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Character Traits Of Odysseus In Homer's The Odyssey

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In the epic poem, The Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, has to face many obstacles on his way home to Ithaca. For example, Calypso holds Odysseus on her island for seven years, until Athena finally convinces Zeus to send Hermes to make Calypso let him go. Also, Circe, the sea witch, captures Odysseus; she turned half of his men into pigs! Odysseus has three major character traits that help him eventually get home. One good character trait is the fact that Odysseus is extremely courageous. He threatens Circe with a knife, hoping that the plant Hermes gave him will protect him from her magic. He also shows courage by stabbing Polyphemus, the cyclops, in the eye. That takes guts. Additionally, Odysseus gets past Charybdis and Scylla; that’s gutsy also because it’s nearly impossible to achieve without some fatalities (which happens). Finally, he showed courage by killing the hundred suitors; that’s four against one hundred. …show more content…

Way back, at the end of the Trojan War, he made the horse that secretly carried his men into the city so that he could kill his enemies. Also, when the cyclops traps him in his cave Odysseus finds a way to injure the cyclops without being caught by other cyclopes; He tells Polyphemus that his name is “Nohbdy”. He then stabs the cyclops in the eye, blinding him. Polyphemus screams as loud as he can, “Nohbdy, Nohbdy’s tricked me. Nohbdy ruined me!” The other cyclopes obviously believe that it was the Gods doing because “Nohbdy hurt him”. Additionally, he escapes the cave of Polyphemus in a very intelligent way; he and his men hide under the bellies of goats and

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It took every ounce of courage in Odysseus to trust in Hermes and eat the plant. Then led out the plan to make Calypso turn his crew back. This took a lot of bravery, strength, and courage. He didn’t know what to expect but did it anyways for the sake of his crew and for their families. Another way he was brave was when he was alone in the ocean floating on a piece of ship.

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Odysseus’ greed and desire to be treated as king causes Polyphemus to become enraged and hold his guests hostage. Polyphemus also began to devour his guests two-by-two and put Odysseus in danger, at his own fault. In seeing his greed, the reader can determine that Odysseus does not care for his men but only himself and his well being. In the execution of his plan to blind the cyclops, Odysseus launched the burning olive branch into Polyphemus’ eye as hard as he possibly could. After he lugged the branch in his eye, Odysseus proceeded to twist the branch and completely burn and destroy the cyclops’ eye ([374-380]).

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Odysseus is heroic, courageous, outrageous, bold, fearless, manful, and valiant. Odysseus is heroic because he tricked the cyclops thinking that nobody was his name. Odysseus told his men to make a sharp spear and drop the spear in the cyclops eye so he can remove the giant rock and escape. Odysseus is fearless because him and his son killed the men that tried to take over his kingdom and marry his wife. Another thing is that Odysseus is bold because he made his son believe he was the father after the son did not believe him.

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He got him drunk and when he fell asleep his men gouged a sharpened beam into Polyphemus’ eye. Due to Polyphemus being blind, Odysseus and his men escaped by hiding under the Cyclops rams. When they reached by the ships Odysseus was bubbling at the thought of his successes. He was able to deceive a giant Cyclops with the power of his intelligence. He continued to taunt Polyphemus and throw insults at him, eventually shouting out his identity, “if ever mortal man inquire/ how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him/ Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye” (9.549-51).

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After he successfully exits the cave by blinding the cyclopes, he and his surviving men board the ship. As a result of his pride, he calls out to the monster, "If anyone asks who put out your eye, tell them it was Odysseus of Ithaca!”(Hinds 109). Considering the fact Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon, the cyclops calls out to him and therefore starts the troublesome voyage for Odysseus back home. When he returns to Ithaca he learns to control his hubris by replacing it with patience. Athena, the goddess of war and strategy, disguises Odysseus as a beggar because it is wisest to arrive in Ithaca without anyone being able to recognize him.

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The main character Odysseus in the Odyssey written by Homer is generally thought to be a great hero; however, he shows more traits of a quite flawed character on closer inspection. Around the beginning of Odysseus’ journey home after the war, Odysseus decides to take a detour to the home of a cyclops deciding to not listen to his men’s suggestions to leave while they still could; consequently, it does not end well: “Ah, how sound that was, Yet I refused. I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer no pretty sight it turned out, for my friend” (9.130-132). This thought by Odysseus shows that he realized his decision to go to the mysterious island wasn’t the most rational one and that his men’s pleas to leave were the better option, but he decides to be stubborn and place his curiosity before his men’s safety resulting in a non-heroic

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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.

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In The Odyssey Homer makes Odysseus’ journey to his beloved Ithaca excruciating. Odysseus encounters many friends and foes throughout his journey and has to be a leader throughout his experiences. As an example, he encounters Polyphemus and Poseidon, both of whom make his journey mentally and physically painful. Odysseus faces countless scenarios in which he has to save multiple people in those situations. He also encounters the suitors, who are a group of men that try to marry Penelope, when he returns to reclaim his home.

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During Odysseus’s journeys, while trying to find his way back home, he goes through many adventures showing off these characteristics of a hero. The first characteristic that Odysseus possessed, which shows he is an epic hero, is how brave he was. For instance, when Odysseus wanted to venture off to Circe and leave the island, it was Eurylochos that told him not to go without his

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When Odysseus is leaving the cyclops cave, his egotistical behavior is shown when he tells Polyphemus who hurt him. Odysseus screams to Polyphemus, “if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus, raider of cities, he

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Odysseus is an epic hero because of his bravery and confidence during every obstacle throughout his journey In Part 1 whie Odysseus is about to come across cyclops cave, he says “I brought along and victuals in a bag, for in my bones I knew some towering brute would be upon so soon- all outward power, a wild man, ignorant of civility. “ Odysseus is showing his bravery of not being petrified of what he might come across, like the cyclops. Odysseus has no intention of harming them, but he is not sure what their intention is. This example is important because not only does it show confidence in himself, he also shows confidence in his men. In Part 2 Odysseus also shows his confidence in his men in part 2 where Eurylochus says, “Are you flesh and blood, Odysseus, to endure more than a man can?

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