...Odysseus: Hero or Not In Homer’s epic The Odyssey, Odysseus is a true thinking man’s hero. He faces many obstacles in his journey home from the Trojan War, with a curse from the sea god, Poseidon. Odysseus battles monsters, makes tough decisions, and fights with his integrity to get home, but through what some call “bad luck” and the size of his pride Odysseus finds himself in a pretty difficult predicament. However, like any other heroic tale, in the end he’s able to go home to his wife and son. The question is did he come back as a heroic legend or a selfish punk? Believe it or not, Odysseus is the demanding hero in this poem. Through tough decisions, sacrifices, and his humble attitude…at times; Odysseus shows the reader he is still a human...
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...A hero can’t exist without a villain and victim. But what defines the role of the hero is what others think of them and the actions they’ve taken. Consider heroes in pop-culture who are depicted saving civilians from otherworldly creatures and how we feel towards them. And then imagine how different you’d see it if you were to change point of view. What defines a true hero is action and perception, a hero is nothing without the people they inspire. Think of Odysseus and how he is illustrated as a hero for the entirety of The Odyssey. He was called a hero by those he fought alongside as well as the people he networked with in Ithaca. But to some others he was quite a villain, like Poseidon who felt hatred towards him for the slaying of his son Polyphemus(IX.584-597). While Odysseus was at sea (for three years) he was depicted as both the hero and...
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...Odysseus, the Epic Hero You think of superheroes like Superman, Batman, or Captain America; they are strong and defeat the villains, while saving other people; or you think of average heroes like firefighters, who save people’s lives who are in trouble. There are also epic heroes, like Odysseus, in “The Odyssey”. Epic heroes are larger than life and undergo a dangerous journey. The hero normally encounters conflicts as he battles forces of nature, gods, and other beings. Epic heroes have the archetypal characteristics like being cunning, courageous, daring, and having strength and knowledge. Odysseus had to fight many dangerous creatures during his 20 year quest back to Ithaca, like the Lotus Eaters, the Sirens, the Cyclops, Charybdis and Scylla while displaying the archetypal traits of an epic hero. When Odysseus faced the Lotus Eaters and the Sirens, he showed the epic hero character trait of intelligence. The Lotus Eaters tried to get Odysseus’ men to eat the sweet lotus flowers which made them want to stay forever and never return back home to Ithaca. Odysseus used his knowledge of the flower, after seeing three of his other men not come back after trying it, and made his men not try it, and continued sailing. If Odysseus did not tell this to his crew, then they would have possibly stayed there forever, the quest...
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...Task Essay Outline: The Hero’s Journey. Directions: Use your completed close-reading charts on “The Hero’s Adventure” and “The Hero’s Journey,” as well as your annotations from “The Odyssey” to complete this outline for your research simulation essay. 10 point classwork grade Introduction Hook Statement - Engage the reader with a compelling quote or question related to the topic How does the Hero’s journey structure contribute to the development of Odysseus’ character as an epic hero and aligns with his journey? Background Information - Provide necessary context about the topic and its significance In the Odyssey, Odysseus goes through many phases/challenges of which align with the “stages” in the Hero’s Journey. These...
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...Waiting for grade I believe Odysseus is not a hero in modern day standards because heroes in modern day standards wouldn't make decisions such as Odysseus does in the odyssey. Odysseus makes some bad mistakes and confrontations most heroes today would prevent and avoid. Most heroes today have made mistakes but Odysseus has made many. Is Odysseus a hero using modern day standards? No, but in some ways he can be. I strongly believe that Odysseus is not a hero in today's standards because he was not very worthy to his men and/or team this is demonstrated when he encounters the cyclops, Polyphemus for example. This is shown when Odysseus basically watches a couple of his men get eaten by this gargantuan beast and doesn't try to slay it. Afterwards he does stab it's eye with a giant log but he didn't do anything directly after the dreadful murdering.they get away and even after he has blinded the cyclops, he is taunting it on his way off of the island and puts his men in even more danger because Polyphemus is hurling boulders at the ship and nearly hits it multiple times....
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...To me a hero is someone who is brave and will risk their life for others. I believe that Odysseus in the Odyssey is a hero. He won the Trojan war and he was heading home when the gods and goddesses played a game and he and his men got trapped on islands. In this essay i'm going to say how Odysseus was a hero. I am also going to mention three islands, The island of the cyclops, The island of the lotus eaters, and Hades. First I'm going to talk about the island of the cyclops. Odysseus and his men got to the island and everything looked normal until a cyclops trapped them in his cave. So Odysseus had to think and fast. He became a leader and planed to blind the cyclops instead of killing him. That worked now he had to think how to get out....
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...Is Odysseus Is a Hero Or Not? Do you think Odysseus is a hero? Does Odysseus’s actions define and symbolize him as a true hero? A hero is somebody who strives for the greatest and shows kindness, integrity, motivation and leadership. Odysseus is not a hero because he does nothing out of the goodness of his heart. Although Odysseus fought in the Trojan war, he's not a hero because he is self-centered and ignorant. He did not demonstrate heroic qualities because he cheats, steals and lies and those are not ideal heroic qualities. In this essay I will be explaining some of the many examples of his ignorance and self centeredness and his disloyalty, risk taking actions that make him who he is. Odysseus is self-centered. He doesn't take people’s advice and assumes he's correct and everything he will do is going to end up being right. He was receiving advice from Circe about fighting Scylla and decided not to take it. Circe said that the crew must pass between Scylla, a terrible six-headed monster, and Charybdis, who creates a whirlpool that sucks whole ship's down into the sea three times a day. Odysseus neglected all advice he was given, from Circe and from other crew members. Also, he doesn't value other people's lives compared than his. He was strongly encouraged not to fight Scylla , and proceeded to try, considering the fact he risked all of his men's lives and had to pay a...
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...The Odyssey Heroism Essay Heroes serve many purposes. The Odyssey by Homer is an epic about Odysseus’ voyage home from the Trojan War, to his homeland of Ithaca. During Odysseus’ voyage home he faces many struggles due to a curse put on him by the god Poseidon; on request from Poseidon's son, a cyclops, who Odysseus blinded. Throne of Glass written by Sarah J. Maas is a novel about an assassin named Celaena Sardothien, who is competing to become the king's personal assassin. Celaena must destroy the evil that is hidden in the castle. The examination of Odysseus and Celaena suggests that heroes are needed throughout the ages to be role models who provide an example of thoughtfulness and focus. Heroes use thoughtfulness to help them overcome...
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...Seth Wilson Barrick English 9/ Period 1 3/13/12 Odysseus Hero Essay We consider heroes as crime fighters like Spiderman, Batman, a soldier, or a cop. Someone who does something courageous. My definition of a hero is someone who does something that no one or a few people would do. Even if it’s something small like quit smoking to save money for rent like my mom did, or something big. A man named Leonard Skutnik was just walking home from work and witnessed a plane crash straight into the ice covered waters of the Polomac River, an as people watched the passengers start being rescued they noticed one woman start to drown, and that’s when Leonard jumped into the freezing water...
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... written by Homer, is a series of poems that describe the heroics of Odysseus following the events of The Iliad. Throughout the books, there are many characters who show the features of a hero, who is someone who overcomes an impossible task or foe, even themselves, and can be occasionally given recognition for their feats. Two characteristics that a great hero and a great leader need are caution and cunning, and none show these better than Penelope and Odysseus. Penelope shows caution and Odysseus shows cunningness, who show these traits the best, which shows that great leaders need to be cautious and cunning. Caution, as shown by Penelope, illustrates the concept that great heroes need to be cautious. In book twenty-three, lines 94-100, Penelope is in distress, trying to think of how to approach the stranger who...
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...Odyssey, Penelope is the true hero. She is the true hero because, she waits 20 years for Odysseus, she tricks her suitors into thinking she’s doing a blanket for about two months, and she makes a challenge to string a bow and arrow, and shoot it through 12 axes. One of the reasons I think Penelope is a hero is because for 20 years she waits for Odysseus dealing with intense sadness and depression, my reasoning behind this is that from the book Eumaeus the Swineherd said, “Always with her the wretched nights and days also waste her away with her weeping.” Another example that she deals with sadness and depression is that after her father left, her own son, Telemachos, sea sets sail to find his father without telling her. For a while she lost both the men she loves so dearly. The last example of her going through her depression is that at one point she prayed to the god Artemis, asking him why he just doesn’t take her life right now. That is one of the reasons I think she a hero....
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...Heroic Traits Essay A hero is someone who demonstrates substantial quantities of courage or outstanding achievements. ulyses is a hero because he has come across huge dangers and worried about the safety of his crew before himself. Whenever he faces overwhelming obstacles and he still finds the strength to perservere and endure. This story is mainly about the stops ulysses faced and how he survives each one by being herioc and making smart deicions. The importance of the stops are how ulysses shows strength and heroic characteristics thoughout each obstacles. Ulysses reveeals countless admiriable traists the mkae kim deserving o fthe title”hero”.Ulyses characteric of heriosim is shown through his intelligence. When thy get stuck in a cave...
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...The Odyssey and Heros Journey Essay “You don’t choose your destiny, your destiny is already chosen and handed to you.” In each story the main character takes certain steps in life that lead to the same ending. The Odyssey by Homer explains Odysseus's return to home. In the Odyssey by Homer through chapters nine through twelve, Odysseus displays some of Joseph Campbell’s seventeen steps of the Hero’s Journey. On the subject of the 17 steps Odysseus takes, one of them is Belly of the whale. Belly of the whale means that the hero willingly crosses the point of no return. “But I would not listen to them, and shouted out to him in rage, ‘Cyclops, if anyone asks you who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.” (Homer 77) None of Odysseus men are still with him because Odysseus was unable to save his comrades lives because the “recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all”, by devouring the cattle of the sun, so the sun god took...
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...Sun Hwa Choi English 3 Thursday Evening Class Professor Humphrey Due May 21, 2015 Essay 4: Development of Heroes (+Hamlet) The Heroes of the Greek and Rome poetries share few common uniqueness. They are heroic in that they all sacrifice, they are all intelligent, they all have their own faith or luck, they are all remembered or also known as Kleos and they all wander and deal with many problems. We have read many of them in this course such as Odysseus, Oedipus, Aeneas, Achilles and Beowulf. Then there is the great Hamlet who is not one of the Greek Heroes but a character from a play by William Shakespeare. Today in this essay, I want to compare some of the Greek poetry characters with the Prince Hamlet. First of all, I want to talk about few similarities between Hamlet and one of the Greek poet characters we have learned from this course. In my opinion, the story of Hamlet itself can be very analogous to the story of the poetry Oedipus. Both of the story have a plague or a outbreak going on from the beginning of the story. In the Oedipus the King, it starts with the Plague of Thebes where then Oedipus start to take actions for his people. This is where he shows his heroic features being a great leader for his city and sacrificing himself to solve the problem. The play Hamlet also starts with an outbreak and there seems to be something strange. The play starts with, "who’s there?" (Act 1 scene 1 line 1) by one of the guards. The fact that the play starts out with a question...
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...In this essay, we will argue on the important difference of the Iliad and Odyssey against the Aeneid for the citizen readers. Here, we found that the value of empathy is crucial in one’s life because it shapes us to become more rational and mindful citizen. Within our argument, we will justify the significance of both Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad as well as Virgil’s Aeneid for the citizen readers to create a supportive community. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey exemplify the lack of empathy in the protagonists’ attribute which is different to Virgil’s hero that show more mercy in making decision. Many Trojans in Iliad died in Achilles hand with no mercy even being given advice on not to do so by his own mother (9.423-28,21.123-29). Even after killing Hector, he abuses the corpse by fastening it to the back of his chariot, and drags him around Patroklos's burial mound (24.17-20). On top of that, in Odyssey, Odysseus also illustrates the behavior of lack of empathy during the bloodshed happens in the hall where he killed the suitors mercilessly. Odysseus killed Antinous, who is the leader of the suitors by firing up an arrow straight to his throat (22.437). Even though Eurymachus already offered Odysseus to...
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