The Heroism In Odysseus Of Homer's The Odyssey

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The Odyssey is a fantastic story full of interesting characters, conflicts, and theme. The Odyssey was written by Homer who was a blind poet. It was written in the 8th century B.C during a time of Greek god worship. With intricate characters, exciting conflicts, and an impressive theme the Odyssey is an amazing book for anyone. Odysseus showed the heroism of a mighty hero buy his heroism was not without foibles. The setting of this story is the cave that the Cyclops lived in. The setting gives a feeling of despair and darkness which was not important to the story. Attributes Odysseus shows are leadership, courage, cunning, but also a lack of self-control. The main fallible Odysseus shows is taunting the Cyclops even after he had defeated …show more content…

The main conflict Odysseus runs into is the Cyclops. The Cyclops traps Odysseus and his crew in his cave and devours four of Odysseus’ men.”Neither reply nor pity . . . made his meal of the men.” Odysseus who became enraged by this stabs the Cyclops in the eye. “Just so that eyeball hissed around the spike.” Odysseus shows rash behavior because of the Cyclops killing of his men. The conflict is resolved when Odysseus and his crew are able to escape the Cyclops. The result of the resolution was that no more of his men would be killed by the Cyclops. Odysseus ran into conflict but wisdom and cunning helped him resolve them. In the story of the Cyclops Homer’s theme is intelligence rules over brute strength. Odysseus uses brilliant wisdom to overpower the might of the Cyclops. Homer shows that with Odysseus’ careful tactics he was able to beat even the mightiest of people. Homer also teaches that if one cannot keep their cool wisdom and strength are nothing. Odysseus who watched his men be cannibalized by the Cyclops but was patience for his right time to escape. Even in a story like the Odyssey we can learn much of what Homer tries to show us. The Odyssey was truly a story that entailed interesting characters, a strong plot, and a worthwhile theme. Written by Homer in a time of pagan worship it reflects the period in which it was written. What do you think about the