Odysseus: A Hero In Homer's The Odyssey

A hero can be defined as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Odysseus from Homer’s “The Odyssey” exemplifies this heroic definition. During his twenty year adventure fighting in the Trojan war and his ill-fated struggle to return home to his loving wife and son, he is given an opportunity to demonstrate this heroic character. What noble qualities does Odysseus display that prove his heroism? The first quality a hero must display is courage. Second, a hero must be intelligent and understand the workings of the world. Finally, a hero must be a leader, someone who can bring forth the best in others. On numerous occasions, Odysseus demonstrates his courage, intelligence and leadership

A leader is a person with the power or the ability to lead others, this relates to being a hero because a hero cannot do all work on their own. A hero must have help from others who are willing to follow them and help them with their final goal. This is shown is John C. Maxwell’s quote “A leader is someone who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”. What he means is that someone who is considered a leader can know the right path, and be able to help someone else on that same path, and continue on that path with that person. This is shown in “The Odyssey” odysseus was warned by Circe, the witch, that he had two options while sailing to Thrinika. His first option was to pass by Scylla which is a six headed monster that he knew would eat six of his men. His other decision was to pass near charybdis which is a large whirlpool that sucks ships into it and everyone could possibly die. “Better to mourn six men than lose them all, and the ship, too” (Odysseus 917). This shows Odysseus “knowing the way” he had to decide which way was better for the men. He “went the way” when they set off for scylla, and he “showed the way” while on the ship with his men when he knew he could possibly die. This example of leadership goes on to prove that he is in fact a hero, he had to make a hard decision for his men but knew he had their back and they had his.

It is now unarguably true that Odysseus is a hero. Through his admiration of everyone, outstanding achievements, having the courage to do anything, combining that with the intelligence to solve any problem, and mixing in some leadership. This equation turns out to be a hero. Hopefully you too can one day, like odysseus find these traits within yourself and be called a hero by