Theme Of Hubris In The Odyssey

Do people really learn from their mistakes? When history is studied, a pattern emerges that shows that history repeats itself. People ask, is it possible to break that cycle? This pattern could be compared to Odysseus, the main protagonist in Homer’s The Odyssey, who quite frankly makes many mistakes and fails to learn from most of them. Throughout the story, Odysseus lets his hubris dictate his actions causing a great deal of loss and pain for him. His ego gets overinflated and causes the gods to punish him for many years. The god to deal out this punishment would be Poseidon. However, throughout the story Odysseus changes from discrediting the gods, to accepting them. Homer conveys that personal growth is caused by transformative events which

In Book 9, Odysseus and his men encounter a giant that they manage to escape from due to Odysseus’ cleverness. Odysseus reminds them of this in Book 12, “But even from there my courage,/ my presence of mind and tactics saved us all” (Homer 12.229-230). However, he neglects the fact that his “courage” also landed them into this predicament with the sirens and the vile beasts known as Charybdis and Scylla. He continues to think he can get past the unpassable and it further inflates his hubris which causes him to be irrational and it never leads to good things for his crew or himself. Also, Odysseus is not paying attention when Circe explains the dangers that lay ahead of him. Odysseus believes that defeating these vile beasts is doable, “Deadly Charybdis–can’t I possibly cut and run from her” (Homer 12.124). Odysseus thinks that after getting past Polyphemus, he can get past any other divine or godly being even when many of his men died. Odysseus continues to let these past events inflate his hubris which then dictates his thoughts, decisions, and

Odysseus is only able to win the battle against the suitors due to the gods being on his side. When he is instructing his staff he remarks, “These men the doom of the gods has brought low” (Homer 22.438). Odysseus acknowledges that the fate of the men who he is fighting against are controlled by the gods. He is admitting that it was not solely him who killed off those men but the gods as well, indirectly acknowledging that the gods were responsible for his victory which is a drastic contrast to his early hubristic tendencies which was exemplified in his speech after his victory against Polyphemus. Also, Odysseus is outnumbered during the battle in book 22. However, he leaves his fate to the gods, “Rescue us, Mentor, now it is life or death!” (Homer 22.217). Odysseus is asking Mentor, who is secretly Athena, to rescue them while in the middle of a fight. Odysseus is acknowledging that he in fact does need the support of the gods which is a contrast to his former self giving himself all the