Odysseus as an Epic Hero
Homer, who was a blind bard, which is a minstrel who recited long poems about heroes of archaic time periods. In his epic, The Odyssey, he presents an epic hero that displays the qualities that are valued by the society from which he comes. Homer’s hero, Odysseus, is often referred to throughout the epic, as “Laertes’s son”, and “raider of cities”. Odysseus was the King of a Greek island named Ithaca. He was also a famous Trojan War hero due to his bravery and for his intelligent idea to end the ten year bloodshed at the city of Troy, by building a massive wooden horse and hiding Greek soldiers inside of the horse. The Trojans thinking that the horse was a gift of surrender by the Greeks, they brought the horse inside the mighty walls of Troy, when the Trojans fell asleep the Greeks slaughtered the people. By studying Odysseus’s reactions in the various adventures of The Odyssey, the modern reader can hypothesize that the Greek society of 900 B.C. valued the following characteristics; emotion, beauty, and loyalty in their heroes. It seems obvious that Homer’s society must have insisted that their heroes have emotion as a characteristic. Odysseus shows this quality when the bard Demodocus sang about Odysse
The Greek society also strongly appreciate when their hero is beautiful. Odysseus shows the quality of beauty when Athena changed Odysseus from an old beggar to a hero. Even his son does not believe it is Odysseus because he is so beautiful, Telemachus thinks he is a god (BL. 1426). This shows that the Greek people liked to envision pretty people, it is the same way with Americans heroes today. Not one hero in any movie is not easy to look at. This also shows that the Greeks envisioned the gods as beautiful people as well, not one god even Hades is ugly. Odysseus shows the characteristic of beauty again when, Athena changed his appearance when Odysseus was talking to Penelope, it says “She made him tall and crisper too, with crisping hair... all red golden.” ( BL. 1890). This shows that the Greeks wanted him to be like he was when he first left his home. None of the beauty changing was needed it was just because the people wanted it that way that it was so. It also shows that the people want more conflict in the story because, by his beautiful appearance Penelope might be skeptical and want more proof. It is clear that the Greek community needed beauty, because they couldn’t stand for their role model and their hero to be ugly. In Odysseus’s adventures he uses leadership as one of his many good traits. Odysseus displays leadership when Charybdis who was a giant hole in the sea that swallowed and vomited the sea three times a day. Odysseus calmed them while they were terrified (BL. 1292). This shows that Odysseus was always there for his crew and would never forsake them. He resembled Jesus a little bit when Jesus and his disciples were in a ferocious storm
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Approximate Word count = 1140
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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