English Essays

Odysseus of the Underworld As I finish reading ‘The Odyssey’, story that is told by homer a poet who loved to tell stories of the gods and all the adventures and journeys the heroes went through. Odysseus the man who is astute and cares nothing but to get home to Ithaca where there, lies his kingdom, life, wife, and son who he had left when he was just born. While some might argue that Odysseus is not a hero, his decidedly heroic actions outweigh all of his faults because he is dishonest, self-centered, disloyal and disrespectful. He doesn’t care if he puts his man in danger he just wants to come back to Ithaca. To begin with, Odysseus is not a good hero he is dishonest because he cheats on his wife with Calypso and Circe. It is ironic that when he goes home as a beggar he asks his wife Penelope if she cheated on him. He is also dishonest in lines 360-361 when Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is “Nobody’’. Another reason Odysseus is dishonest is when he is the only survivor after his journey, he didn’t bother to tell his man. He is also being dishonest when he doesn’t tell his wife Penelope that he is in Ithaca only his son. Next, not only is Odysseus dishonest but disrespectful and bellicose. In lines 1300-1304, Odysseus kills all the suitors in cold blood when most of them didn’t commit a crime. Another way he is being disrespectful and violent is when Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus and he threatens to kill her if she reveals his identity. Also Odysseus is disrespectful in lines 501-505, Odysseus tells the Cyclops, ‘Cyclops, if ever mortal inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus raider of cities, took your “eye:laertes’son,” whose homes on Ithaca!’ He disrespects gods, he doesn’t thank the gods when their helping him to get back to Ithaca. Not unless he is forced to do it.
Then, another way that he is not heroic is him being self-centered he doesn’t want to take peoples advice. Like in lines 780-797, Odysseus was given an advice from Circe that said not to try to fight Scylla even when she takes six of his men Odysseus still tries to fight Scylla and he lost three more man. Another advice that he doesn’t take is when Eurylochus told Odysseus not to send men to see what was on Circe’s island, for sending them, they turned into pigs. Another way he is being self-centered is when Odysseus wants to kill all the suitors to himself he doesn’t want anyone to help him. Odysseus is also disloyal hero that doesn’t care about people. He is disloyal to his wife thinking that it is acceptable to cheat on her because she will never find out. He kills people without giving them a chance. He doesn’t care about his crew members he only wanted them to help him on his journey. He doesn’t think about other people’s lives but himself. He is inept at dealing with people because he doesn’t give any chances. After, Odysseus has done more un-heroic than heroic things. He shouldn’t be a hero because he is not a very good hero; well that’s what I think. He shouldn’t have gotten help from Athena because he didn’t really care enough to get back to Ithaca. If he did care it wouldn’t have taken him twenty years to get to Ithaca. Even with all the problems that he had on his journey he was clever enough to figure something out to avoid them. He didn’t have to sleep with other women he could of stay loyal to his wife. It is foreshadowing that Odysseus comes home and kills the suitors. In addition, Odysseus might have been a hero fighting in the Trojan War but I still believe that he was a very bad hero. If this story is true about Odysseus I couldn’t imagine the suffer that Penelope went through waiting all these years and hoping that he comes home or that he is still alive. Not knowing anything about your husband is the worse .If I was Penelope I would have waited only ten years and then go look for him or marry someone else. I don’t think I would of wait twenty years that is way too long. I wouldn’t have the patience. Throughout, If only Penelope knew during the time that she was waiting that Odysseus was cheating on her. Things would have change maybe she would have married someone else or go to a different island so she wouldn’t have to see Odysseus again when he came back. But at the same time I feel bad for Odysseus man they needed to go through all the problems there was in the journey. They must have felt apprehensive to face all the conflicts. The man should have been the heroes because they did more of protecting and fighting for Odysseus. Besides, Odysseus is a clever hero but not a good one. He was very clever because he would think of a plan before he did it. On page 643, the Iliad, Odysseus came up the idea of building a wooden horse that symbolize troy to trick them in the war. This helped because the Trojans fell for the trick and Odysseus and his man won the Trojan War. Finally, ‘The Odyssey’ is an epic poet that talks Odysseus journey and the heroic things he did which I disagree. I don’t think people should read this story because he is not a hero, he is a cruel person that doesn’t care about anything but himself .For me he will never be heroic because he is disloyal, dishonest, self –centered, disrespectful and violent. He was never a true hero but for some people might argue that he was a great hero who fought the challenges he went through.