Odysseus: The True Hero Of Homer's Odyssey

Odysseus was a Greek soldier who suffered a great journey just to be reunited with his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus. Throughout his journey Odysseus displayed many traits characteristic of epic Greek heroes. These traits, which were valued by the Greeks and defined Odysseus as one of the epic heroes, included: wit, pride, loyalty, faithfulness, and strength. Odysseus used his wit to win the Trojan War and to ensure the survival of his crew on the journey home. After being blocked outside by massive walls that surrounded Troy, Odysseus planned to build an enormous wooden horse and hide Greek soldiers inside the belly of the horse.

The role of the archetypal hero, who has incredible bravery, power, leadership, and determination, like Odysseus evolves in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. Odysseus is a king who led his crew on a 10-year journey after a victory in the Trojan War. His motivation was to return home to his beloved wife, Penelope. The poem was written around the 8th Century BC and is set in Ancient Greece around 1200 B.C.E. Odysseus is the King of Ithaca, which is an important factor when considering him a hero. In Ancient Greece, being a member of royalty made Odysseus powerful and placed him in a leadership role.

Penelope is a strong, smart, and cunning woman, who didn't need help or crap from anybody. When she said “So every day I wove the great loom, but every night by torchlight”(Document B.) It was a smart move on her half, she knew a way to hold of the suitors until her husband came back. She is the original “Strong woman” Icon. She didn't mess up as much as Odysseus, But didn't do as much either. Another Heroic part is when “She will marry the man who can string odysseus's bow and shoot a arrow through twelve ax-handle sockets.”

Odysseus is a man born in ithaca and king of this. Is represented heroically by his valor, and loyalty to his wife named Penelope with whom he had a son called Telemaco prince of ithaca. Odysseus was called by his fellow kings from distant lands to participate in the war against Troy which would last 10 years. The ingenuity the brilliant idea of ​​the trojan horse as invasion plan to be able to infiltrate behind the walls of Troy and invade it completely and win the war.

In The Odyssey, the character Odysseus can be considered a hero because he demonstrates many characteristics that are attributable to most heroes. After the battle at Troy, Odysseus strives to sail back to his homeland (Ithaca); however, he encounters some issues along the way and Poseidon attempts to make it impossible for Odysseus to return home. At the beginning of this journey, Odysseus wants to make it back to Ithaca with all of his crew alive. This selfless goal displays Odysseus acting for the greater good because he knows that these men have families that depend on them and would like for them to come home. Along the journey home, Odysseus and his crew come across a cyclops and become trapped in the cyclops’ cave.

In Homer’s Poem, The Odyssey, Penelope is the exceptionally patient and clever spouse of the infamous hero, Odysseus, and the mother of Telemachus. One poignant factor of Penelope’s character is her patience and devotion which is displayed throughout the poem. With her husband absent for a great majority of her life for the later of twenty years and his location unknown, Penelope stays, patiently awaiting Odysseus’ return, all whilst preserving their estate and raising her son by herself. Throughout this time, she had many persistent suitors in pursuit of her, abusing her husband’s absence.

She remains faithful to her husband after his 20 years of absence. Penelope cleverly tricks her suitors to delaying her hand in marriage as she pines for Odysseus’ return. Telemachus– Prince of Ithaca and son of Odysseus and Penelope. Telemachus goes on a quest to find his father or learn of his father’s death with the goddess Athena’s assistance.

A hero is someone who is revered for his or her exceptional achievements and bravery. Anyone who puts themselves before others not for recognition or an award, but because it is the right thing to do, is a true hero. In "The Odyssey," written by Homer is an epic poem about a man named Odysseus and his crewmates competing against the power of the gods to return to their homeland, Ithaca. Throughout his journey, he loses almost all of his men, but Odysseus finally arrives home, concluding his prolonged twenty-year voyage. Odysseus must battle the suitors that have taken his wife Penelope, and may soon kill his son Telemachus.

However, Penelope still loves Odysseus and remains loyal to him by stalling the marriage. She still continues to persist in being hopeful and refuses to believe that Odysseus will never return to her, so she creates several excuses to help her evade marriage for as long as possible. She presents tasks to keep the

Penelope is the only reason that Odysseus wants to go home, and the only reason that he is able to establish his home once he arrives. Penelope’s cunning compliments that of her husband’s, because it highlights the fact that they are of one mind, which affirms Odysseus’s excellence in knowing. Penelope knows that no man can achieve this feat she has asked the suitors to perform, except

Penelope states, “So every day I wove the great loom,/but every night by torchlight I unwove it;/and so for three years I deceived the Achaeans (19.1332-1334). Penelope tells the suitors that she wouldn’t marry one of them until she finished her weave because she still believed Odysseus would return. She tries to stall as much as she could, and in the end it was just enough. Odysseus is able to kill all of the suitors with the help from his son, Telemachus. Both Telemachus and Penelope stay loyal to Odysseus after being separated from him for 20 years.

(5. 277). In contrast, Penelope is powerless without the presence of her husband by her side, even begging to “be blown out by the Olympians!/ Shot by Artemis” so that she “still might go and see amid the shades/ Odysseus in the rot of underworld” (20. 89-92). She also becomes emotionally unstable in the wake of Odysseus’ disappearance, becoming easily swayed by her son’s words and reaching brief moments of clarity, before regressing back to “weeping/ for Odysseus, her husband”... when she mount[s] to her room again” (1. 410-412). But despite Penelope’s fragile state, she is still seen as being preferable over Kalypso due to the belief that it was good for women to depend on men.

Even when Odysseus was away from home, she still was devoted to him and long awaited for him to return back to Ithaca. Throughout the Odyssey, Penelope is seen wishing for Odysseus to come home. Penelope asks Telemachus if he has heard any news about Odysseus and Telemachus tells her about his trip to Menelaus. Penelope states that when Odysseus left, her beauty was lost and if he came home her reputation would be greater than it was. When Odysseus returns home in disguise and tells Penelope that he has returned, Penelope offers gifts if he actually comes home.

Every day she sows a death shawl for her father in law, and each night she unwinds her progress, telling the suitors that she will choose a husband when she is done sowing. She tricks the cunning Odysseus into revealing himself. Penelope knows that as a woman in her own right, she has no political or economic power. It is, ultimately, her father’s decision whom she will marry, and her own son pressures her into remarriage so he can inherit his father’s land. If Penelope had been able to be a powerful single woman, would she have remained loyal to Odysseus?

However, for a woman in Homer’s society, who belongs to either her father and her husband, she is the head of the household for 20 years in the absence of Odysseus. She does not preserve peace in the household, but she takes actions to prevent the destruction of ranks of the household by delaying her marriage so that when Odysseus come back home, he can reclaim the kingship, or when Telemachus is old enough, he can take the throne which is rightfully his. In the position where women have no power, she uses her intellectual strength to control the suitors. Penelope promises the suitors that she will choose one of them to marry after she finishes weaving the shroud for Laertes because it is shameful if she does not do anything for her father-in-law. The suitors eagerly comply to her request without knowing what Penelope plans to do.