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Characters of odysseus
Characters of odysseus
Character analysis of odysseus in the odyssey
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Characters of odysseus
Characters of odysseus
Character analysis of odysseus in the odyssey
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
While Andrei Konchalosvsky attempts to stay true to Homer’s The Odyssey, he extracts certain scenes which minimizes Odysseus’ incisive and prideful comportment. After Odysseus and his men impale the cyclops’s eye, the film simply shows them quickly sneaking out once the boulder is out of the way. However, in the epic poem, the audience is proffered evidence on Odysseus’ cunningness by describing how he devised a plan to use the sheep to escape the cave.
In the book, the Odyssey, written by Homer, it is set all around the Mediterranean sea. The protagonist, Odysseus, is considered a hero. He left his family the day his son was born, to fight in the Trojan War. It took him twenty years to get back home. He fought just to get back to his island with his family.
Many people can agree that firefighters, policemen, and soldiers are heros. They all share similar redeeming qualities. Selflessness, bravery even when they’re scared out of their minds, and compassion. Saving people that they have never met, sticking to the moral code, and risking their lives for a greater cause. Whether it be saving one person, or saving hundreds.
Odysseus was very prideful in the beginning, as he had to credit himself for blinding Polyphemus. However, Odysseus’s character is developed on his difficult journey home. Heatherington says “Odysseus must deal not only with arrogant suitors and bad servants, but also with his own anger, pride, and sorrow” (Heatherington 227). This quote shows how Odysseus must deal with internal and external problems throughout his quest and on Ithaca. His transformation in character is visible when he lets himself be embarrassed in his own home as a beggar.
Many of these traits that George has are the same to Odysseus. He was a commander for his army while sailing to Troy. Troy was an enemy towards Ithaca. Also, Odysseus had just as many hardships as George. He got sent away from his family battling Troy.
In the epic tale The Odyssey by Homer, we are introduced to Odysseus, King of Ithaca. Odysseus is on a journey to get back to his wife and son. Throughout his journey, he runs into many challenges that attempt to stop him from getting reaching his destination. We learn about many of his traits as we travel with him on his journey. When he finally reaches home all of his traits become clear: his strength, arrogance, wit, charm, and courage.
Odysseus’s Traits Throughout the Odyssey, the main character Odysseus goes on an epic adventure with his focus being to get home to his wife Penelope, and his son Telemachus. He faces many obstacles dealing with characters such as the Cyclopes, Poseidon, Aeolus, Athena, Helios, Calypso, Zeus, Hermes, Scylla, and Circe. Odysseus’s men are some of the most valuable people to him throughout the Odyssey. He always puts himself in front of danger for them to protect them even though they all died from an unexpected turn of events soon before he returns home. When Odysseus comes home he greets his twenty year old son and straightens things out on his homeland, Ithaca.
Odysseus is one of the most legendary heroes since ancient times. He is the type of person you picture when you hear the word “hero”. He is extremely noble and brave, but sometimes his other traits are overlooked. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus shows attributes of cleverness, altruism, and courage, and the use of these characteristics could be perceived as heroic or the opposite. Odysseus demonstrates profound cleverness throughout the book.
When Odysseus was in the underworld , and he met up with his mother, she talked to him about all that was going on in Ithaca before she had passed away. She told him that she had been very sad, and crying over her days, and suffering waiting for his return. She continues to tell him that no one has taken over his royal rights yet, so if he returns he would still be in control. She then told him about his father, and that he keeps a farm, and how he never goes to the town. There was a part of this explanation about Odysseus’s father that I did not quite understand.
In the Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus possesses several character traits. He is portrayed as a great hero who excels in many different fields. Throughout the story, Homer emphasizes how admired Odysseus is. For example, King Nestor says to Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, “Your father, yes, if you are in fact his son… I look at you and a sense of wonder takes me” (3.137-138). There are a few different occurrences when Odysseus is in need of help and receives it.
Odysseus has many trials throughout his adventure. The Homeric usual hero is what he is set up as but unlike most of them he redefines himself. Homer’s creation of Odysseus as a dynamic character through the stories within stories and conflict explores the importance of the evolution of characters despite his apparent hero status within Greek culture Odysseus displays a strong hubris in the first parts of the Odyssey which would fit his reputation as the famous war hero he is. This turns to become a burden on him, he is determined and cares for his men yet his selfish and arrogant behavior cost him those men.
After Odysseus returns from his encounter with Circe, a beautiful witch-goddess who drugs and bewitches Odysseus’s most able crewmen, his men are more than relieved to see him and they flock around him as if he is their master and their shepherd. Odysseus is a man who is respected by his crew and treated as a mortal god by the heavens above. As shown in this scene, his men are stuck in the middle of a cross road without his guidance, pivoting towards all directions but incapable of moving forward with a plan. They are “wailing and crying besides [the] sailing ship”(10.433) without any sense of hope and direction in life. They are missing a leader who will lead them in war and guide them back home; they are missing Odysseus.
In a lot of fiction stories, there is a heroic character. Odysseus for example, is a heroic character. He exhibits those qualities because of the god he is. Odysseus world was harsh. A world familiar with violence.
Character Descriptions Odysseus– The main character in the Odyssey. He is the King of Ithaca, the husband of Queen Penelope, father of Prince Telemachus, and son of Laertes. He is a cunning war hero that has been trying to return home for 20 years. Poseidon delays his journey home every chance he can and Athena tries to help Odysseus return. Penelope– Wife of Odysseus and mother of Prince Telemachus.
In The Penelopiad, he is characterized as almost the opposite. Penelope states that she “had inklings, about his slipperiness, his wiliness, his foxiness…, his unscrupulousness, but [she] turned a blind eye” (Atwood 3). She claims that he was a cheat, a liar, and a thief. Before starting this novella, I had a clear image of Odysseus; but, now I have no idea who he truly is as a character.