Flaws In The Odyssey

"Cyclops, if any mortal man ever asks you who it was that inflicted upon your eye this shameful blinding, tell him that you were blinded by Odysseus, sacker of cities. Laertes is his father, and he makes his home on Ithaca” (Homer 500-505). Homer’s work of historical fiction, The Odyssey, is the sequel to his earlier story The Iliad. The Odyssey follows Odysseus after the events of the 10 year Trojan war and his long journey home. He clashes with many monsters and it always seems that his pride gets the better of him. The quote above is Odysseus bragging to Polyphemus that he had blinded him, showing how prominent his ego is after clashing with the cyclops. This ego and several other mistakes lead to Odysseus’s entire crew being dead and taking 20 years to return home. Odysseus is not a hero. He was unfaithful to his wife and all of his crew is dead. "Hardy man, your mind is full forever of fighting and battle work. Will you not give way even to the immortals? She is no mortal thing but a mischief immortal, dangerous, difficult and bloodthirsty, and there is no fighting
He fought next to Achilles and won the Trojan war. His intentions of going home with his crew back to Ithaca was not evil, but his ego eventually took over. It was his curiosity that lead him to seek out the cyclops cave and his arrogance that lead to Poseidon to be furious with him. These are not the traits of a hero. A war hero, yes, but a hero in every other sense, no. I believe that this evidence disproves Odysseus being a hero and even a tragic one. In conclusion, Odysseus is not a hero. Heros are supposed to be role models, not god-angering crew killers. In fact, Odysseus himself barely survived his journey. Heros must influence society by proving how doing the right thing and being a commerable citizen leads to a happy things. When we accept someone as a hero, we also accept their flaws. Odysseus just has too many flaws to accept as a true