Odysseus As A Modern Hero In Homer's Odyssey

Odyssey essay

The Odyssey is an epic poem written by Homer. In the Odyssey, Odysseus leaves Ithaca and his family to go fight in the Trojan War. After ten years of fighting Odysseus goes on a long journey to try to get home. Odysseus was a very important person. He was the leader of the army that won the Trojan war. He also helped his men get through the long journey home. Odysseus would be considered a modern hero because he was strong, brave, and selfless.

Odysseus was a strong man, one example would be when Penelope finally loses hope that her husband Odysseus is coming home. She decides to hold a competition between the suitors to see who will take his spot in being hers. The competition was whichever suitor can string Odysseus’ bow and shoot it cleanly through the 12 rings. None of the suitors could string Odysseus’ bow and when Odysseus, dressed as the old beggar, tried he did. “ He draws between his thumb and forefinger a sweet new string upon his forefinger so effortlessly” ( Book 21, pg. 1155). Odysseus was strong because no one could string the bow but he did easily.

Not only was Odysseus strong but he was brave. He was brave when his men and him had to go past Scylla and Charybdis. He had to make a choice between going past Scylla and losing 6 men, or going past Charybdis and possibly

What happened was Odysseus and his men landed on an island. On this island there were Lotus flowers. If you eat these flowers it makes you have no desire of returning home and makes you feel nothing. Some of Odysseus’ men ate the flower not knowing what would happen. Sure enough when three of his men ate them they had no desire of returning home. Odysseus decided to drag his three men back to the ship which ultimately saved their lives. “ I drove them, all wailing, to the ships tied them down under their rowing benches” (Book 9, pg 1112). He showed he was selfless here by dragging the men back to the ship and saving their