Odyssey: Testing A Man, Building a Hero

The protagonists of Romantic literature must often undertake difficult tasks and place themselves in mortal danger to achieve their goals. Whether for infinite wealth, unfathomable knowledge, or true and undying love, these missions are what define them as characters. A rare few are shaped into the triumphant heroes of legend and held up as classical ideals, none more so than Odysseus of The Odyssey. His quest to return to Ithaca and reunite with his family spawns a host of challenging tests and trials, driving him perilously close to the breaking point. Yet in the end, these difficulties transform a minor character from The Iliad into one of the most daring and enduring figures of literary history. Without such challenges, Odysseus would never have evolved beyond the ranks of ordinary men and would never have become a true hero. Odysseus’s journey is particularly poignant because of the nature of his trials. Consider that one of The Odyssey’s major themes is that of identity. Odysseus is a strong warrior and a cunning trickster at the beginning of the epic, but he has many psychological flaws. He has a compulsive need to tell stories, often lying to others around him; his intense curiosity drives him to experience every possible danger; he possesses a crippling hubris and self-importance. Even his very name, “Odysseus,” means “trouble” in Greek—trouble follows him and his crew wherever they go, simply by virtue of his existence. And the gods manufacture this trouble as a result of Odysseus’s nature, desiring either to test his positive traits (Zeus) or humiliate and destroy him for negative ones (Poseidon). Whether or not he realizes, Odysseus’s ten-year voyage is a direct result of his own identity as “the man of twists and turns.” The series of trials within The Odyssey is therefore a divine evaluation, designed to demonstrate the superiority of destiny and the gods over one mortal man. Yet it is this evaluation that unintentionally manages to fashion an extraordinary man into a legendary hero.
Odysseus’s harrowing return home to Ithaca manifests as a step-by-step series of tests, requiring him and his crew to escape numerous dangers and overcome perilous obstacles. At the same time, the physical journey Odysseus undergoes can be considered a metaphor for a mental journey of maturation and self-improvement. Each trial Odysseus must overcome represents one of his own emotional flaws that he must face and conquer. In Greek tragedies these would be fatal flaws, but Odysseus’s fate (unique to classic literature) is to survive and learn from them. Dangers that only afflict his crew symbolize common sins that do not affect him, but that he must still prove to be capable of defeating. As his combat skills and mental faculties improve over time, so too do his negative traits correct themselves. Even immortal beings like Athena converse with him like equals by The Odyssey’s end, and the suitors in Ithaca are now no more dangerous then the dirt beneath his feet.
Odysseus’s first real test is his encounter with the townspeople of Cicone. This piratical raid represents a seemingly basic warrior instinct, greed. It’s the same greed that called Odysseus and his men to Troy and away from the peace of Ithaca. Their attack on Cicone parallels their reasons for going to war, or their hunger for spoils from a sacked and looted city. When they divide up the loot evenly, all goes according to plan. Yet when they make the mistake of remaining in town to seize everything they can, the Cicones regroup and drive them away. Here Odysseus learns an important lesson, not to be greedy in victory. This displays slight remorse for abandoning his family and is his first step on the road to humility. Against the Lotus-Eaters Odysseus faces the sin of sloth, yet his intense love for exploration and active nature render him immune to their temptation. While several of his men eat the fruit and forget their homecoming, the rest leave unfazed.
One of Odysseus’s most difficult trials occurs on the island of Polyphemus, where a starving Cyclops kidnaps him and his crew. They are imprisoned to be eaten, one by one, in a dark cave with a herd of sheep and a boulder blocking the entrance. Odysseus cannot move the rock, and cannot kill Polyphemus in his sleep without being trapped forever. Furthermore, the Cyclops is too powerful to fight one-on-one even with Odysseus’s prodigious physical strength. Previously Odysseus had only used his cunning as a complement to his battle prowess, ultimately relying on his skill as a warrior. This is the first lesson Odysseus learns on the island: to overcome his dependence on might and rely solely on wit to think himself out of problems. He devises a clever plan, first making sure the Cyclops only knows him by the name of “Nobody.” Then he gets Polyphemus dead drunk and pokes out his eye with a burning branch. When the Cyclops calls for help he is ignored, as he can only say “Nobody’s attacking me!” From here on, Odysseus constantly calls on his ingenuity to overcome dangerous situations.
For the second phase of his scheme, Odysseus smuggles his men out as they cling to the bellies of Polyphemus’s sheep. And here he learns his second lesson from the island, arguably his most important. While he and his crew make their getaway from the island, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus for his failure and revels in his resourcefulness. The enraged and blinded Cyclops hurls boulders into the ocean, creating swells that nearly ground the ship. Although they escape, Odysseus and his men all nearly die because of his bragging. Furthermore, Polyphemus’s father Poseidon vows revenge on Odysseus for his deeds and curses him to wander the seas for ten years, losing all his crew and only returning home with the aid of others. Odysseus begins to realize that his own arrogance places him in trouble, and that growing out of it is necessary to mature as a person. Although hubris still afflicts him on every leg of his journey, this lesson is Odysseus’s first step on the road to humility.
Odysseus, indomitable, faces even more challenges along the way to Ithaca. He displays willpower and respect for powerful forces by only opening the bag of winds as directed by Aeolus. During his encounter with Circe, he triumphs (where his crew failed) against lust in the face of extraordinary beauty. The Sirens represent another flaw to overcome: his uncontrollable wanderlust, and his desire to experience everything possible. He devises a clever plan, plugging the ears of his crewmen while lashing himself to the mast—thereby avoiding suicide while still hearing the songs of the entrancing creatures. From this experience he learns how to rely on others, but also that he must always keep his final goal in mind. He can’t stray too far from his path or he will never return home. The death of the rest of his crew after eating Helios’s sun cattle is the last straw. Although he only experiences the trial secondhand, he still feels sorrow at their deaths and so gains patience and the ability to resist temptation.
All of these new, positive qualities come together in the closing act, when our hero finally reaches Ithaca. Here Odysseus tests characters for the very same virtues that he’s acquired throughout his escapades. Against the shape-shifted Athena, he combines ingenuity with humility by addressing her as a superior while concocting an incredibly detailed alibi. He tests his son Telemachus for love and kindness, and then instills patience in him by concocting a cleverly delayed revenge scheme. His disguise as a beggar represents his ultimate victory over hubris, using the humblest form imaginable to finally overcome the suitors and win back his wife and his kingdom. And finally, the readers cheer Odysseus on as he takes his place amongst the annals of literature as a champion.
This is The Odyssey’s subtle genius: while Odysseus himself is not of aware of his gradual changes, the readers perceive his evolution and subconsciously improve their opinions of him. Whether or not Odysseus has become a paragon of virtue by the end of the epic, the audience believes that he has. His enduring status today as a legendary hero stems from this belief. If Odysseus hadn’t grown from his trials, people would still consider him to be flawed and The Odyssey would no longer be a classic. And The Odyssey’s influence on storytelling cannot be overstated: every major work of literature to date is built around a challenging adventure rife with conflict. It is therefore the tests themselves that make The Odyssey so salient and so significant in today’s society. The trials and tests define the story, or as many have said, “It’s not about the destination…it’s about the journey.”