Characteristics Of Being A Hero In The Odyssey

There is a hero in every story, the Odyssey is no different, Odysseus is the portrayed hero in this epic but Odysseus is not the hero. The characteristics that make a hero are courage, humility and selflessness and Odysseus doesn’t meet all the criteria. Although Odysseus was incredibly courageous and cunning that isn’t enough to classify him as the hero of the story. He wasn’t selfless, he may have longed to go home to his family and homeland, but these thoughts were contradicted by his actions. Odysseus was lacking in humility, he was a king after all, and he was not ashamed to let everyone know of his endeavors. Odysseus was the modern-day definition of a tool, he was extremely boastful and he cheated on his faithful wife, only to kill every man that tried to court her in his absence. The real hero of this story is hard to uncover because it’s a development of the character throughout the story, unlike Odysseus

Humility is one of the most important traits a hero can have and honestly I don’t think Odysseus even knows the meaning of the word. The first glimpse into Odysseus’ arrogance is after they ransacked the Cicones’ sacred city. They could have stopped there and not lost half their crew or angered Poseidon, but because of his greed the whole crew suffered. Odysseus may have been the one to get them off the Cyclops’ island, but he is also the one who got them into that situation in the first place. A humble leader should care more for the welfare of his crew than advancing their own agenda. Also, as they were sailing away from the Cyclops’ island Odysseus put everyone in danger again by being boastful and taunting the Cyclops he had just blinded, yelling across the water, not just once, but twice, even though his men were begging him not to after he hurled the peak of a huge crag at their ship after he shouted to him the first