Who Is Odysseus An Epic Hero

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Odysseus, the epic hero in Homer’s Odyssey is a figure who could be considered larger than life. His legend begins during the ten year Trojan War, and continues through ten long years during his attempt to return to his kingdom on Ithaca, to his wife Penelope and to his son Telemachus. Throughout Odysseus’ ten year long struggle to return home, as told in The Odyssey, he proves himself to be an epic hero, even though he occasionally behaves like a mere mortal. A hero possesses many traits. Odysseus showed that he was crafty or cunning in the Cyclop’s cave when gets the Cyclops drunk and tells him that his name is Nhobdy. This helped Odysseus and his men to escape the cave because when Odyesseus blinds the Cyclops, the Cyclops can only yell for help, telling the other Cyclops that Nhobdy blinded him. Odysseus demonstrates how clever he is again when he ties his men under the bellies of sheep, so that when the blinded Cyclops rolls the stone away from the mouth of the cave to send his sheep out in the morning, he won’t feel his captives escaping. After the men are all safely aboard the ship, beginning to…show more content…
Dressed as a weak, old beggar man, he skillfully strings his bow and shoots the arrow through twelve ax handles in order to win his wife back, reveal his true identity and re claim his kingdom. However, as a mere mortal all he could think about was vengeance against all one hundred suitors. His anger and jealousy drove him to kill all the suitors in the great hall. Odysseus was cunning, skillful and smart. He had many qualities that made him a perfect example of an epic hero. On his journey to return home, his many flaws often got in his way; he was boastful, filled with hubris, behaved like a common man and was prone to bouts of anger and jealousy. He did however learn, after his long journey home, that he was not invincible and needed the gods help in getting

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