Traits Of An Epic Hero In Ody's Odyssey

1. One of the traits of an epic hero is that they are just ordinary people who overcome great challenges. Ody is not a god or a demi-god, but throughout the book he does things that no mortal man could do. He travels to the underworld and walks out alive, and he also is the only man who has listened to the songs of the Sirens and lived to tell it. On his journey he encounters many difficult tasks. Many of his men die to giants, cyclopes, and other unspeakable creatures, but he alone survives and reaches his home. When Ody is given advice, he takes it and stays true to it. When he and his men were trapped on Thrinacia with Helios’ cattle, he headed Tiresias warning and did not harm them at all. Ody´s men became desperate and killed some cows

An example of an external conflict is that he is cursed by Poseidon. Well that is a huge problem because Poseidon is the god of the sea and Ody kinda has to sail all the way home. Ody also has to deal with disloyal and treasonous shipmates. When he and his men sail from the Aeolian Island, Ody gets the gift of a bag of wind. Just when the ship is about to reach Ithaca, Ody´s men turn on him and try to open the bag. They think it is gold and want their split of it. Instead, the bag of wind sends them back to the island with no additional help from King Aeolus. The internal conflict Ody experiences here is that because of this major setback, he just wants to give up. He contemplates jumping overboard and just drowning himself. He quickly overcomes himself and starts his journey

I think that the main idea/value in the Odyssey is loyalty. Homer develops this idea throughout the epic by showing the consequences of being disloyal, as well as the rewards for staying true. Every character or group of characters that was disloyal to the main character is dead by the end of the book. Ody is a strong man who stays loyal to everyone who has never done him wrong. An instance of disloyalty in The Odyssey is near the end of the epic. Ody has just returned and needs to find the servants that he can trust. He gathers three people to help unfold his plan, and kills all of the suitors. Many of Ody´s old servants broke his trust by being loyal to the suitors while he was gone and colluding with them. The consequence for this disloyalty was a hanging, all of the servants who were helping the suitors died. Another instance of disloyalty was when Ody receives the gift of a bag of wind from King Aeolus. Ody´s men are not loyal because they don't trust that Ody will give them a fair share of riches upon return to Ithaca. They open his bag, hoping to find treasure that they can split while Ody is asleep, but instead they are sent all the way back to the Aeolian Island. Their disloyalty doesn't stop there though. When they are trapped by a storm of Thrinacia, Ody´s men disobey his one request for the island: Don´t harm Helios´ cattle. Because they touched the cattle that they were told to stay away from, they are all killed on Ody´s ship by Zeus. Because of their