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Examples Of Odysseus

Decent Essays

Odysseus: A Hero Who Uses His Mind to Conquer Obstacles The concept of a true hero is shown through Odysseus’s actions as he uses his intellect to overpower his challenges in the book, The Odyssey by Homer. By using his intellectual prowess, Odysseus is able to convince the reader that he is a genuine hero as he travels for ten years to ultimately achieve his goal: to return to Ithaca, his home. Odysseus proves himself as a hero by conquering the great Cyclops, Polyphemus, while using his clever guile. Also, Circe is able to befriend Odysseus through his cunning decisions that eventually benefit him with her trust. While avenging the suitors from his house and hiding his identity, Odysseus is seen as a hero through his intelligent planning. Odysseus overcomes his …show more content…

Ironically, none of his friends rescue him because Polyphemus says that Nobody is attacking him, and they think that nobody is hurting him and figure that Polyphemus’s suffering is from the gods so they cannot do anything to help him. By lying about his name, Odysseus uses his guile to keep his crew and himself safe from the perilous Cyclops as he suffers a painful injury. It is clear that Odysseus has a distinctive feature of making up creative lies, especially when protecting his crew. Here, Odysseus is able to trick the powerful Cyclops, Polyphemus, through his name, which later guarantees him safety of any of Polyphemus’s friends. Through this lie Odysseus, shows his heroic side by doing whatever it takes to protect himself, and most importantly his crew. A true hero always cares about their crew and finds any way to keep them safe. Odysseus’s clever and intellectual character keeps his men protected, which demonstrates his heroic abilities. Still stuck in Polyphemus’s cave, Odysseus comes up with a plan on how to escape the cave and return back to his ship. Odysseus’s plan is to attach each of his men with one of Polyphemus’s sheep by “twisting willow-twigs”(9.477) to them. When it

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