A True Hero?
Imagine you are sent off to fight a war in a far-off land for ten years away from your family, home, and friends. Now that is already bad but imagine if after the war is over it takes you ten more years to get home. This is what it is like for Odysseus’s men in The Odyssey by Homer, except for the fact that the only person who survives is Odysseus. The Odyssey is an epic poem written around 725-675 BCE. The poem is about a man named Odysseus. He is the king of the Greek city state Ithaca. The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’s journey home from the Trojan war. He and his men fought in Troy for ten years and the journey home took them ten more years. Some believe that Odysseus should be considered a hero. A hero is someone
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A sudden buffet seized us
and hurled us back to sea, the wrong direction,
far from our home. (The Odyssey 10.46-50)
The men believed Odysseus was hiding treasure from them, so they opened the bag causing them to blow in the opposite direction away from Ithaca. His men do not trust him. The fact that the men believe that Odysseus would be hiding treasure from them shows that Odysseus does not have their trust. Lacking his men's trust is an unbelievably bad thing for Odysseus. Further proving he is a terrible leader and not a hero. If he were one, his men would trust him and not question if he is hiding things from them. Besides the lack of trust Odysseus is a bad leader because he does not seem to care if they die. For example, when Odysseus and his men arrive at Laestrygonia. Home of the Laestrygonians. Odysseus chooses two men and one salve to go and investigate the island. Odysseus has no idea if the Laestrygonians are dangerous. Yet he sends the men to investigate the islands. Odysseus states,
I picked two men, and one slave as the third,
and sent them to find out what people lived
and ate bread in this land. They disembarked
and walked along a smooth path, where the