Odysseus As An Epic Hero In The Odyssey By Homer

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Twenty years of travel and hardship were no match for the determined epic hero, Odysseus of Ithaca. In the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus is a brave hero who is forced to wander for more than 20 years after the war with troy. Odysseus has many heroic traits that make him the epic hero that he is. Odysseus’s many adventure have captured the human imagination for over two millennia. Odysseus is clever, determined, bold, and overall a great example of an epic hero. Odysseus is clever at many points in the Odyssey in many different ways. For example,one time is when he is trying to escape the Cyclops and come up with a way to save them as shown in (9. 342-345) “I Tied them silently together…” he ties the sheep together to attach his …show more content…
An example of this is when he says, “So much for that, your clean cut game is over.” (22. 5-6). This shows that he is bold enough to stand up to his enemies. I think it is intelligent of him to say this because he is telling the suitors who he is without letting him figure out that it is him. In addition, he says, “O Cyclops! Would you feast on my companions?” (9. 395-396). This shows that although Odysseus is bold he is also sometimes foolish as well with all of his boldness and boasting. It was foolish of Odysseus to boast to the Cyclops and be bold in this situation because it almost got everyone on board killed by a huge boulder. Odysseus is bold when he says to the suitors, “You yellow dogs, you thought I’d never make it / home from the land of Troy.” (22. 37-38). This is a bold statement because the suitors still greatly outnumber him and yet he is already saying how they thought he would not return. This is not foolish exactly but slightly boastful of him because he has not yet slain them although he has the power to. The hero Odysseus may be bold which can be a good thing but the foolishness that comes with it is not as good.
Clever, Determined, and Brave, these are three of the traits that define Odysseus. Odysseus is clever and can get out of any situation. Also, he is determined to get home to his family. Finally, Odysseus is bold enough to challenge his enemies, but this also has the downside of him occasionally being foolish as he taunts his enemies, so like all people he has flaws and is not perfect. Odysseus is clever, determined, and bold, but he is also foolish and a regular human