Final Draft: The Odyssey

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     Imagine yourself in a time of war, where you are forced to leave and fight, and on that same unfortunate day your son was born. To top it off, you never get to see your family again for the next twenty years. This is exactly what Odysseus from "The Odyssey" by Homer had to go through. In this story, a man by the name of Odysseus went on a long journey which involved a lot of suffering. Through all that, we get to learn what kind of a person he is. Odysseus can be described as intelligent, bold, and cocky.

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     Odysseus comes up with some pretty smart ideas which shows that he is intelligent. An example of this would be when he executes his plan in the Trojan War. Odysseus' army is on the brink of losing the war, but his sharp mind turned that around. He builds a "gift" for Troy to signify that his army surrendered and hides his army in this gift. As a result, he sneaks up on the enemies and wins the war. Odysseus shows intelligence from this by coming up with a plan that won him the war when he was at a near loss. As smart as he is, Odysseus is just as bold.

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     Odysseus shows his boldness in many different parts of the story. One of these parts would be when he and his men are trapped in a cave. In that cave with them is a man eating cyclops who is eating the men one by one. After Odysseus comes up with a plan to escape, he gets his men to help him with attacking the cyclops. This shows boldness because most men would probably have begged for their lives instead of fighting for it. Odysseus did just that. He attacked the monster. Odysseus has plenty of positive characteristics, but like everyone else, he has some negatives.

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     One of Odysseus' biggest downfall is how cocky he is. An example of this is when the Trojan War has ended. Before he leaves to go home, Odysseus thinks he is so great that he does not even need the gods. This has made the sea god Poseidon angry, so now Odysseus not only gets a longer journey, but one with more suffering. This shows Odysseus' cocky trait by him thinking he is too good for the gods. This has caused him to have this long journey in the first place.

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     In conclusion, Odysseus is bold and intelligent but also cocky. He comes up with great plans, he executes him with his boldness, but his downfall is his how cocky he is. Throughout the epic story "The Odyssey" by Homer, characteristics for many different characters have been developed. That includes Odysseus.

 

 

 

Hero: Hold the Spandex

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     When you hear the word "Hero", what comes to your mind? Spandex, superpowers, a cheesy name? Well you can be a hero without those things. A prime example of this description of a hero is Odysseus. He went on a legendary twenty-year journey to find his home island Ithaca. Odysseus can be described as a problem solver, arrogant, and loyal.

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    Problem-solver is very self-explanatory, it means you solve problems. In the Trojan War the Greeks' problem was they could not penetrate the wall of Troy, then Odysseus thinks of the infamous Trojan Horse, which gets the Greek's into the wall. This part of the poem shows that Odysseus can solve any problem big or small. A problem with the Trojan Horse is, that after he wins the war he claims he does not need the Gods.

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     We all know that one kid that brags about everything, that is Odysseus. When Odysseus escaped the cyclops, Polyphemus' cave Odysseus felt the need to brag. So he tells the son of the sea god, his name which Polyphemus did not know beforehand. His arrogance caused Polyphemus to ask his dad Poseidon, to curse Odysseus who happens to have to travel by sea to get home. This request leads to tests of loyalty to his wife Penelope.

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     One of the oldest things everyone knows is that you don not cheat on your partner in a relationship. Odysseus runs into two tests of his loyalty, one with Circe, and the other with Calypso. With Circe Odysseus had no choice in the matter. It was sleep with her or your men will stay as animals. Now he does sleep with her more over the course of a year, but Circe wanted it, not Odysseus. He just wanted information, and sleeping with her was the only way to extract this information. Calypso is a completely different story. When she sees Odysseus wash up on her shore, she gets giddy with excitement. She basically keeps him prisoner there for ten years! So Odysseus did sleep with her, but again he probably had no choice, and honestly there was probably nothing else to do. Odysseus only slept with these women because he had to. Under normal circumstances Odysseus would be the most faithful person.

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     A hero does not have to have a cape, a superpower, or even a cheesy name. A hero can be anybody that does a good deed, if that happens to include stabbing a cyclops in the eye, or sleeping with eternal Goddess then so be it. Odysseus is a prime example of a hero, a normal joe but willing to go far and beyond any other normal person would. Odysseus can be described as a problem solver, arrogant, and loyal.

 

 

Odysseus

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     Have you ever thought about not being able to get home? What about all the tasks you would have to do or possibly going to the extreme, doing anything possible to get home? Odysseus went through all of that plus some just to get back to Ithaca. He fought a great war, got lost at sea, and faced many trials to test his will until he was left with nothing but his life. The great Odysseus can be described as intelligent, stubborn, and unfaithful.

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     Odysseus can be described as intelligent. For example, when, he fights in the war against Troy he uses the fleets ships to make a gift for Troy. This gift is known as the Trojan horse. No average man would have thought to use the ships to do something so risky, but Odysseus just happens to be different from your average man.

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     Odysseus can also be described as stubborn. He never loses his will to go back home to Ithaca. Even though he spends an entire year in Circe's palace, once he realized he overstayed his welcome Odysseus hurried to get off the island. Another example is when he went through the underworld just to get directions to go home. If he were not as hard headed he would have given up on Circe's island because he is living in a paradise there.

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     Lastly Odysseus can be described as unfaithful. He sleeps with two other women besides his wife Penelope. One of the women is Circe, but he has no choice because if he doesn’t he will never get his men back. The other is Calypso a beautiful sea nymph. The gods do not tell him to sleep with her. Odysseus does this on his own will. Odysseus stays on this island for a while and all he had to do was resist his male urges until she set him free.

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     Odysseus goes through hell and back literally to get back to his homeland. He faces many trials until he finally returns home as a broken man. If he was not intelligent or stubborn he would not make it through his journey home. Being unfaithful is his choice but it works out in his favor.

 

 

Odysseus the Hero?

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Can there be a set definition of a hero? To some people, Odysseus from Homer's epic The Odyssey is one of the best heroes of all time. Is Odysseus really a hero? He has done some bad things like get all of his men killed that survived ten years of war. On the other hand, he did stop that same war. The Odyssey show cases all of Odysseus' wins and losses. Odysseus can be described as arrogant, strategic, and stubborn.

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     Arrogant is one of the many characteristics Odysseus could be described as. One situation where Odysseus shows off his supreme arrogance is when he mocked Polyphemus after he already escaped from the cyclops by stabbing him in the eye. As payback for mocking and stabbing him, Polyphemus called on his father Poseidon, to teach Odysseus a lesson. Poseidon killed a whole boat of people and kept Odysseus from home for ten more years. Another situation where Odysseus made it clear he was arrogant is when he yelled that he does not need the gods but many times before and after this he has called on the goddess Athena for help.

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     Odysseus is a very strategic man. He is able to think four steps ahead in almost every situation. In the Iliad Odysseus came up with a way to get into Troy; with Odysseus' strategy they won the Trojan war. Another example of Odysseus being strategic is when he finally got to Ithaca his home he did not go straight to his wife and son that he has not seen in twenty years. He waited for the right time to show himself to the suitors and his wife. If he did not wait they would properly would have been killed.

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     Most humans are stubborn. Odysseus is no exception to that. He refuses to never see his wife Penelope and son Telemachus again. He spends twenty years trying to get back to them and his homeland and it does not help that he has a god standing in his way for ten of those years. Odysseus is so stubborn he survived a war and a god's wrath to get what he wanted. Sometimes his stubbornness backfires like when he stays up for days to command the ship not wanting anything to go wrong with him returning home. Since he was so stubborn about going to sleep he finally passes out from exhaustion and his crew opens the bag of wind that Odysseus got to help him get back home. When the crew opened the bag they were flung from the shores of Ithaca.

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     There can be no set definition for a hero an example would be Odysseus. He could be a hero if he tried but, he got all of his men killed because he was too arrogant and too stubborn. If he would have been more strategic he more than likely would have been able to save some of his shipmates. Odysseus did do some good like when he stopped a war that had been raging on for ten years.

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What is a Hero?

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What really is a hero? A hero isn’t really always considered to be the “good guy.” They’re not always the good guy because most heroes always have to a bad thing like killing people or something in order to get to their biggest enemy. In the Odyssey, by Homer, the main character Odysseus is a hero. As a hero, Odysseus would best be described as brave, curious, and intelligent.

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            An example of Odysseus showing intelligence is when Odysseus and his crew stab out Polyphemus’s eye. After giving Polyphemus the wine and putting him to sleep, Odysseus thought of something smart. Once he saw that Polyphemus was asleep, Odysseus got his crew to help him sharpen the piece of wood. They all go and carry the wood and stab Polyphemus in the eye while he was sleep. This shows that Odysseus is intelligent because no other crew member thought of doing that. By doing this, it caused the cyclops (Polyphemus) to not be able to see anything anymore, so this was a very smart idea. Other than being intelligent, Odysseus is also brave.

     

            Odysseus demonstrates that he’s brave by when he went to go heat the sirens. It was said that whoever goes to hear thee sirens would die. Instead of listening to what everyone said about the sirens, Odysseus took his chance and did a brave move by going to hear the sirens anyways. This shows his bravery because any other people would’ve not went to the sirens because they didn’t want to die, but Odysseus went to hear the sirens anyway and he survived. Not only is he brave, and intelligent, but he was also curious.

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            Odysseus shows his curiosity by going into the cyclops’ cave. Once Odysseus and his crew members’ ship landed and they the cave, they could’ve just been like “oh this an abandoned cave, so let’s leave since nobody is here.” But instead of doing that, Odysseus went into the cave to see who was in there. Because of Odysseus showing his curiosity, he got trapped in the cave and had to lie his way out.

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            Odysseus would be considered a hero and can best be described as brave, curious, and intelligent. He shows his intelligence when him and crew stab out Polyphemus’s eye. His bravery is being shown when he went to go hear the sirens. He lastly shows his curiosity by going into the cyclops’s cave after landing on the island. Odysseus in this book would be considered that typical “good guy” hero.

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The King of Ithaca

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     In many different books and poems there are people who define what it means to be a hero. One Example is in Homers The Odyssey the brave king of Ithaca Odysseus. Odysseus spent 20 years trying to get back to his family in Ithaca and in those 20 years he has encountered many different threats. These are the traits that let Odysseus survive those 20 years Strategic, Brave and recklessness.

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     Odysseus is described as strategic because of his ability to plan for events that haven't happened yet. An example of Odysseus being strategic is when he was trapped by Polyphemus. Odysseus  told Polyphemus that his name was nobody this is also an example of verbal irony because when Polyphemus was calling to his neighbors he said "Nobody was hurting him". This is a clear example of Odysseus being Strategic because he can plan for things in advance and no human can really do that.

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     Odysseus is Brave because of his ambitions he wants to get home to Ithaca and to see his wife and son again. This fuels him to make home no matter what it takes. On his journey he faced many dangers but he was brave enough to endue them. An example is when he an his crew went threw Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus was brave enough to take his men threw that but he did lose a lot of his men but he didn’t let that get him down.
 

     Odysseus is reckless because he doesn’t back down from fights and he has a habit of becoming prideful. An example of this is when he was leaving Polyphemus' island and he shouted his name to him. That was very reckless because he gave his full identity to him and in doing so Polyphemus cursed him.

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The Traits that Odysseus used to survive those 20 years are plainly seen in those three examples.  The Main points are that Odysseus was determined to stop at nothing to make it home and eventually he did make it. Odysseus is the perfect example of what it means to be a hero.

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