Honor In The Odyssey

Odysseus is known as a very honorable man recognized as brave, noble, and a hero in the Odyssey. He is described one way, but his actions are contradicting towards his distinguishable character. In Homer’s The Odyssey, it can be argued that Odysseus is too deceitful, narcissistic, and pretentious to be considered an honorable hero. To support this, I will be analyzing the use of the word “honor” in situations where Odysseus was described as a man with great honor by the gods.

Odysseus’s honor is first mentioned in Telemachus' yearning for his father’s return and the need for his great honor to take back control of his home in Book 1. Telemachus has idealistic views of his father knowing just what he was told about him because of Odysseus

In the Odyssey, Polyphemus prays to Poseidon asking for Odysseus to never go back home or return to his family too late and with no honor. This prayer comes true and his honor is no more once he returns to Ithaca, and the biggest aspect of this is through his narcissistic behavior. Odysseus is praised as the “most devoted and most loyal man (Homer 432)” to his crew and his wife when in reality he is a truly selfish character in the Odyssey. One form of selfishness Odysseus shows is adultery. Odysseus emphasizes the significance of a man and wife keeping a ‘harmonious’ household, but he continued to be unfaithful to Penelope on his journey on several different occasions. In Book 10, Circe comes across Odysseus and commands him to go to bed with her. Initially he resisted, but once Circe gave him what he wanted, he “went up to the dazzling bed of Circe (Homer 435).” Another example of his astray from Penelope, Odysseus is shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Scheria when he begs Nausicaa for aid. “He wondered, should he touch her knees, or keep some distance and use charming words, to beg the pretty girl to show him to the town, and give him clothes (Homer 389).” Using flattery to get his way, he goes on and on about calling her beautiful and goddess-like only flirting to get what’s best for him. His narcissism is prevalent in terms of his relationship with women and especially with his crew. He

People do not know of his actions, only his stories. An honorable person is the type of person who admits when they are wrong or shakes hands when they lose. Being pretentious is one of Odysseus’ not honorable mannerisms of acting as if he is more important than other. In Book 8, Odysseus is put in a conundrum of whether or not to partake in the Phaeacians' games. He decides to compete because he knows that he is the best. He would rather compete in the Phaeacians' games to prove his own egotistical power, even though it meant delaying his return home. Choosing to stay away longer is one of the many selfish choices of Odysseus on his journey, and just proves how pretentious he truly is. His popular taunts on others’ who he thought of as less worthy resulted in many consequences. As Odysseus fled after attacking Polyphemus, he called the Cyclops an idiot and told him "you had it coming (Homer 425)”. His crew replied with, “Why are you being so insistent and taunting this wild man? He hurled that stone and drove our ship right back to land. We thought that we were going to die (Homer 425).” Ignoring their plea for safety and survival, Odysseus shouted out again disregarding the consequences, resulting in the gods had “planned to ruin all of my ships and all of my loyal men (Homer 427).” Odysseus was wrong to have risk the lives of all