The Destruction Of Pride In Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

Ethos is a word describing a state of harmony in life that people in both literature and the real world try to achieve. In the beginning of The Odyssey by Homer, it is established that even though Odysseus is more exceptional when compared to an average mortal, he still has not reached his harmony. One major trait that hinders Odysseus’s progression is his hubris or excessive pride. He must abandon this detrimental piece of himself to be able to move forward and obtain ethos, even if this task expands throughout a ten-year voyage. Odysseus’s journey allows him to carve a pathway to his own ethos, through the shedding of old pride and the rebirth into a new sense of self. At the end of the Trojan War, Odysseus was a decorated soldier and exalted tactician. These achievements were a solid basis

Additionally, many people commended him and his actions throughout the war, which most likely bolstered his overwhelming arrogance further. However, while his deeds were an unquestionable feat, Odysseus could not begin to obtain ethos with the cockiness he displayed. From the start of his voyage, there are several instances in which Odysseus’s hubris was detrimental to him and his crew, which therefore makes his hubris detrimental to the harmony. One of these major disasters occurred on the island of the Kyklopês. When Odysseus and his twelve best men discover the Kyklopês’s cavern, the men immediately sense danger from their surroundings. Regardless of this, Odysseus ordered them to stand their ground and wait for the cave’s habitant. “ ‘We say put out again on good salt water!’ Ah, how sound that was! Yet I refused. I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer,” (The Odyssey, 151). The wise and clever Odysseus was ignorant to the peril of the situation that even his crew could distinguish all because he was eager to behold what a behemoth could offer a war hero like himself. In reality, Odysseus let his pride blind him to the