The Hero Odysseus

The Hero Odysseus
Homer’s Odyssey is an epic tale that shows us the struggle of one man who is known as Odysseus, and his ten-year struggle to return home to his wife after fighting in the Trojan War. Along the way he is faced with many challenges, and the decisions he makes shapes his fate, his life, and the lives of his crew aboard his ship. During his journey, he makes good and bad decisions such as blinding Cyclopes, leaving the mystical bag of winds unguarded, and building the Trojan horse to win the war.
Of all Odysseus’s bad choices, the worst is that he decided to blind the Cyclopes Polyphemus, son of Neptune, the god of the sea and storms. This causes Neptune to focus much of his rage upon Odysseus, and this leaves Odysseus stranded on a remote island with Calypso. “Bear in mind, however, that Neptune is still furious with Ulysses for having blinded an eye of Polyphemus king of the Cyclopes. Polyphemus is son to Neptune by the nymph Thoosa, daughter to the sea-king Phorcys; therefore though he will not kill Ulysses outright, he torments him by preventing him from getting home.” (Homer, 4) Odysseus’s choice here causes Odysseus to remain stranded on the island with Calypso, and if it were not for Zeus’s daughter Minerva pleading for intervention Odysseus would never have made it off the island.
One of Odysseus’s good choices was his decision to build the Trojan horse. “I have never seen such another man as Ulysses. What endurance too, and what courage he displayed within the wooden horse, wherein all the bravest of the Argives were lying in wait to bring death and destruction upon the Trojans.” (Homer, p. 25) Odysseus shows his courage and cunning ability to destroy Troy. Helen tells Odysseus’s son of his heroic tale: “I cannot indeed name every single one of the exploits of Ulysses, but I can say what he did when he was before Troy, and you Achaeans were in all sorts of difficulties. He covered himself with wounds and bruises, dressed himself all in rags, and entered the enemy’s city looking like a menial or a beggar.” (Homer, p. 25) His decision to dress up as a beggar in the city to gain information and build the wooden horse proves to be one the best decisions this hero makes in the epic poem. Finally, the last of Odysseus’s bad choices is when he decides to fall asleep while out to sea with the mystical bag of winds unguarded. This mysterious bag proves to be too much mystery for his men who decide to open the bag and allow all the winds to come out and blow the ship off course. ““Thus they talked and evil counsels prevailed. They loosed the sack, whereupon the wind flew howling forth and raised a storm that carried us weeping out to sea and away from our own country. Then I awoke, and knew not whether to throw myself into the sea or to live on and make the best of it; but I bore it, covered myself up, and lay down in the ship, while the men lamented bitterly as the fierce winds bore our fleet back to the Aeolian island.” (Homer, p. 40) While the text reads that Odysseus was “dead beat” and fell into a “light sleep” he managed to forget that he had left the pouch with the winds unguarded, and his choice here shows his lack of detail causes him to be blown completely off course.
All of Odysseus’s choices provide a positive outlook on this hero in the epic poem the Odyssey. While Odysseus makes good and bad choices, he is only human. Unlike Achilles, Odysseus was not given the choice between a short life filled with recognition and fame, or to live a long life filled with no recognition or fame. Achilles was able to make that choice whereas Odysseus did not get to choose his ultimate fate. Through Odysseus’s courage in the Trojan War, and his sheer determination to make it back to his wife and home proves that Odysseus was really a noble hero one with which to be exalted. Alas, Jove said, “How can I forget Ulysses than whom there is no more capable man on earth, nor more liberal in his offerings to the immortal gods that live in heaven?” (Homer, p. 4)

Works Cited
Homer. “Odyssey”. World Literature Anthology through the Renaissance. APUS ePress. Charles Town, WV, 2011. 3-125, Print.
Homer. “The Iliad”. World Literature Anthology through the Renaissance. APUS ePress. Charles Town, WV, 2011. 127-193, Print.

Cited: Homer. “Odyssey”. World Literature Anthology through the Renaissance. APUS ePress. Charles Town, WV, 2011. 3-125, Print. Homer. “The Iliad”. World Literature Anthology through the Renaissance. APUS ePress. Charles Town, WV, 2011. 127-193, Print.