Why Is Odysseus A Greek Hero

Melody Beattie once said, “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” This is what Odysseus had to learn after he did not thank the gods for the Trojan war victory due to his pride. According to Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, “the Greek hero was born of royalty. The Greek hero was braver, taller, handsomer, stronger, than all else. He was liked universally. Songs of praise were sung about him. He won every duel. He was feared by his opponents and acclaimed by his folk, …but was characterized by “Hamartia, or the inherent “fatal” flaw, this finally brought about his downfall, resulting in pathetic tragic end/death.” Odysseus should be considered a Greek hero because he was noble with

Others might say that Odysseus did not achieve extreme feats, he just lived through a long journey that was guided by a god that was mad at him. But this is incorrect because the things he was guided to were very hard to defeat. The first extreme feat he defeated was the lotus eaters. This is an island that has the god Morpheus on. Morpheus is the god of sleep and dreams. When he was young he asked aunt Persephone to make him a flower that makes sleep. So when Odysseus’ ship landed on the island, they all got off, ate the flowers, and slept. This is said in the book The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin, “The men awoke and smelled the warm, honey smell of the flowers and ate them in great handfuls - like honeycomb - and fell asleep again.” When Odysseus woke up he realized what was going on and had the willpower to drag everyone back to the ship and start sailing again. This was an extreme feat that tested his willpower to the limit. The second extreme feat that Odysseus survived was Scylla and Charybdis. After his crew convinced him that the sun God's cattle were stags. The sun God then complained to Zeus and he struck the ship with a huge lightning bolt. Odysseus was the only one that survived. He drifted back the way he came which was through the strait that Scylla and Charybdis sat. The Adventures of Ulysses book says, “He kept his footing in the raft until the very

He fought for his honor with his kingdom and family, the Gods, and Circe. He survived getting his kingdom back, Scylla and Charybdis, and the Lotus Eaters island. And finally, he was very noble with his fatal flaw (pride) to the point that he admitted that he did something wrong. Throughout all of his travels I think the moral of it is gratitude. Because as Melody Beattie once said “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for