, demonstrates Odysseus's arrogance by asserting “If ever martial man inquire how you were put to shame & blinded, tell him Odysseus took your eye”(574). Odysseus being arrogant affects his journey because sometimes he cares too much for fame, in addition to Odysseus being arrogant he’s also very easily distractabe as
In the epic, The Odyssey, written by Homer, the main character, Odysseus, spends 10 brutal years trying to find a way back home to Ithica after the Trojan War. Throughout his journey he is met with multiple obstacles including losing every one of his crew members. Although he faces physical monsters, I believe that his biggest enemy is his pride. Many believe that Odysseus’ best quality is how honorable he is, but I believe his honor is often mistaken for his hubris. This is very evident in book 9 when Odysseus and his crew are on the island of Cyclops.
The decisions and actions Odysseus makes throughout his Odyssey, not only call upon the person he is but shape the person he becomes, with many of the challenges honing his character. Homer uncovers the traits that most befittingly define Odysseus as honor, courage and guile. The traits that are glorified in The Odyssey, connect to recent times because they are comparable to those we think of when defining a hero or an impeccable human being. Odysseus’ use of his honor, courage and guile showcase how these traits allowed him to excel in his time and also are key traits all should have for the challenges we must face in
In the Epic Novella, The Odyssey, by Homer, both heroic and unheroic character traits of the main character Odysseus are found. On the journey of return to his homeland, Ithaca, him and his men are challenged by various obstacles. His journey shows multiple examples of heroic and unheroic character traits of himself. He was known as a great warrior for being intelligent and quick-witted; although he was selfish and arrogant.
Character traits allow differentiation throughout life. No one is exempt from possessing character traits, not even fictional characters. In some cases, characters and real people share the same traits. An example of alike character traits pertains to Odysseus from The Odyssey and myself. Like Odysseus, I am a considerably confident person.
First, because Odysseus’ “master strokes” allow his crew to escape from Polyphemus and he “command[s] a dozen vessels,” Odysseus claims responsibility for his crew’s successful escape, and thus, Odysseus claims to be the hero in this section (216). Next, Odysseus’ hubris and disloyalty in this scene highlight the flaws in Homer’s depiction of Odysseus as a hero. First, despite his crew “begging” Odysseus to stop taunting Polyphemus' he does not revealing his disloyalty to his crew and pride. However, in spite of his actions, Homer describes Odysseus as “headstrong”—a positive and complimentary word for selfish actions.
An epic hero is defined as “a brave and noble character in an epic poem, admired for great achievements or affected by grand events”. One well known epic hero is Odysseus from Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey. Although he is well known and often used as an example of an epic hero, Odysseus is far from a perfect epic hero. He often fails to protect his crew from harm and returns home without them. Odysseus’ behavior and lack of control over himself and the crew result in the crew being put into difficult situations that could have been avoided had Odysseus controlled them better. In The Odyssey, Homer uses characters who must face various difficult challenges to expose Odysseus’ poor leadership skills, arrogance and inquisitiveness.
An epic hero is someone who achieves great things and is admired for bravery and humility. In the epic poem The Odyssey written by Homer, the main character, Odysseus, is an epic hero. The characteristics the Odysseus posses to make him an epic her includes bravery, cleverness and determination. Bravery is having courage through tough times.
There are few fictional characters who so accurately depict the ancient archetype of a hero as Odysseus. In Homer’s The Odyssey, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Odysseus is departing from the Trojan city of Troy in order to reach his home country of Ithaca. Throughout the course of his journey, Odysseus is faces multiple challenges testing his leadership, vigor, and wit in order to prove himself to be a true hero. He accomplishes this by bringing about multiple heroic feats and upholding the impuissant and helpless.
This pride of his is what got him and his men into their situation in the first place. It is obvious in the book and the movie that everything that happened could have been prevented if Odysseus would not have tried to take all the credit for the defeat of the Trojans. During the movie and the book Odysseus’s arrogance, ego, and pride get in the way of him and his men getting home. If it weren't for him they could have all made it home to Ithaca instead of just Odysseus by himself twenty years after he first left
You must be made all of iron" (279-80). While Odysseus is a strong man and a hard worker, it is always better to be on his good side, as he can be very temperamental( third source). We see that he has a temper multiple times throughout his journey, but the most prominent time, perhaps, is when he has the suitors killed when he returns to Ithaca. In conclusion, Odysseus is a hero because of his many great qualities.
Is Odysseus a hero or a villain? In my eyes he is a hero struggling to do the best he can but often finds things don't always go as planned. One of the many reasons I believe this is because he shows that he cares for his comrades. He tried at great measures to help his men return home to Ithaca alive. When he faced the Cyclops he stabbed his eye, so the men could get away.
The main character Odysseus in the Odyssey written by Homer is generally thought to be a great hero; however, he shows more traits of a quite flawed character on closer inspection. Around the beginning of Odysseus’ journey home after the war, Odysseus decides to take a detour to the home of a cyclops deciding to not listen to his men’s suggestions to leave while they still could; consequently, it does not end well: “Ah, how sound that was, Yet I refused. I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer no pretty sight it turned out, for my friend” (9.130-132). This thought by Odysseus shows that he realized his decision to go to the mysterious island wasn’t the most rational one and that his men’s pleas to leave were the better option, but he decides to be stubborn and place his curiosity before his men’s safety resulting in a non-heroic
Just as Achilles is confronted in the Iliad with the problem of balancing his honor with his pride, Odysseus repeatedly faces situations in which self-restraint and humility must check bravado and glory-seeking. In his early adventures, he fails these tests, as when he taunts Polyphemus, inflaming Poseidon. As the epic progresses, Odysseus becomes increasingly capable of judging when it is wise to reveal himself and when it is appropriate to rejoice in his