Characteristics Of Odysseus Being An Epic Hero

Jason Sierra

Professor Williams

5 October 2014

Word Count: 752

Odysseus: An Epic Hero The definition of a hero is a person with supernatural abilities at performing specific tasks that normal people cannot typically achieve. In the epic poem called “The Odyssey” written by a poet named Homer, there is a character named Odysseus who contains these characteristics. 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

These weaknesses make then epic in the way that they show how every human can have them, but some use them in a beneficial manner. The first weakness that stood out was Odysseus’s cockiness. This arrogance can be found after the defeat of the Cyclops when Odysseus began to taunt creature shouting at him. He basically told the defeated Cyclops that when anybody asked who poked out his eye, he is to tell them it was Odysseus. His crew tried to get Odysseus to move forward, but he had to show his dominance. The second weakness of the great Odysseus was that he had a bad anger management problem. His temper truly showed when he almost cut off the head of Eurylochos when he said he would not go back to Circe’s house. Odysseus would have lost a good comrade if his crew did not stop him to make Odysseus realize his temper had sent in and took over him. The last weakness of Odysseus was a characteristic of lust in which he showed against Circe his lover. They were lovers for seven years. Since Circe and Odysseus stayed together, he wanted to go back to his home of Ithaca. All of these weaknesses show how Odysseus is still human and is not perfect, but a hero does not have to perfect. An epic hero

Odysseus is most definitely very clever in the way he can think through a circumstance and execute a plan or mission. An example showing Odysseus’s cleverness is when he ran into an incident with the Cyclops. In order to save his men safely from the Cyclops, Odysseus gave the Cyclops wine in order to move past it. It was key that Odysseus did this at the right time or else the plan would not have worked properly. The wine made the Cyclops drunk allowing the men to poke out the Cyclops’ eyes. The plan was executed perfectly allowing Odysseus and his men to move past safely out of the Cyclops’ cave. Odysseus also showed how smart he was when the Cyclops asked for Odysseus’s name. He said his name was Norman in order to not reveal his true identity in case there was a future incident with another Cyclops. Looking back to when the Cyclops was getting his eye poked out, another Cyclops was summoned due to the loud shouts from the first one. This showed how clever it was that Odysseus did not reveal his real name because then both Cyclops would