Heroism in the Odyssey

Heroism Essay

The Odyssey is a story about a young hero, Odysseus, who fought in the Trojan War for ten years. On his journey back home he gets sidetracked by several different obstacles for another ten years. Odysseus faces many struggles on his journey and, finally, after losing all of his men, he makes his way back home. He wouldn’t have been able to make it home without his bravery, intelligence, and loyalty. All of these traits are super important and are displayed by Odysseus throughout the story.

Odysseus displays the trait of bravery several times throughout his journey when he is forced to deal with many hardships. For example, when odysseus and his men land on Circe's island and some of his men get turned into animals, pigs specifically, Odysseus is the first one to get off the boat and climb up the mountain to go and get his “men”. Here it explains, “Odysseus leaves the ship and rushes to Circe's hall” (Odyssey, 775). He is so willing to save his men he can be slightly reckless and not think things all the way through. Also, when Circe tells Odysseus that she will only turn his men back into humans if he was to go down to the underworld and receive a prophecy from the prophet Teiresias. He wants to save his men, so he ends up going and hearing the prophecy. “Then spoke the prince of those with the gift of speech” (Odyssey, 776). Both instances explain that Odysseus is very brave and will do anything for his men. This is important because he not only has to help protect his men but he also has to make sure they trust him.

Intelligence is huge part of being a hero, whether it is using basic knowledge to resourcefulness. Odysseus shows his intellectual thinking in several instances throughout the story. For instance, when Odysseus gets trapped in the cave on the Island of the Cyclops he knows that the cyclops is their only escape from the cave, as he was the only one who could lift the boulder blocking them all in. All the rest of his men were ready to match at the cyclops and kill him, but Odysseus knew better. Odysseus, explains when he says “... If I killed him (the cyclops) we perished there as well, for we could never move his ponderous doorway slab aside.” (Odysseus, 763). He had to think of what would be the result if his actions before he tried to do something drastic and irreversible. For the sake of his life and his men's. Another time when odysseus showed intelligence was when the Cyclops had asked his name, he had wisely responded with “Nohbody… My name is Nohbody: mother, father, and friends… call me Nohbody.” (Odyssey, 765). Odysseus realized that the Cyclops would call for help from the other Cyclopes when he was hurt. He also realized that the Cyclops would say that “Nohbody” has hurt him and the other cyclopes would turn back to their caves, dismissing their younger brother.

Odysseus displays the trait of loyalty