An Example Of Odysseus Flaw In Homer's Odyssey

Odysseus was an arrogant yet successful warrior during the Trojan War shipwrecked at sea due to him angering the gods with his arrogance and selfishness

Throughout the book the odyssey Odysseus the main character makes mistakes and has character flaws that make his journey home a little longer and gruesome. The two character flaws that I think affect him the most are Pride and Unfaithfulness. They are flaws because throughout the book there are different situations and trials Odysseus goes through on his was back to Ithaca. An example of him showing prideness is when they go to island where the giant cyclopes lives. he displays his pride when wanting to claim a guest-gift from the Cyclops. He tells the cyclopes he will tell his name to him if he receives a guest gift. As well as wanting some hospitality from the giant cyclops. Him and his men could have just left or stolen the cheese inside

In the “Odyssey”, Odysseus goes through obstacles throughout the book that a normal man couldn’t subside. One example is in book 9, his main obstacle that he is trying to face is to escape from being held hostage in a cave by a Cyclops better known as Polyphemus. Odysseus is a archetypal hero, he is also a role model, with an ambition to get to his homeland Ithaca. He goes through resisting temptation and using his intellect and physical strength to get him there, no matter the obstacle nor the negative flaws that he faces. Odysseus put himself and his men in that situation by being curious and wanting to know what kind of land his ship and the winds led him to. This was selfish of him because it cost him some of his men, but a leader and hero has to play that role and some lives will be dealt with on the way. Odysseus says, “The rest of you will stay here while I go with my ship and crew on reconnaissance. I want to find out what those men are like, Wild savages with no sense of right or wrong Or hospitable folk who fear the gods” (Homer 429). Saying this quote alone makes Odysseus a humble man due to the fact that not even a piece of land is going to slow him down on his journey back home.

After the Trojan war all of the Greek warriors had made it home, except for Odysseus and his men. For them the journey home had many twists and turns that caused them to be away from home for more than 10 years after the war. Their delay was caused because of their inability to follow direct orders and resist the temptation of disobedience. It was for this same reason why none of them made it home, except for Odysseus; although he was the main culprit for heeding to temptation.

Veterans from war fight long and hard to protect and serve our country. When they return home, some soldiers have a difficult time adjusting back to a civilian life. In The Odyssey by Homer, a young man named Odysseus and his men leave for the Trojan war and face many obstacles on their journey back to Ithaca. The journey lasts twenty years and results in the deaths of many of Odysseus’ men. However, when they return home from their journey, Odysseus struggles to return to the life he had twenty years ago.

On Odysseus’ journey we as the reader learned many things from his mistakes made. From Odysseus we learned to help others just as his men helped him in fighting the Trojan War. Odysseus and his men created a huge wooden horse with a hollow inside so they could hide out inside the horse until the men fell asleep. They gave Trojans the wooden horse tricking them into thinking that they had won the war by giving them the horse but once all the Trojans fell asleep Odysseus and his men climbed out of their hiding spot and attacked and kill everyone in sight.

This flaw causes Odysseus to and crew to almost be lost at sea. The second tragic flaw Odysseus has is pride. This tragic flaw is seen when Odysseus is leaving the island of Polyphemus and Odysseus tells Polyphemus the place where Odysseus is king. This gives Polyphemus enough information to pray to Poseidon. After Odysseus leaves the island of Circe Odysseus is shipwrecked.

Although people might think that heroes are perfect and flawless, in The Odyssey we see otherwise within Odysseus’ journey back home. Odysseus had many great and heroic qualities, but he also had many flaws such as arrogance and stubbornness. The first flaw we encounter within The Odyssey is Odysseus’ hubris. This

In the Odyssey, Odysseus exemplified strong leadership and outstanding noble qualities. Like Achilles, Odysseus carried some flaws at the beginning of the story. A strong case can be made that his biggest flaw as a character was pride as it caused him unnecessary risks that only delayed his journey and possibly endangered his men. This is evidently shown when Odysseus and his crew wander around in Polyphemos ' cave. After the confrontation with the Polyphemos, Odysseus and his men escaped by stabbing Polyphemos’ in the eye while he was asleep. Once Odysseus and his men were safe on board on their ship, Odysseus took it upon himself to reveal his true identity and proceeded to taunt Polyphemos. At

There was no doubt that Odysseus was an arrogant man. You can find this in

For example, when Odysseus defeated the cyclops Polyphemus, Odysseus’ arrogance and self-pride showed when he boasted about himself to the cyclops making sure that the blinded Polyphemus would remember Odysseus’ name and how he defeated him; Odysseus’ narcissism was later on the cause of the death of all of his men and was the cause of Odysseus’ horrible ten year long journey to reach Ithaca and his family, for Poseidon didn’t forget and forgive Odysseus’ for what he had done to his son, Polyphemus. Also, Odysseus’ ability to lie and cheat his way out of many situations proves to be an immoral quality of his although this ability saves him at

Odysseus’s arrogance is shown throughout the poem, but it is clearly shown during his time with a cyclops named Polyphemus. When Odysseus and his men enter a dangerous cave because of their leader’s foolish curiosity and meets Polyphemus, Odysseus says “It was our luck to come here; here we stand,/ beholden for your help, or any gifts/ you give-as custom is to honor strangers,” (256-268). Here Odysseus is practically demanding that the cyclops treat him and his men with courtesy just because he is a guest. His arrogance and pride makes them stay with the dangerous cyclops even though they had a perfect chance for escaping from cyclops at the very beginning before the conversation even started. If only they quickly left with some cheese or nothing at all, Odysseus wouldn’t have lost so many men. Because of Odysseus’s arrogance, six of his men were eaten by the cyclops. Another example when Odysseus arrogance is shown was just

Throughout Homers novel, The Odyssey there are many acts of deception displayed by many different characthers including when Odysseus said his name Nohbdy to the Kyklops, when Telémakhos lied about his father still being alive, and when Penélopê said she would marry one of her suitors when she was done her weaving but kept undoing it. Deception is the act of lying to someone or deceiving them. Often deception in this novel occurs when the character feels that they are in grave danger and needs to use it in order to save themselves or others that the character cares greatly about. Deception is also used in this novel to stop events such as a marriage from happening.

Otherwise, Odysseus is morally sound, a quintessential leader, and in many respects a god among men. However, similarly to Yudhishthira, his single flaw was enough to almost completely destroy his life. The first example of this is shown on Polyphemus’ island. After he and his crew members escaped the Cyclops’ cave and were on their way to safety, Odysseus’ pride took control of him and he foolishly taunted the Cyclops by saying, “Cyclops, weak coward… your filthy crimes came down on your head, you shameless cannibal.”

In book eight Odysseus says, “‘All others I declare I far surpass, all that are living now and eating bread on earth’” (Homer 93). From this, the reader can infer through Odysseus’ actions that he is very confident and full of himself as he declares he is better than all others. Furthermore, this behavior can be a major deterrent to anyone working with him, such as his crew, and could cause major problems later in the story. Early into Odysseus’ perspective entering the story, he has already proven to have a lousy attitude, and the reader can infer that his arrogance will show up more as the story