The Odyssey Research Paper

The Odyssey by Homer is an epic. The hero, Odysseus, fulfills many of the characteristics of an epic, even in our version, The Adventures of Odysseus, which is obviously not an epic because it’s not a poem. The qualities of an epic are as follows: the hero is a figure of imposing stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance, the setting is vast in scope, covering great nations or the world, the actions consist of deeds of great valor or those requiring super-human courage, supernatural forces-gods, angels, demons-interest themselves in the action and intervene from time to time, the epic poet recounts the deeds of the hero with objectivity, and the poem opens in medias res-in the middle

On page 312 when you see Odysseus return home, the book says “He did not recognize his own country”. He owned a country because he was a king, and kings are of national importance. When he’s stuck on Calypso’s island the gods felt sorry for him (Hamilton 294). He must have been important for the gods to notice him. During the Trojan war, he had “a skillful worker in wood make a huge wooden horse” (281). That legendary Trojan horse won the war that we all know about.

The next characteristic is that the setting is vast in scope, covering great nations or the world. ”He told the story of his ten years’ wandering”(Hamilton 305). Ten years is a long time to cover ground. He mentioned all the following while talking to the Phaeacian King: driven across the sea, the land of the lotus eaters, the cyclops island, the country of the winds, country of the Laestrygonians, Aeaea, the dark realm of Hades, the island of the sirens, the passage between Scylla and Charybdis, the island of the sun, calypso's island, and the Phaeacian land.(305-311) That’s many lands in a large area to

The first example of Odysseus’s courage was this;“His one chance to abandon the raft and swim to shore…[through the] waves of waves, a terror of the sea”(Hamilton 302). He swims to shore through the scary waves when he could have clung to his boat. Then once he swam to shore Odysseus talked to pretty girls while he was naked(304). Talking to girls is scary. Even more, if they're pretty. Even more, I bet, if you're naked. Later,“He watched what happened then fled in horror back to the ship”(307). So you know he thought it was scary, but he goes back and stands up to the witch with a little help of a certain herb. He obviously has courage because his “herb” might have failed him but he went