Odysseus: The Heroic Hero

Homer is remembered by many due to his epic poems he wrote that include The Iliad, but the one most remembered by people today is The Odyssey. An epic poem about a great hero named Odysseus coming home after a deadly journey that claimed many lives, but is Odysseus really the critically acclaimed hero Homer depicts him to be? The actions of Odysseus in the poem can be seen as heroic or valiant, but this argument crumbles under scrutiny when the actions of Odysseus are examined under a fine eye. Flaws in that argument include Odysseus failing to trust his men, exposing his men to unnecessary risks, and prolonging the nightmarish adventure he put his men through. These points are painfully obvious throughout the Odyssey and they show what poor

If you do not have trust in your men, then in return they will not trust you. An example of Odysseus not putting his trust in his men is when he does not reveal the contents of his mysterious bag because he fears they will open it, but this just makes his men want to open the bag even more. When they do open the bag it releases winds they tear the sails and sends the ship across the sea. If Odysseus told them what was in it they would not want to open the bag and thus get them back to Ithaka. The lack of trust between Odysseus and his men resulted in the voyage lasting even longer and none of his men returning home. These consequences could have been avoided if Odysseus established a truthful relationship with his men at the start of their journey. From this, it can be seen that not being truthful with people can annihilate the future of someone else even when you thought it would be for the greater

That may have been his goal, but there are situations where it seems as if he does not want to get home or see his family, which in turn makes his men not able to see their families. One illustration of this is again, stopping at Polyphemus’s island. That call to land is not only useless, but got his men killed because of it. Another example of this is when Odysseus decides to stay with Circe for too long. This perpetuates the voyage by too much time, and no one benefits from it in any way. In fact, it hurts people like Penelope due to her being separated from Odysseus for an even longer period of time. The evidence clearly shows that Odysseus purposely delayed the return to Ithaka and in the process has killed all of his men and barely came out