Is Odysseus a Hero? The hero’s journey is a route most heroes take. In all stories, there’s always a hero to save the day. A “hero” isn’t simply defined, rather a multitude of attributes goes into the making of a hero. Throughout Odysseus’s adventures he shows the reader his heroic qualities as we learn about his strengths, weaknesses, and other personality traits. The most important components of a hero are the journey they take, their leadership, and the change they show over the story. In the Odyssey, Homer illustrates how a hero isn’t just someone who defeats the villain to save the city, but rather something much more complex by displaying Odysseus as the hero. Heroes often …show more content…
Using his skills and good intuition, he saves his crew countless times. The first example of his excellent leadership is during book 9. “Nobody—that’s my name. Nobody— so my mother and father call me, all my friends” (Book 9 Page 148). This would trick Polyphemus to tell Poseidon, the god of the sea, to hunt down nobody. This would save his crew from being attacked by the gods. With this information, Poseidon will have nobody to go after. His leadership and excellent decision making was demonstrated here. Later in the story he faced a difficult choice, to tell or not tell his crew about the siren’s song. Odysseus was smart to neglect the details of what was approaching him and his crew. Instead of having his entire crew abandon him because they were afraid, he didn’t tell his crew. His decision resulted in the death count of his crew being minimized to six. Before the death of all his crew, he tried to stop them from eating Apollo's sacred cattle. However, his crew was plagued with hunger and couldn’t fight the urge to eat which resulted in their …show more content…
Odysseus authenticates his status as a hero using three key traits: the journey he takes, his excellent leadership, and his ability to change. Loses happened, and mistakes occurred. But, what kind of hero doesn’t make mistakes? They make mistakes, and they learn from them. The Odyssey teaches that a hero isn’t just somebody showered with heavenly power, or a warrior with an undefeated record in the arena. Heroes are complex, and the way they are portrayed in typical stories strays away from what a true hero is. They aren’t perfect, and no hero is, and for all these reasons, Odysseus is in fact, a