What makes someone a hero? “A true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart” stated by Zeus from Hercules. The Odyssey by Homer is a 10 year struggle to return home after the Trojan War. Odysseus battles creatures and faces the fury of the Gods. While he is away, his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus, try to avert the suitors trying to win Penelope’s hand and Ithaca’s throne. Odysseus is not a hero because in the epic poem, he is disloyal to his wife, is selfish, and is apathetic to his crew’s safety. Odysseus is not a hero because while in Aeaea, Odysseus is intimate with Circe. After his crew opens the bag of bad wind, they get shipwrecked on Aeaea. Odysseus tells Eurylochus to fend for himself since he disobeyed his orders. Eurylochus brings a couple of the men with him and eventually wanders upon Circe’s castle, where she turns them into pigs. When Odysseus meets Circe, she gives him two options. Either kill her and the men stay as pigs or enter her bed with her and get his men turned back into humans. As stated in the epic poem, “She swore at once, out right, as I demanded, and after she had sworn, and bound herself, I entered Circe’s flawless bed of love”. …show more content…
For instance, when Telemachus was born, Odysseus left the island to go to war, leaving Penelope alone to care for Ithaca and their newborn child. He also stayed on Circe’s island for a year, not considering his Mother’s, Penelope’s or even his crew’s feelings or opinions. “Here in this house you turned my men to swine; now it is I myself you hold, enticing into your chamber” (Homer, 921). Lines 71 - lines 75 are important because they prove that Odysseus stayed on Circe’s island by choice, he was not forced to stay. Another example of him doing something by choice is being intimate with Circe. He was not forced to be intimate with her. He could have threatened her to change his men back and then be on his way, but he did