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Examples Of Hubris In The Odyssey

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Having background information is very important when reading about anything, so here is some information about the topic of this paper. “The Odyssey” is an epic poem told by Homer, a poet from ancient Greece. Homer was blind so “The Odyssey” was most likely written by someone else after he told the poem. “The Odyssey” was originally written in Greek, due to this many parts of the poem may have been lost in translation. It is possible that some parts of the story may have changed or been lost, however the general point of the story likely remains. The hero of “The Odyssey” is Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, whose fatal flaw is hubris. Hubris is excessive pride. This paper is about how Odysseus is affected by hubris. How hubris affects his actions, …show more content…

Thanks to some quick thinking from Odysseus, he manages to blind the cyclops so he and his remaining crew can escape. After getting away from the cyclops, he turns back to the cyclops and tells him who he is. He said that his name was Odysseus and that he lives in Ithaca. After hearing this, the cyclops prays to Poseidon, the father of all cyclops, to get revenge on Odysseus for blinding him. Though there are no immediate effects, this causes trouble for Odysseus later on. He gained
Anderson 2 nothing from telling the cyclops who he was, yet told him anyway. Odysseus was so proud of his accomplishment, that he could not help but brag. In another part of the story, Odysseus and his crew have to sail past the sirens. Odysseus decides that instead of plugging his ears like his crew does he want to listen to the sirens song. He then has his crew tie him to the mast of the ship with orders to not untie him until they have past the sirens. Odysseus seems to have done this out of pride and curiosity. He most likely does it out of pride. To show his crew how strong and brave he is. He is probably also curious about the sirens song, wondering what could be so beautiful that it could lure so many people to their death. Doing this could lead to respect from his crew, and satisfying his …show more content…

His pride has continuously caused a lack of trust from his crew. An example of this is when he does not tell his crew about the bag of winds, which makes his crew believe that it is treasure that Odysseus wants to keep to himself. Another example is when he does not tell his crew that they will die if kill the cattle of Helios. Odysseus does not tell the men about these things because he is to full of hubris. He seems to believe that he is the only person who can know about these things. It has been shown time and time again that Odysseus trusts his crew, probably more than he should. So other than because of his pride, he has no real reason to not tell his crew about these

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