The story that shaped history is an epic poem called The Odyssey, written by Homer. The story is about a hero named Odysseus who is on a journey home after winning the battle of Troy. It is revealed that Odysseus is a hero for having certain qualities such as compassion, cunningness, and bravery. Firstly, Odysseus shows his compassion by being sympathetic to his people more than himself. When they find themselves on the island of Apollo, Odysseus warns his people not to touch any of Apollo's flock. Odysseus’s people listened and ate whatever was on the ship or went fishing. Meanwhile, Odysseus ate barely anything. An example of this would be, Odysseus trying to protect his men at all costs, even starving himself when they had barely enough food. The people listened until they couldn’t take it any longer and decided to eat Apollo’s flock. As Odysseus puts it, “When, however, they had eaten all there was in the ship. for they were starving” (Homer 132-133). This display proves that Odysseus loves his men and would do anything for them, showing that he is compassionate. …show more content…
Odysseus tells his men to stay by the ship while he and others go to explore the Cyclop's home, which is a grave mistake. Many consider Odysseus not a hero for this very reason as he dealt with the cyclopes poorly but he survived using his cunningness. For example, despite his men’s worry, he decides to stay inside the Cyclops cave expecting a gift. While that was an awful choice, he made up for it with his cunningness. Odysseus said, “It would have been indeed better if we had done so but I would not listen to them, for I wanted to see the owner himself, in the hopes he might give me a present” (Homer 95). This proves that Odysseus regrets his choice but survives by using his cunningness to blind the Cyclops and hide underneath the sheep to