Why Is Odysseus A Hero

The greeks had a very set idea of what a hero is supposed to act like. Not very many people met their very high expectations. They thought of a hero as someone who showed honer and glory in everything they did. They also thought that a hero should be proud and clever. Odysseus was considered a hero to the greeks, because not only did he exceed in all of those things but he represented them effortlessly. He did this by honoring the greek god Athena throughout his entire journey, like a hero should, and achieving glory throughout his trek. making the right choices all of the time is no simple test for a normal human. It is in humans nature to make mistakes and cave in to temptation. But the greeks didn’t care, they thought a hero should always

Odysseus showed his cleverness through his entire venture, for example when he had to face the cyclops and didn’t mention his real name but used a fake on, which was nobody. Odysseus clearly outsmarted the cyclops in this situation. It was important for odysseus to do this because he was a very known person and many wanted him dead, including the cyclopes father Poseidon. So keeping his name a secret helped him stay alive, again showing his true cleverness. This justifies why the greeks thought that being clever was one of the key characteristics of a hero. Another example of odysseus being clever is when he arrived home to ethicka, but did not go straight to his loved ones because he knew the people competing for his land and wife would try to kill him so that they could enharite everything of his. Instead he stayed on the beach stradigiesing how he could return home without anyone noticing. This shows that he thinks before acting and infant is very clever. No human or non hero would think that cleverly, they would just act on impulse and ruin their chances at survival. Over all being clever was one of the most important characteristics that the greeks looked at when they labeled odysseus a