Odysseus As An Epic Hero In Homer's Odyssey

Joseph Campbell once said, ”the cave you most fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”.This ideology of confronting one's inner fears through obstacles and becoming more powerful each time, propels the hero of the story to become an epic hero at the end of their journeys of self-discovery. Odysseus in The Odyssey recited by Homer was certainly not exempt from the title of ‘Epic Hero’ due to his skills and his sympathizable traits’ and his fantastical adventures back to home . While some may say The Odyssey is a tale of Odysseus piecing his life together with adventures that could have easily been avoided, but he faced due to his bereft of forethought, Odysseus is an epic hero nonetheless for his divine physical abilities with the incorporation

However, his gifted powers had to be toiled for by Odysseus through the trials for which the gods then decided to take sides with him and help him out. For example, when Odysseus’ men were turned to pigs, Odysseus went to “confront Circe… Hermes gives him the magical plant roots… called moly… only a god could extract the roots of such plants… and warned him of the witches tricks” (circe,Lines 270-81). Hermes’ contribution of the moly plant which is laborious to find and extract shows us that the gods are swayed by Odysseus’ actions of how he felt obliged to save his men and they believed he is one to deserve such power. The protection and support of the immortals also tells us that the quests and the adventures he was going through weren’t of small matter but ones that a mere mortal cannot perform himself. In addition, Odysseus had the support of “Father Zeus [who] will grant our old wish” along with “Athenas’ support…in the face of battle… be brave Telemachus” even though they ”do not interfere with mortal men’s issues” (page 1034-5). This illustrates how Odysseus has the backing of the gods even though they never interfere with such issues, he has convinced them to support his personal vendetta. If it were to be a person fixing his life there would be no necessity or need for a god to interfere and help out especially in advancing one's interests. Odysseus is sometimes misinterpreted as being a person piecing his life together and doesn't show any hero like characteristics, however, they are oblivious to the fact that if he were piecing his life he wouldn't need supports of otherworldly beings and the gods interferences which make him fit the archetypes of