Odysseus Hero Essay

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Odysseus Essay Odysseus was considered a hero in ancient times but now he isn’t a hero, he is just a protagonist in the epic The Odyssey, by Homer. Odysseus was occasionally a hero but can also be selfish and non-hero like sometimes too. He is very inconsistent when it comes to doing the right thing, he did do what he thought was right but at times it was very selfish of him to do. He is a very complicated hero and has a bad sense of right and wrong because he does several abysmal things, such as purposely feeding his men to the monster Scylla, and aggravating an already enraged Cyclops, which shows his immaturity as a hero and as an individual. First, in various stories Odysseus is very contradicting to himself because he is only hero-like some of the time. When he and his men were raiding the Cyclops’ cave they could have left before the Cyclops got there and they could have avoided a lot of trouble. But Odysseus wanted to be a hero and wanted to stay and fight the Cyclops. This was a very selfish move of him and ended up being the wrong decision because it cost him a few of his best men. Later when he redeems himself he tells the Cyclops his name is nobody and gets him drunk. After that he helps his men stab a sharpened log into the Cyclops’ eye. Now showing the other side of Odysseus he helped his men and saved his men from what he got them into in the beginning. He was smart and heroic and saved himself as well as lots of his men that otherwise would have died which is a feat worth recognition. Second, Odysseus can be completely heroic in some situations and be totally unselfish. When their ships go by the island of the Lotus Eaters, two of Odysseus’ men fall for the trick and eat lotus flowers. Odysseus saves his men even when they fought back he forced them to come back to the ship by dragging them by their collars. This was the first in the

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