Odysseus Pride In Homer's Odyssey

In Homer’s the Odyssey, Odysseus’ hubris is his pride. Odysseus is a self-made, self-assured man that prides himself on his tactical victories and conquests. Odysseus is the genius behind the Trojan Horse, the cunning man that outsmarted Polyphemus, the Suitors, and Circe. Odysseus is truly a man who can do it all. Odysseus ultimately wants his fate to be in his own hands. He wants his chances of success and failure to be solely dependent on himself. Even when Odysseus is helped by the Gods, he never lets them do the job for him. Odysseus doesn’t beg “Gods hear my plea…” or anything of the sort. Athena helps Odysseus because her “heart breaks” for Odysseus she is willing to go out of her way to help him in any way she can. Even the nymph suspects that Odysseus is being taken away from her by “unrivaled lords of jealousy”, which seems to be the case. Odysseus doesn’t allow Athena to take full control and fix the situation entirely. He instead asks Athena for guidance and an opportunity to be able to execute his ideas and plans. Fortunately, Odysseus was successfully with his nearly all of his plans, but these grand triumphs are slowly feeding his pride and ego.

Odysseus cried out to the Gods that he doesn’t need them. He then chose to not make a sacrifice to the Gods, to thank them for their help in the Greeks victory. Odysseus shows his hubris again when he blames the Argives situation solely on his men and calling them “mutinous fools” taking zero responsibility. In this scene Odysseus is self-centered, and displays obnoxious behavior while disrespecting all his men. His arrogance is most prominent during his encounter Polyphemus. Odysseus met Polyphemus and claimed his name was “No man”. During Odysseus’ escape he felt a little proud and arrogant and told him it was not “No man” who had blinded and fooled him, but rather “the cunning”