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Heroes Always Sacrifice In Homer's Odyssey

729 Words3 Pages

Melissa Díaz
Heroes Always Sacrifice
Part of being a hero is having to make sacrifices. Sacrificing sometimes includes having to watch your men being violently mauled by a cyclops. Or maybe meeting your son for the first time 20 years after he was born. Even if a hero could choose, they would proceed anyway because that is what a real hero does. They sacrifice. Although there are many themes in The Odyssey, the main theme is that heroes always make sacrifices. The theme is present in many ways throughout the epic poem, specifically in “The Lotus Eaters,” “The Cyclops,” and “Father and Son.” For example, in “The Lotus Eaters,” Odysseus made various sacrifices involving him and his men.
To begin with, the section, “The Lotus Eaters,” reveals the theme when Odysseus sacrifices the happiness of his men, their time to rest, and everyone’s safety so that they may continue their voyage home. When Odysseus and his men arrive at the island of the lotus eaters, he sends some of his men to explore the island. Those men ate some lotus offered to them by the inhabitants of the island. They didn’t want to leave the island, so to continue their journey home, Odysseus had no …show more content…

During the escape from the cyclops’ cave, Odysseus made all his men go first before he escaped. Odysseus sacrificed his safety for his men, which shows that heroes make sacrifices. Also, Odysseus sacrificed his way home. Odysseus teased the cyclops about how he was able to to defeat him. That angered the cyclops, so he cursed Odysseus and his men so that they wouldn’t be able to go home. Not to mention, Odysseus sacrificed some of his men’s lives so that he could get himself and the other living men out alive. The theme is expressed through Odysseus because he was forced to sacrifice some of his men to keep others alive. Not to mention, Odysseus made other sacrifices during the section, “Father and

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