Heroism in The Odyssey Essay

The Odyssey

In the epic poem, The Odyssey, by the Greek poet Homer, the main character, Odysseus, shows signs of heroism. The poem tells the story of Odysseus, a war hero from Ithaca and his journey to redress himself. Throughout the story, Odysseus proves himself to be the hero through his masterful skills, breathtaking strength, and quick thinking. To finally redress himself, he needed wisdom from several of gods. However, Odysseus has good traits that an epic hero has, but he also have bad traits too, such as, being overconfident and angering gods. Lastly, he would have to overcome many challenges throughout his difficult journey in order to come home to Ithacha to reunite with his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemacus, after twenty years lost at sea.

When Odysseus was sailing away from Polyphemus, he declares the Cyclops, in book 9 (line 418-419), tell him Odysseus, raiders of cities, took your eye. The city that Odysseus raided was Troy, since he was in the Trojan war just before he had to go on the journey to redeem himself. Likewise, during his journey, he had also been disloyal to his wife, Penelope. The first time he was deceitful was when he arrived to Circes island and settled there for several of years. The second time was after his ship was wrecked and he was stranded on Ogygia with Calypso. He had an affair with Circe and Calypso while his wife was desperately at home waiting for him to return.

Circe describes Odysseus as a hero and tells that Odysseus is a master mariner and soldier, which shows his skills as a sailor and his power as a fighter; in book 10 (line 108-109), Son of Laertes, and the gods of old, Odysseus, master of mariner and soldier. In book 22 (line 349-350), right before the fight with the suitors is about to start The servants armed themselves, and all tree took their stand besides the master of battle. This quote tells the reader that Odysseus is a great warrior or a person with power if he has servants. Although, Odysseus is described as a master of battle, it shows how the servants think of him.

While Odysseus was away from his home, he had to defeat several challenges and obstacles in order to get home. One of those challenges was the Neukeia, when he had to experience the underworld in order to get information on how to get home. During his visits, he saw his mother as a ghost who died of depression because he was gone for too long. After confronting with the dead prophet, he discovered that he had to defeat new challenges. The new challenges includes the sirens, whose song would attract other sailors into their island and then eat them. The other two challenges were Scylla, the six-headed monster, and Charybdis, the whirlpool monster. Even though the challenges were hard , Odysseus defeated them and proved to be the epic hero.

On the other hand, Odysseus proves himself to be an epic hero. In fact, some of the monsters in the story knew he was an epic hero, such as Circe in Book 10 (Line 56) What champion, of what country, can you be?, Odysseus finally justify himself to Poseidon, who finally let him return to home. As soon as he got home, he needed to conquer one last challenge. In order to see his wife, Penelope again, he had to kill the army of suitors that were waiting at his front door for Penelopes hand in marriage. He killed each and every single one of the men. For this reason, Odysseus have had proven himself to be an epic hero.