Jason Versus Odysseus

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Jason and Odysseus have much in common and just as much not. A main difference one sees at first glance is the type of hero that they are. Odysseus is a wily and crafty whereas Jason is a leader but uses the skills of his followers to achieve his means. At first glance, Jason appeared an unlikely hero. Unlike Odysseus, who embarked on what should have been a short journey home following the Trojan War, but which became an epic journey with many obstacles and delays along the way. 
 Jason sent on an impossible mission by a king in order to remove him from the country. Both Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and Odysseus' journey home is thrust upon them. Jason does not feel the same need to complete his journey unlike Odysseus whom yearns to return home out of a feeling of nostos. Jason's story is more a story of multiple heroes where the Odyssey surrounds the story of one man, a king, and his followers. Odysseus was the "thinking man's hero," One of the famous warriors of the Trojan War, it was Odysseus who retrieved the slain body and armor of Achilles in the thick of heavy fighting. It was Odysseus who devised the stratagem of the Trojan Horse. His virtue was his mind, a supernatural type of ingenuity and intelligence that he used to overcome the trials of his journey, such as: The Cyclops, Circe, and how to deal with his wife's multitude of suitors. Jason is much more human with less personal devices to help him achieve his goal. Jason must rely on the supernatural talents and gifts of his fellow-man in order to survive. Yet both men are very human when it comes to their faults and both can be seen and the anti-hero. Odysseus can be seen as such because is the new form of hero, the think before you kill, type of hero. His cr...

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The similarities between Odysseus and Jason are as vast as their differences, yet their main connections show their their main difference. The similarity of the two previously unsung heroic types is exactly what separates them, each man is a different type of the new hero that came about after the brutish and brawny warriors like Achilles and Hector. Each can be seen as a hero or as a perverse designation of the past warriors and heroic ideals. It is their journeys that define them as heros, Jason though he could not have made it alone succeeds in his endeavors and Odysseus although he made it home alone in the end he is the valiant lover and father. The endings show a major difference between the two characters as Odysseus is redeemed in the end for his good qualities, Jason become less of a heroic figure as he discards his ever helpful wife Medea.

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