Odysseus's Heroism

Homer’s The Odyssey describes the story of the main character’s, Odysseus, 10 year journey traveling back to Ithaca from fighting in the Trojan War. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca is, in fact, the hero of the story. A hero is a person that is admired for his noble qualities, achievements, and his strength and courage. The traits that exemplifies his heroism also causes to have many problems throughout the poem which is justifiable because he is not perfect. He is mortal and flawed like every other human. Through his long and ultimately successful travels back home, Odysseus’s traits of dedication, bravery, and intelligence illustrate his heroism. Although it took Odysseus 10 years to get back to Ithaca; he never gave up. He always did anything he needed to get back home; no matter how difficult the circumstances were.

His strategic thinking and problem-solving mind gets him and his men through so many obstacles. A little earlier in the poem, Odysseus and his men had to face the Cyclops. Homer describes, “I poured him another fiery bowl—three bowls I brimmed and three he drank to the last drop, the fool, and then, when the wine was swirling round his brain,’” (Book 9, 404-406). When Odysseus and his men were talking to the Cyclops, Odysseus makes a plan to get the Cyclops drunk. When he got drunk and then fell asleep, Odysseus stabs his eye out. Because of Odysseus’ resourcefulness they were able to escape and continue their travels back to Ithaca. Odysseus’ dedication motivates himself and his men to keep on fighting to get back home. If never loses sight of what’s the main goal; getting back to his family. Because he is brave, his men are brave too. Finally, he would not have been able to get out of bad situations if he could not think on his feet. Although some of these attributes back fired on him, he is mortal and mortals make mistakes. He ultimately achieved his goal and returned to his