Critical Lens

return home. Ultimately Odysseus realized that he had to use all is power, might, and intelligence to over come the hardships and return to Ithaca.
A second literary element from The Odyssey by Homer is dynamic character. Throughout the epic poem Odysseus’s biggest struggle was finding that median between hubris and humility. I all started in the very beginning of the poem Odysseus had jus won the Trojan War but with the help of the gods. Odysseus didn’t thank the gods, which was disrespectful. Odysseus didn’t know how to control his excessive pride which got him a in a lot of trouble throughout his journey. For example in the Cyclops episode instead of just being happy and thankful that he escaped the Cyclops he had to boast and yell to the Cyclops his name and where he lived. He took Odysseus a while but he finally realized that what was making this journey so much harder and unpleasant was his hubris. Odysseus slowly started to change for example during the sirens episode Odysseus told his ship men to tie him to the mask cause he knew when the sirens started telling him ho great he was he would want to go over there. Another example is when Odysseus finally arrived to Ithaca he could have walked in the palace as himself bragging to everyone how he won the war and was alive but he allowed Athena to transform him to an old beggar. Odysseus used his intellectual strengths to come to the conclusion that his excessive pride was causing the unfortunate circumstances.
Henry Ward Beecher once said, “Greatness lies not I being strong, but in the right using of strength.” This means that