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Odysseus Character Traits

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What makes a character feel real? A character’s traits truly show the character’s personality which makes them more relatable allowing you to connect with the character. The Odyssey has one of the most intricate main characters I've seen in writing. Odysseus, the main character of The Odyssey, has many character traits that really influence how the story moves along. A lot of Odysseus’s traits help him succeed while others make him have more problems than he should. Some of these traits include his courage, his thirst for kleos, and his intellect.

Odysseus shows great courage throughout The Odyssey which makes him one of the warriors in the story. In book 1, it says that Odysseus went to fight in the war between the kingdom of Troy and …show more content…

Many Greek heroes gained glory from their adventures and the bravery they showed like Achilles. One of Odysseus’s character traits that got him into many problems is his quest for kleos. One way this is shown in the book was right after he escaped the cyclops in book 9. He called out to Polyphemus and told him to tell people that Odysseus was the one who blinded him and Odysseus was the one who overcame him but this caused Poseidon to be angry with him making his journey even harder than it already was. He also waited for Polyphemus to return because he wanted gifts to obtain glory instead of just raiding the cave like his men told him to. When the festival is held in Odysseus’s honor, in book 8, Brodsea calls him out and tells him to play in the games of strength and skill. Odysseus wanting the praise if he wins joins the games even though it might compromise who he actually is. A big way kleos is obtained is by defeating a challenging enemy like Perseus when he defeated the gorgon medusa. In book 12, Odysseus wanted to obtain glory by fighting Scylla but his responsibility for his crew stopped him, showing growth in his character from book 9 but, you can still tell that his thirst for kleos runs deep in his body. Even though Odysseus makes some bad decisions while wanting glory he is still a very smart and cunning

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