After Odysseus returns from his encounter with Circe, a beautiful witch-goddess who drugs and bewitches Odysseus’s most able crewmen, his men are more than relieved to see him and they flock around him as if he is their master and their shepherd. Odysseus is a man who is respected by his crew and treated as a mortal god by the heavens above. As shown in this scene, his men are stuck in the middle of a cross road without his guidance, pivoting towards all directions but incapable of moving forward with a plan. They are “wailing and crying besides [the] sailing ship”(10.433) without any sense of hope and direction in life. They are missing a leader who will lead them in war and guide them back home; they are missing Odysseus. Despite Odysseus’s …show more content…
Whether if it is through Athena’s words of wisdom that lead him to the correct direction, or in this particular scene, Hermes’s instructions for overpowering the dreadfully beautiful witch, the gods continue to favor Odysseus and make him an outlier of men, forever exempt from death and failure. He is “Odysseus, great Laertes’s son, known for [his] cunning throughout the world, and [his] fame reaches even to the heavens”(9.21-23) He is a man whose abilities are given by the gods and his life is blessed by Zeus himself. In some essence, Odysseus is sculpted to become the leader he is today, a respected and charismatic hero who is welcomed by his men with tears of joy and cries of relief, even before his birth and the start of the trojan war. Odysseus is predestined to be the hero blessed by the gods. He is given the best instructions and the perfect weapons to combat every enemy that approaches him, and is given a magnetic wand that always attracts his team to follow him onto the destined path. Odysseus is a leader with the mind of a god, the direction and the foundation of the crew, and the very thing that makes his men function as a
Odysseus is a man, who has been working on going home for twenty years. He is a leader of his men, and will never give up until he gets to his goal or going home to his family. He is faithful to all his men, and he never deceived them. The faithful Odysseus is very hard working trying to help his men get home.
With the great skills of leadership, having immense amount of courage, and to be very intelligent, these things let him do great things for his people and his family. Odysseus escaped many dangerous situations that would of killed him or his men, as in Book IX when he tells the Goggle-eyed giant, Polyphemus, that his name is Noman or in Book XXIII when he starts to play wedding music after he killed all the suitors so that no one would suspect the death of the suitors. Odysseus also shows a great courage by taking on the hundreds of suitors on all at once. With his leadership though, Odysseus is able to defeat the Troy and lead his men on his quest to get back home. These qualities let Odysseus be the great king he is and although
Odysseus is proving that he is an excellent leader; he gathered up all of his mates and took control of the horrible situation. If Odysseus did not show apathy for his men he would have lost a lot of his men focusing on the main goal, to get back home. In addition, of how Odysseus shows great qualities of being a leader is like when he shows he is also slick and cunning. For instance, Odysseus and his men also end up in
One of the numerous ways Odysseus embodies the characteristics of an epic hero is through his leadership of his men. “I drove them, all three wailing, to the ships tied them down under their rowing benches, and called the rest” (Homer 564). Odysseus leads the group to the ship because the three men who had become addicted to the lotus flowers needed to be tied down. This shows his act of leading because he notices that those men will only slow them down which results in him securing them down to the benches. “My ship?
After reading the “Odyssey,” a lot of people raise questions about Odysseus being a hero. What is a hero anyway? A hero is a person, who is idealized or admired for his/her courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Odysseus does fit in all the requirements of a hero as he fights in the Trojan war, he saves his crew from Polyphemus, and he saves his palace from the suitors. Therefore, Odysseus can be called a hero.
Although Odysseus occasionally does something for the short-term benefit of his crew, he does not deserve their loyalty because he does not sincerely care about them, trust them, or listen to them. Even when Odysseus is in the middle of nowhere in a boat with his comrades and crew members for twenty years, he still manages to not care about them and think of his own life as more valuable than any of theirs. An example of this is when Odysseus sends his men into danger instead of being a leader and going first: “All I spied was a plume of smoke, drifting off the land. / So I sent some crew ahead to learn who lived there -- / men like us perhaps, who live on bread?”
In the epic story the Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus is returning from the Trojan war, and on his way home he finds many obstacles ahead of him. Odysseus is the ruler of Ithaca and he is trying to return home to his land. Many creatures try and stop him from achieving his goal of returning home, but he and his crew have to push through and get home. Odysseus portrays bravery and courage leading his crew through these tough challenges. Odysseus heroically leads his crew and himself through dangerous obstacles, but also foolishly endangers them during the journey home.
Odysseus has grown from the man he was before, as now he finds comfort and safety in obeying the gods when in the past he did not consider their wishes. Odysseus has only returned due to Athena and he has recognized that and his compliance is founded in his appreciation and respect for her. Odysseus is now a hero due to the obedience he now has to the gods, founded in a sense of humility. Through Odysseus’ experiences on his journey, he learns the value of obedience and dangers of arrogance and ultimately, become a hero through the lessons learned.
As a leader Odysseus should be careful to do exactly what will benefit his crew the most. The lack of communication throughout the whole journey home will eventually lead to mistrust and betrayal of Odysseus by his crew. Following Scylla and Charybdis they reach the island of the god of the sun, and because of the crew’s spite for Odysseus they don’t follow his directions not to harm the cattle of the Sun. Just in the events of the journey back to Ithaca alone the reader can see how Odysseus’ inability to be a strong leader leads to the dismantling of a good relationship between him and his crew, which leads to a much more difficult trip. Odysseus’ inability to be a great leader for the group leads to a lot of conflict among the crew members.
Even though everyone perceives Odysseus, main character of Homer’s Odyssey as the ideal hero, Superman is obviously the real hero. So what Odysseus went away from home for 20 years? Superman left his home 35 years ago, and can’t even return home because his is completely destroyed. Odysseus can only use his “special bow” only he can string while Superman has superhuman hearing, sight, and strength.
He has to overcome his foes and his environment. In the cavern with the cyclops, Odysseus must fight to survive. He and his men have to use wit and strategy to escape the cave. After the first attack on his men Odysseus knew he would need to develop a plan to survive. Odysseus and his men are put in danger as they encounter their foe:“Neither reply nor pity came from him, but in one stride he clutched at my companions and caught two in his hands like squirming puppies to beat their brains out, spattering the floor” (Homer 903).
In Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey," Odysseus is portrayed as a complex and multifaceted character, and the question of whether or not he is a hero is one that has been debated by scholars for centuries. On one hand, Odysseus possesses many admirable qualities that are typically associated with a hero, such as intelligence, courage, and leadership. On the other hand, he also has many flaws and makes many questionable decisions that call into question his heroism. One of the main arguments for Odysseus being a hero is his intelligence and cunning.
In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus is an effective leader in chapter twelve. A leader who has too much pride is now showing too much humbleness for what’s important by following all the things he has told to do to save his crew and himself. He does what he is told to do to save his crew and keep them safe. “ But now, fearing death , all eyes fixed on Charybdis now Scylla snatched six men from our hollow ship, the toughest, strongest hands I had, and glancing backwards over the decks, searching or my crew I could see their hands and feet already hoisted, failing, high, higher, over my head, look wailing down at me, comrades riven in agony.
Stranded at sea with his crew, he relies on his wits and instincts to survive. Due to his sense of righteousness, Odysseus decides to wreak havoc upon all evil in his path. Odysseus vanquishes immoral individuals during his journey, in order to assert his power throughout the land. Examples of this include
Odysseus’s traits help him achieve his goal of returning to his home. Odysseus and his men have a lot of willpower to continue traveling after some dangerous and life risking experiences with cannibals, lotus-eaters, cyclops and many more creatures that could of killed Odysseus and his whole crew. Odysseus's confidence and epic hero traits only increase as the story goes on, his confidence in his men increase as he starts noticing how strong and powerful his men can be, and also shows confidence in