Characters In 'The OdysseyBy Homer'sOdysseus'

Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus has the tendency to be a narcissistic, selfish and inconsiderate leader towards his men. When Odysseus and his men finally escaped certain death from the giant cyclops, Polyphemus, the not-so-heroic king of Ithaca shouted a taunt above the pleas of his aghast crew, towards the blinded cyclops. He yelled to the enraged cyclops,”If any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shame you so--say Odysseus(Homer IV. 558-560).” With this reproachful act of arrogance, Polyphemus, son of the wrathful Poseidon, cried out to his father, praying that Odysseus' travels be cursed and that he would return home a “broken man” and with “all shipmates lost(IV. 593).” This event shows how he is too unworthy

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

Odysseus, raider of cities, the son of Laertes, has many merits, but with the good always come the bad. He’s quite arrogant because he reveals his true name to the Cyclopes, Polyphemus, who curses him. Here is the why I think Odysseus is conceited,” O hear me, lord blue girdler of the islands, if I am thine indeed, and thou art father: grant that Odysseus, raider of cities, never see his home: Laertes’ son, I mean, who kept his home on Ithaca, should destiny intend that he shall see his roof again among his family in his father land, far be that day, and dark the years between. Let him lose all companions, and return under strange sail to bitter days at home.” (Line 485, Homer) As it is shown,

To illustrate this point, one might raise Odysseus’ cockiness into light, claiming that heroes are supposed to be more humble. In fact, Odysseus is so cocky that after escaping Polyphemus’ land he taunts the Cyclops and reveals himself as “Odysseus, raider of cities…Laertes’ son” (Homer 227). Instead of leaving it at him being “Nobody” he decides to divulge his own life story, thus giving Polyphemus a person to blame. If Odysseus wasn't so prideful and cocky Poseidon (Polyphemus' father) would’ve never known to curse him. In spite of this, Odysseus does prove himself. Heroes are not perfect. They don't swoop in and save the day, if anything, one of the best qualities of a hero is that they have the ability to learn from their past mistakes. Odysseus demonstrates this once he returns back home to Ithaca. At the moment, Odysseus is disguised as a beggar, and Melanthius is constantly mocking and abusing him. He’s even “lurched out with a heel and kicked [Odysseus’] hip” (Homer 361). In this scene, Odysseus could have revealed himself to Melanthius as the great Odysseus. On the contrary, “he steeled himself instead” deciding against beating “the scoundrel senseless” (Homer 362). Moreover, Odysseus redeems himself in displaying his ability to act

On the other hand, Odysseus is not the perfect hero he may seem to be. He can be extremely selfish, and has a sense of hubris that causes many problems for him and his crew. To start off, Odysseus' selfishness has been very easy to recognize these last few books. For example, when he informs his crew that they will be staying at Kirke's palace for some time, Eurylokhos objects. Odyseuss describes, "they turned back, as commanded, to this work; / only one lagged, and tried to hold the others" (10.475-76).

Throughout the epic poem Odysseus displays the quality arrogance through the way he acts when dealing with difficult situations harm his men. For instance,

Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus acts pompous, arrogant, and believes that he is better than everyone. His actions prevent him from accepting help from others- there are several moments in the book where Odysseus portrays these actions. For example, when entering the battle of troy, Odysseus yells out to the gods, explaining that he does not need them or their help. This action shows arrogance because Odysseus is only worrying about his own self importance.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus demonstrates the qualities of a poor leader because his arrogance and pride interferes with his judgement to make wise wisdoms, thus putting his entire crew in danger. When Odysseus and his crew escape the one-eyed cyclops, Polyphemus, Odysseus is overcome with triumph as he and his deceived the cyclops by securing themselves to the stomachs of the monster’s flock of sheep. His escape plan proved successful, and he then proceeded to untie his men from the grazing sheep, and make haste to their ship. Odysseus taunts Polyphemus as he and his crew begin to sail away. “You shameless cannibal (IX.534),” said Odysseus to the cyclops, who became filled with rage. Odysseus’s crew sense the will of Polyphemus to wreck havoc, and thus, ask

When confronted with temptation by the sirens, Odysseus makes his men plug their ears, but he keeps his unplugged so he can hear them. That was an unnecessary risk taken for his own self befit that could have caused tremendous trouble to himself and his crew. Another example of Odysseus’s egotistical ways is when he was sailing away from the Cyclops lair. He was in the clear after using his cunningness and telling the Cyclops his name was nobodys, when he declared he was Odysseus of Ithaka. He rubbed his victory in the cyclops face and cherishes his name like gold. Odysseus’s egotistical oppose his heroism and negatively affect his

This is one of the biggest flaws of Odysseus because his self confidence drives him to failure. For example, he almost got his whole crew and ship destroyed in The Cyclops cave. Here’s text from the story about the Cyclops. “ O Cyclops! Would you feast on my companions?

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

At the start of his journey, Odysseus has a great sense of pride and in some cases, arrogance. His success in Troy has caused him to think that he is superior to his crew

Some might argue that Odysseus was not just simply confident, but arrogant. We see an example of his arrogance in Book 9. Once he has escaped from the cave of Polyphemus he decides to taunt the Cyclops. He reveals his real name and says ‘So he was not such a weakling after all, the man whose friends you meant to overpower and eat in your hollow cave!”. This taunting nearly costs him his life as Polyphemus throws a rock at the ship and misses. The Cyclops also curses Odysseus. Had he been quiet he may not have went through as much suffering.

Of the four immortal deeds composing this driving force known as epos, Barbakadze correctly asserted this one as the most pivotal. Homer’s hero, on his path to apotheosis, seeks monuments built in his honor, songs sung about him; he is angry when fame is robbed from him by circumstances. Consequently, nothing else matters for the hero, not even the people left behind, like their sons; both Achilles and Ajax orphaned their own sons at the cost of immortality. Odysseus in stark contrast, and who was favored by Socrates according to Antisthenes, returned to his son albeit twenty years later.

Odysseus’s crew hurried to hush him because they had not escaped yet. But Odysseus continued to gloat. Polyphemus then prays to his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus and never let him go back to see his family again. Then Polyphemus picks off another mountain cliff throwing towards Odysseus’s ships, but this time the peak lands behind them pushing them away from the Cyclops Island. So that is one reason I think Odysseus shows he has a cocky trait.