Odysseus: An Obstacle Of Epic Heroes In Homer's Odyssey

Written in the late 8th century by Homer, Odysseus, the pinnacle of epic heroes in Greek literature, has become literature’s piece of clay and has been molded and adapted to what we find relevant in our society, who has also withstood the test of time. In The Odyssey, Homer’s protagonist Odysseus recounts his adventures getting back from the Trojan War and trying to get back home to Ithaca. Much like Odysseus, a hero modeled after Odysseus in modern culture is J.K. Rowling’s own Harry Potter. In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry finds himself in J.K. Rowling’s equivalent of Odysseus’s situations. Odysseus. the modeling clay of literature, finds himself sharing multiple characteristics with Harry Potter, such

In particular, when Odysseus gazes upon the monstrous mouth of the Scylla, Odysseus thinks, “My men all blanched against that yawning mouth in fear of being devoured,” (12.188). Odysseus sees his men in fear of being devoured, so he rallies them and raises their morale. In doing so the men go into meeting the Scylla with better and happier thoughts. In addition, when Harry is the bishop in the larger scale of wizard’s chess, his life is constantly in danger because Harry just wants to protect Hogwarts from someone misusing the sorcerer's stone. When Ron is down from a knight’s move, Harry rationalizes the fact that if he and Hermione were to help him, Ron’s effort would be for naught. Knowing this, Harry and Hermione keep playing, keeping in mind they were helping many other students. When the game is finally over, Harry discovers the truth and saves Hogwarts as well as the wizard world from the misuse of the stone.This journey may have injured a select few, but this action saves many others in the wizard world.

Harry and Odysseus, despite their differences on the surface, they both have traits and characteristics in common which makes them great heroes in their world. Harry, much like Odysseus battles himself in terms of whether he will be the very best there ever was, combats demons and creatures, as well as puts himself in danger for those who can’t fight back. These are all traits of heroes, whether they were written thousands of years ago to a modern day hero produced by comic books. All heroes, despite their differences on the surfaces are very