Mythic Heroism In The Odyssey

Mythic Heroism Saving a group of men from a man-eating Cyclops is quite an impressive feat. A feat only a Greek hero could do, a hero like Odysseus. Odysseus is from The Odyssey, an epic poem created by Homer. Odysseus is a hero, someone who does good deeds, who goes on a 10 year journey to find his way home. While Odysseus is a hero, he does have some shortcomings. Some view that Odysseus is actually not a hero, due to some of the unheroic things he’s done. Not everyone is perfect, however, and Odysseus is in fact a hero since his positive traits outweigh his negative ones.

Despite plenty of evidence pointing towards Odysseus being heroic, some believe he is in fact the opposite, an anti-hero. The opposition may have this point of view because

Polyphemus started eating some of Odysseus’ men, “[they got] snatched two at a once. rapping them on the ground, knocking them dead like pups” (9.324-325). This happened a whole three times. Odysseus couldn’t let this continue, so he used his leadership and wits to help his men escape. Our brave leader first got a long wooden pole and sharpened it, a good idea as Polyphemus was very large and they would need something long. He then got Polyphemus drunk with the wine he and his men brought to use as a bartering tool. An intelligent move, as a drunk foe is much easier to defeat than a sober one, albeit a bit less predictable. Polyphemus, now intoxicated, asked Odysseus for his name, which he replied to with, “Nobody, that’s my name. Nobody so my mother and father call me, and all my friends” (9.412-414). After Polyphemus fell asleep, the men heated up the pole and proceeded to stick it right in Polyphemus’ singular eye. Polyphemus awoke with a roar, and became screaming that “Nobody” was attacking him, causing his friends to believe that he was being struck with some plague from the Gods. This caused them to not bother coming, looking, and helping. During the confusion, Odysseus, “took them [sheep] three by three; each ram in the middle bore a man while the two rams either side would shield him well” (9.478-80). When the pinkish rays of dawn finally came, Odysseus and his crew snuck out pretending to be the

Odysseus had to pass through either the six headed monster Scylla, or try to get through a massive whirlpool named Charybdis, who ‘boomed [like] thunder” (12.219)esa, Odysseus decided to take the route of Scylla, to only potentially lose six men instead of losing his entire ship to the whirlpool. “I donned my heroic armor, seized long spears in both my hands and marched out on the half-deck/ [Scylla] swooping in to kill my men” (12.247-250). Odysseus going out to try and protect his men from an immortal creature may seem foolish, while that may be true it’s also incredibly heroic. Odysseus risked his life to try and give some moral back to his men, and have them feel brave and continue paddling. This singular act showed how brave and what a good leader he is. Risking his life to make his men feel better is