“He [travels] to faraway cities and [fights] in many battles.others who fight with him have all returned home. All but Odysseus have [return]” (Next Next post). Regardless of going through challenging circumstances, Odysseus has to leave his family and fight the Trojan War. The Odyssey, written by Homer, takes place around the Aegean Sea in Ithaca. This novel is a world of mythology filled with numerous characters having different adventures throughout the story. However, Odysseus stands out the most out of the others with some unique tragedies occurring in his life. Despite having to abandon his loved ones, Odysseus is courageous with the potential of having strength, cleverness, and the ability to be patient while understanding the consequences …show more content…
Therefore, Odysseus displays his physical strength by “showing his strong thighs, his broad chest, and shoulders, and his mighty arms” (Nextext 157,158). This reveals that, even after he lets Antinous get away with something wrong, he still doesn’t allow himself to be treated disrespectfully by anyone, particularly by a beggar who formerly worked for him when Odysseus used to be the King of Ithaca. Odysseus has the courage to maintain his reputation among all the suitors, even if he has to disguise himself as a beggar to put his plan into action later on. By demonstrating his physical strength, he is able to scare some suitors that are taking him easy and threatening his wife even when he is present in his own house. Regardless of getting in trouble at the Island of the Cyclops, Odysseus manages to work his way, cleverly, through the cave and escape with his crew. When Polyphemus, Poseidon’s son, asks Odysseus about his name, Odysseus responds intelligently, referring to himself as “...Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends, everyone calls me Nohbdy” (Holt …show more content…
When Aeolus, the God of the Wind, provides support by giving Odysseus a sack of wind to help him sail towards Ithaca, Odysseus ends up leaving the sack unattended. This allows his crew to open “the sack, and the winds [flow] howling out.[carrying them] far away from [their] country” (Nextext 88). Even though it’s understandable for Odysseus to go to sleep as he has been extremely tired from his journey, however, getting near to his home to the point where Ithaca can almost be seen and leaving the bag aside, shows his personality of not being alert. Due to this, Odysseus regrets his decision of going to sleep and therefore, loses another opportunity of returning to Ithaca. However, he understands that he should be gentle and have some patience as anger cannot resolve the issue at this point. Additionally, when Odysseus falls asleep while praying to Zeus at Thrinacia, his crew kills the cattle. This gets Helios mad and causes him to pray to Zeus for a “penalty they shall pay.or [Helios goes] down forever to light the dead men in the underworld” (Holt 924-928).
Heroes, as shown in literature, often undertake the most difficult tasks and place themselves in mortal danger in order to bring back, for themselves and their societies, both knowledge and treasure. Their stories follow “Hero Journey.” The Odyssey, as the epic story of the hero Odysseus, follows closely the complete cycle of a Hero Journey, both as a physical and as a psychological undertaking. The Hero Journey, used as a framework for both Odysseus’ physical and mental journeys, serves to bind the two together. Each of Odysseus’s physical difficulties can be viewed as a metaphor for a psychological hardship that he must overcome, and by overcoming these hardships, Odysseus matures—achieving a more complete understanding of himself and
Although Odysseus does not need much help creating stories, he has this truth, this learning experience, and this whole part of his life that he can tell to people to gather pity and respect. Without his time in the Trojan War, Calypso’s island, and his arduous journey to Ithaca, Odysseus would barely have any influence over the epic, or in general; his miseries unlock a better and even stronger version of Odysseus that serves him greatly when it comes to respect and power. Ultimately, despite Odysseus’ obvious struggles he encounters due to his kleos, his inner sense of honor, glory, and pride leads to valuable outcomes for Odysseus that are explored throughout The Odyssey. He does face challenges, like the occurrence of Polyphemus. Still, once his conflicts are overlooked, it can become apparent to the reader that kleos is a strength that Odysseus often employs, subconsciously or not.
After the defeating the Cicones, Odysseus wants to take the plunder and depart quickly. His men, however, stay, leading to a defeat at the hands of reinforcements. A similar situation happens later, after Aeolus grants the Greeks fair winds to Ithaca. Odysseus falls asleep within sight of Ithaca, enabling his greedy, undisciplined crew to open the bag of ill winds that they think is treasure, and let loose a barrage of winds that blows them off course. Finally, on the island of the Sun god Helios, Odysseus' men disobey his orders and eat sacred cattle of the sun after he goes inland to pray and falls asleep. This action leads to the deaths of all his crew, so he is never with a group of people like that for the rest of the novel. This flaw too is overcome by Odysseus in the last group. He relies on a small group of people to let him into a situation where he can triumph over the suitors, and none of them disobey
When they got to Helios, Odysseus fell asleep praying to Athena. While Odysseus was asleep, his men eat Helios’ cattle and go against orders again. Zeus threw a bolt of lightning at the ship, and it turned to splinters. Only Odysseus survived that. Inman also met some interesting people on his journey.
Throughout the book, Homer portrays Odysseus as a hero due to his ability to manipulate enemies, bravery to put himself before his crew members, and the sheer loyalty to devote to get back to his wife, Penelope. For example, when Odysseus and his crew members were trapped in the Cyclops cave, Odysseus uses his intelligence to blind Polyphemus. He then tricks the Cyclops into moving the rock and unblocking the exit. Odysseus’ intelligence is portrayed through several examples like this one. Odysseus manipulates the Cyclops by turning his strengths against him. To extend this assertion, this encounter also personifies his bravery as well as his loyalty to come home to his wife, Penelope. Through many situations, the protagonist depicts bravery, intelligence, and the strength it takes to pull himself together and try his hardest to get back to his wife.
Odysseus Character Essay Odysseus is the main character in the novel the Odyssey, Odysseus is considered faithful to his wife and son because for 20 years most of all he cared about was returning home to his kingdom and family. He is honest and just genuinely nice to people and gets offended when he returns to his kingdom and finds his servants being treated like garbage by the suitors, no matter how poor they need to be respected because they could be a god. Odysseus is considered witty because he outwits the cyclops, he charred out the cyclops eye, then tells him that his name is nobody, so the other cyclopses don't come kill him and the remainder of his men. Odysseus is brave because when he
One of the 4 epic hero traits that Odysseus has, is that he has a plethora of exemplary attributes. For instance, Odysseus is able to “bored (bore) that great eye socket” with an olive tree, suggesting the extent of Odysseus’ formidable might. In addition, Odysseus is also able to “strike and strike again” at the suitors while they “moaned at death”. This emphasizes the power and strength that Odysseus held. Moreover, when Eurykleia tells Penelope that if she had seen Odysseus it would have made “your (her) heart grow hot”, because Odysseus was like “a lion splashed with mire and blood”, it emphasizes Ancient Greek values of strength. Another exemplary attribute that Odysseus possesses is his contemplative and strategic mind. This can be illustrated when Odysseus cleverly uses the Kyklopes’ rams and “slung (slings) a man under… to ride there safely” (IX
In the story, Odysseus falls asleep during the eating of the cattle of the Sun Gods. This resulted in Zeus sending a lightening bolt that destroyed Odysseus' boat and drowned his whole crew. This is an example of poor leadership on Odysseus' part because if would have been awake, he could have guided his crew from the temptation of the cattle. His carelessness of sleeping during this incident resulted in all of his crew's destruction. In addition, instead of Odysseus taking ownership for his carelessness, he blamed the gods for the destruction of his crew.
In greek mythology, a hero encounters many different types of challenges. In the novel, The Odyssey, the author Homer displays the heroic protagonist Odysseus as brave and confident. These heroic traits help Odysseus fight his internal thoughts and battle external problems, such as goddesses and other mythical creatures. Odysseus’s brave trait shines most when he encounters two goddesses. Wanting immoral love, Calypso, who is a nymph, keeps Odysseus on her island.
Odysseus, by shouting this, caused Polyphemus to know his name, and be able to pray to Poseidon to punish Odysseus for blinding him.
Have you ever found yourself stuck in a series of tough circumstances which seem to be never ending? In this book, Odysseus is lost at sea for 20 years. He is faced with many difficult situations, in which he learns that he has to be very intelligent and brave. Many times he is given the help he needs to go back home to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus, but it gets difficult along the way because of all the people Odysseus must confront in order to continue on. Finally, Odysseus gets home after a long journey and has to kill all the suitors who have taken over his power by eating is food and taking other items.
One strives for a larger than life identity. Positioning others before yourself or for their better good, shows one more superior. Living in the shadows, does not allow them to rise above the rest. One who sticks out of the crowd, becomes a hero. Imperfections, a chance to fix mistakes and relate on a humane level. Negative flaws form Odysseus into a hero, that mortals associate with. Moralistic values overpower the idea of capes and tights. Strong teachings resurface from deep within, when needed most. Odysseus exists as a hero using the concept of well-roundedness. Using lessons taught from the crew and Penelope, he strives for the better. A first look at the physical appearance of Odysseus contradicts his heroic character of the inside. Similar to how an onion possesses many layers, his internal being contains depth. One must peal away disguises to find an honorable hero, like Odysseus, buried within faults and
After this incident, Zeus avenges for Helios by killing all of Odysseus’ men. Throughout this series of ridiculous events, Odysseus still does not give up and he attempts to overcome all kinds of adversities by using his intelligence and intuition. The audiences can also relate to Odysseus by similarly portraying a person in a life long journey; a person can sometimes unintentionally go astray, be surprised by unexpected events, or eve become involved in a disaster that can take away everything that one used to own just like Odysseus did. However, compared to the majority of people who loses courage and immerses in depression, Odysseus successfully overcomes so many unpredictable events and ultimately reaches his goal of the long journey. Thus, by illustrating Odysseus’ persistence and fearlessness, Homer encourages the audiences to have hopes about the future and positive attitude in all good or bad
Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and the main character in homer’s The Odyssey, was gone for twenty years before finally returning to his family and his homeland. He struggled through many hardships and lost many loyal companions. The King of Ithaca would not have made it home without the assistance of the Greek gods. Despite all of the help and advice that Odysseus receives from the gods, he is a very brave man because his courage and daring in the cave of the Cyclops, his inability to give up and abandon his men on Circe’s island, and his flawless following of the gods instructions are acts of bravery that is uncommon in most men.
My name is Nohbdy'"("The Cyclops" lines 312-315). Odysseus' astuteness is apparent in this situation because he refused to reveal his identity to Polyphemus while he was vulnerable. His decision prevented the other Cyclops from coming to aid of Polyphemus. By precluding this beforehand, he demonstrated his heroic quality of wiliness. The ingenuity established by these actions personifies Odysseus as a hero.