Modern Day Odyssey

The Odyssey Many people deem Odysseus to be an archetype hero. But was he really? Sure, he won many wars, but did he show the characteristics that matter? No!

Odysseus is a man, who has been working on going home for twenty years. He is a leader of his men, and will never give up until he gets to his goal or going home to his family. He is faithful to all his men, and he never deceived them. The faithful Odysseus is very hard working trying to help his men get home.

Odysseus was normally viewed as a strong, heroic figure, but those who knew him knew that there was more to him then just a hero. They knew that he could be very curious at times and almost willing to sacrifice anything to find out what he wanted to know. Along his twenty year journey away from home he encountered many different gods and monsters that faced him with trials and tribulations. Through these trials Odysseus’ strengths and weaknesses were exposed in several different ways. One of the first monsters that Odysseus and his men encountered were the cyclops.

In the epic tale The Odyssey by Homer, we are introduced to Odysseus, King of Ithaca. Odysseus is on a journey to get back to his wife and son. Throughout his journey, he runs into many challenges that attempt to stop him from getting reaching his destination. We learn about many of his traits as we travel with him on his journey. When he finally reaches home all of his traits become clear: his strength, arrogance, wit, charm, and courage.

Odysseus is a man of fine qualities and attributes, but he's also a man of flaws and imperfections. He is a hero and thats proven by the fact that he showed great amounts of intelligence and bravery when the ships were going awry and Odysseus was for only one to survive. But through all that he is also a fool, Odysseus makes a mistake telling the Cyclops his name after blinding him, which later gets him into trouble with the Cyclops father; Poseidon. Many events got Odysseus into trouble, but he somehow always found a loophole out of it.

Odysseus and his men travel from Troy back to Ithaca stopping at different islands along the way, running into strange monsters like the cyclops Polyphemus and angering the gods. When he assuredly returns to Ithaca, without his men, he has to fight and defeat the suitors who are trying to marry his wife Penelope. Odysseus’ men had a hard time returning back to their normal way of living when they stopped on the island of Ismarus. When they made it to the island they “...killed the men who fought. Plunder...”

Multiple times the protagonist is unable to resist his temptations towards women and is reminded of home only after no further interest in his lovers. This also shows his disloyalty not only to his crew but towards his wife. By his enemy- god’s will, he is held on Kalypso’s island. It takes Zeus’s messenger, Hermes, to convince her to let Odysseus go. But in the beginning of the book, he is not as sad when all the beautiful women on the island were surrounding him, as when Hermes arrived to rescue him.

Odysseus is extremely selfish by betraying his crew. His crew believes that Odysseus is trying to help them return home, when he is actually only concerned about himself.

The Odyssey reflects Greek virtues, and Odysseus is the role model for all

Aadarshini Vinod Das Kisatsky English 1 Honors 17 February 2023 “The Failure of Odysseus” The Odyssey by Homer explores Greek culture. It shows how following Greek culture and beliefs properly will lead to prosperity and happiness, but if a human chooses to live without the Greek values, he would suffer greatly. Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, learns this bitter truth as he faces many unnecessary dangers on his way home from the Trojan War because of his abundant pride. Those dangers cause him to suffer the loss of all his soldiers and his ships.

In addition, now Odysseus must face the wrath of the God Poseidon along his voyage. He now dedicates himself to ruining all chances of Odysseus getting back to Ithaca. After several years of perseverance, Odysseus finally reaches Ithaca only to

But there are many other character traits that can support that Odysseus is the hero of “Black Ships Before

Odysseus is brave and strong, worthy of all the titles given to him. However, what makes him the hero he is is his ability to change and continuously gain new wisdom. He comes home to Penelope almost physically the same, but the things his eyes have seen have changed him mentally. Odysseus is slow, patient, and more appreciative than ever. Reading Odysseus’s change and struggle throughout The Odyssey makes this superhuman and godly man much more

Odysseus came home to find suitors who were trying to marry his wife when he was away at war for 20 years. They have ruined his home and made it into a place of their own, all they wanted was the fame and power that Odysseus had and did not care to respect Penelope and Telemachus. When Odysseus finally revealed himself in the epic, he was able to get his revenge against the suitors. It has been long awaited but was able to kill them all including the fact that justice was served after all those years of their disrespect. Odysseus was able to put his revenge on the suitors when he found the opportunity after finding a way to disguise himself that way to gain trust from his people in his home.

In the book The Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, is a man who is loved and respected by many. In the beginning of the book, we learn that Odysseus has left on a journey and, since it has been many years since his departure, many people assume that he has passed. On his journey, he portrays his many traits, not all of them being good ones either. Some of his good traits include his cunning, bravery, and hard work ethic. On the other hand, his negative traits are his excessive pride, immense curiosity, and rather large temper.