Odysseus: A True Hero In Homer's The Odyssey

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

Master of land and seaways, the gods of old, son of Laertes; all these names reflect the great and mighty hero, Odysseus. So, what makes Odysseus the perfect epitome of an epic Greek hero? His intelligence helps greatly, but with every great hero, there's a weakness, a flaw. Odysseus' flaw happens to be his intemperate pride, which takes him the long way home. Despite his inordinate pride, he has a caring heart for all his men, and the power of knowledge to get him home.

While Odysseus proves to be good leader by saving his crew from trouble with his wits, he is ultimately a bad leader because he refuses to listen to advice. Odysseus is a good leader in that he uses his wits to get his men out of trouble. As Odysseus and his men prepare to face Kharybdis and Skylla, his men are nervous, so Odysseus reminds them “‘Have we never been in danger before this? More fearsome, is it now, than when the kyklopes penned us in his cave? What power we had!

A hero is a person who is not out to destroy the enemy but to save their brothers from impending doom. It’s not about how many lives they save, it’s their motive and attitude in doing so. If somebody saves lives or only annihilates lives to be worshiped then their motive is prideful. A hero should not be prideful, because a prideful man is a blinded man. Henry Ward Beecher states, “A prideful man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.” Odysseus’s whole reason to keep going is to make it back to his family, but through the 10 years he proves to the reader that he is a braggart and is prideful in his winnings.

He showed this when he left home to go fight the trojan war. During the trojan war he hid in a giant over sized wooden horse where he willing went straight towards the danger. Later him and his men went in for the kill and fought for 10 years. He also showed bravery while he face face to face with the cyclops. He protected his men before himself by make sure the cyclop would not interfere with their journey home.

“An irrational society is a society of moral cowards – of men paralyzed by the loss of moral standards, principles, and goals” (86) says Rand, and I feel that too far have the men in the society sunk away from moral standards, like putting their knowledge to use and expanding it, simply because they do not believe in judging others for fear of what others may see in them, especially Equality since he always abides by the strict standards with fear of the civilization itself. Equality would certainly agree with Rand’s advice, “One must never fail to pronounce moral judgement”, as Equality did by leaving the controlled society that brainwashed

“A hero is someone who, in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes anyway” and this shows the quality of a hero that the well-known hero, Odysseus, does not have. In the novel, The Odyssey, Odysseus goes to war against the Trojans in hope to win. When Odysseus slaughters the Trojans, he starts to act like he was greater than any god. The gods punished him by stranding him at sea for more than ten years without being able to go home. Odysseus is not a hero because he was not humble or good at accepting the help that he received, and he also acted before synthesizing the consequences that he would face in the future.

A man with illustrious courage and ability, admired for his brave actions and noble qualities. A man who’s larger than life, witty, determined, and valued. In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus is this person. He spends ten years facing horrendous monsters and impossible situations to return home again. In literary terms, Odysseus might be an epic hero, but he doesn’t nearly possess the compassion, integrity, or modesty necessary to be a true hero.

Bigger hotly replies, blatantly shutting his mother down when she tries to bring his ignorance to his attention. Bigger himself even acknowledges the filth he lives in, but maintains his denial through his seeming lack of care, “he knew the moment he allowed what his life meant to enter fully into his consciousness, he would either kill himself or someone else” (14). Bigger seems to block anything unwanted from bothering him, which is a terrible form of denial as it just leads to the problems manifesting themselves in Biggers mind. Bigger’s suppression of the truth leads him to close off his mind and not even address the issue, which is a large reason why Bigger struggles with the issues he does later in the book. Richard Wright places hints as to who Bigger is behind the anger throughout the novel, and it shows that Bigger is in severe denial.

There would be no life for him in a place where his identity would be used as a moral obligation. His soul would be exposed to the public like a unique jewel that everyone can touch and damage because they “have the right to do so.” As a result, John Galt stopped “the motor of the world” (619) when he realized he would work not for his own purpose and self-esteem, but as a slave of the people. The respect for his own mind was greater than anything else because without that reverence of himself he would be nothing but just