Odysseus Defines an Epic Hero

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Odysseus Defines an Epic Hero On a website posted by teachers at Harker Heights High, an epic hero is someone who embodies the values of a particular society. He is superhuman. An epic hero is braver, stronger, and cleverer than an ordinary person. He is on a quest for something of great value to him or his people. The villains that try to keep the hero from his quest are usually uglier, more evil, and more cunning than anyone we know in ordinary life. The epic hero is often of mixed divine and human birth and so possesses human weaknesses. And finally, the divine world often interferes with the human world in the hero's quest. In the Odyssey, by Homer and translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Odysseus embodies everything that is an epic hero, aside from being a mix of the divine and human birth. The story of The Odyssey is not just of Odysseus' journey from Troy to Ithaka, but also one of his journey from a sometimes foolish and almost immature warrior to an epic hero. In book IX, Odysseus begins his tale of his trip from Troy to Phaiakia. What of those years of rough adventure weathered under Zeus? The wind that carried west from Ilion brought me to Ismaros, on the far shore, a strongpoint on the coast of the Kikones. I stormed the place and killed the men who fought. Plunder we took, and we enslaved the women…(9.146) The beginning of this tale displays the warrior who left Troy. He and his crew immediately go to battle and take control of the city. Although afterwards Odysseus recalls telling his men to stop and return to the ship, he never actually forcibly tried to make his men return, because at the time it was more about the victory of a battle then the message or values that were being fought fo... ... middle of paper ... ...one of Helios' cattle. Zeus then created a storm that killed all of the remaining men and wrecked his ship, leaving Odysseus stranded. In the beginning Odysseus is a careless, foolish and immature warrior who seems to care only about battle. But in the end we see a completely different person who has seen the error of his ways and realizes the evil in being only a prideful warrior. He has learned that a man is not as strong as he wants to be; a man is only as strong as the gods want him to be. Without the help of the gods Odysseus would not be the truly heroic leader he has become. He embodies all that is an epic hero, and upon his return home to his palace in Ithaka and his victory over the suitors Odysseus is definitely a larger than life hero. Bibliography: Harken Heights High Knights website The Odyssey by Homer Trans. by Robert Fitzgerald

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