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Odysseus: A Hero In Homer's The Odyssey

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Odysseus the Great

Do you ever thought of how hard it is to be a hero? How about what a hero really is? In Homer’s timeless epic The Odyssey,Odysseus of Ithaca is the hero. A hero is someone who is loyal to his country, family and gods. Odysseus, king of Ithaca because he is loyal to his country, family, and gods. “Odysseus leaves the ship and rushes to Circe’s hall. The god Hermes stops him to give him a plant that will act like as an antidote to Circe’s power” (page 7580).This shows loyalty to his country because Odysseus is willing to eat something that might kill him to save his men. “I sent out two picked men and a runner to learn what race of men that land sustained.They fell in, soon enough, with lotus eater, who showed no will to do us harm, only offering the sweet lotus to …show more content…
As a result Odysseus was pretty loyal to his family while he was gone for 20 years. As we have seen Odysseus is a pretty loyal man. That’s what makes him a hero. Odysseus was very loyal to his gods. “ Odysseus men disobey his orders, and shortly after the land, they ate the cattle of the sun god, Helios” (page 768 line 1365). Odysseus is loyal to the god Helios because out of all the men that were starving he never ate one bite of the cattle that belonged to the god Helios. Helios was very mad when we found out who ate his cattle so he told the god Zeus, and he sent a lighting bolt down on their ship and killed every man on the ship but Odysseus. That just shows how much respect he has for the gods and what they do. Odysseus never got let off the hook he was trapped on a island for 20 years, for his punishment because he was the caption. “ The god Hermes stop him and gave him a plant that will act like an antidote to Circe’s powers”(page 758) This is an example of loyalty because Hermes is like a messanger for Zeus. Odysseus has to trust Hermes and just eat the plant. Odysseus has no clue what he was eating

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