Homer's The Odysseus As An Epic Hero

Homer sought to epitomize man. Man has always sought to create a perfect version of his existence. Thus, Homer filled the void by creating Odysseus, an epic hero. In the epic, The Odyssey, the author, Homer, portrays the main character, Odysseus King of Ithaca, as an epic hero. Throughout the epic, Odysseus must overcome a multitude of difficult tasks as to arrive back to his home on the island Ithaca after 20 years. There he drives out the suitors who plague his household; during the dilemmas he faced, multiple personality traits are illustrated by Homer. Throughout the development of the story, Homer sculpts Odysseus as an epic hero building into him the personality traits of audacity and wisdom.

The events within the epic, illustrates Odysseus

This is shown when Odysseus and his men are in the lair of the Kyklopes, Polyphemos; through Odysseus’ plan they make Polyphemos drunk, and Odysseus wisely repeats that “My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends, everyone calls me Nohbdy.” (Page 156, lines 397-399). This is presented as an intelligent and wise move as after Odysseus blinds Polyphemos, out of rage, Polyphemos states that “Nohbdy” has made him blind, which makes the other Kyklopes think he’s crazy. Odysseus’ wisdom enabled him to save his crew and himself, which establishes him as an epic hero. In the same fashion this wisdom is displayed when Odysseus disguised as a beggar begins to speak to his wife Penelope to see if she is still loyal to “Odysseus”. Thus, Homer constructs a wise move, due to the fact that if he never interrogated Penelope, and she was not devoted to Odysseus anymore, Odysseus could have been in a dangerous situation. This sculpts Odysseus’ wisdom as he was able to evade blowing his cover to Penelope and the suitors, while still identifying if his wife remained loyal to him. As it is exhibited in the epic, through deduction of these events, it can be seen that Homer depicts Odysseus as an epic hero using the personality trait of