Odysseus Is A Hero Analysis
Certainly, people can argue both ways and support their arguments from evidence in the reading. According to our views, Odysseus is definitely one of, if not the one, ideal hero of the ancient Greek world.
There are quite a lot of reasons why this is so. Firstly, Odysseus is an ideal hero in both the physical and the spiritual sense. In the physical sense he is a great hero, because he overcomes all these extreme dangers; he comes out alive after wondering for ten years and facing the most extremely dangerous creatures and people. Why would Homer set up this whole fantastic voyage with all the strange encounters that Odysseus has to go through, if it was not to show that this man is a great hero of the Greek world? In order to put it more simply, if Odysseus was not one of the greatest heroes, he would not be able to accomplish this voyage.
In the spiritual sense Odysseus is a hero, because he remains faithful and loyal to his wife and household. Although he has been wandering away from home for almost twenty years, the only thing that …show more content…
These flaws include the fact that he loses his men and the fact that he boasts about himself and commits blasphemy toward Poseidon when he says, "I am sure that even great Poseidon will never give you back the eye you lost" (Odyssey, Book IX, page 185). Nevertheless, this does nothing but adds to the idea of Odysseus being the ideal hero in the ancient Greek society. He is a mortal hero, a human, and humans have flaws. This again goes back to where we talk about the transition in the Greek society. The Greeks now embrace their mortality, they are not afraid of it. Even with his flaws, Odysseus achieves his goals and he is definitely the ideal hero for many generations to follow. The people can look to Odysseus as being a hero that they can relate to; unlike the previous perfect and unrealistic heroes, such as Hercules, that could only be
There are quite a lot of reasons why this is so. Firstly, Odysseus is an ideal hero in both the physical and the spiritual sense. In the physical sense he is a great hero, because he overcomes all these extreme dangers; he comes out alive after wondering for ten years and facing the most extremely dangerous creatures and people. Why would Homer set up this whole fantastic voyage with all the strange encounters that Odysseus has to go through, if it was not to show that this man is a great hero of the Greek world? In order to put it more simply, if Odysseus was not one of the greatest heroes, he would not be able to accomplish this voyage.
In the spiritual sense Odysseus is a hero, because he remains faithful and loyal to his wife and household. Although he has been wandering away from home for almost twenty years, the only thing that …show more content…
These flaws include the fact that he loses his men and the fact that he boasts about himself and commits blasphemy toward Poseidon when he says, "I am sure that even great Poseidon will never give you back the eye you lost" (Odyssey, Book IX, page 185). Nevertheless, this does nothing but adds to the idea of Odysseus being the ideal hero in the ancient Greek society. He is a mortal hero, a human, and humans have flaws. This again goes back to where we talk about the transition in the Greek society. The Greeks now embrace their mortality, they are not afraid of it. Even with his flaws, Odysseus achieves his goals and he is definitely the ideal hero for many generations to follow. The people can look to Odysseus as being a hero that they can relate to; unlike the previous perfect and unrealistic heroes, such as Hercules, that could only be