Odysseus Helping Others Research Paper

Odysseus was a great leader and hero throughout the story in many examples as I have listed below. My first example is when Odysseus was able to make a spear when he was in Polyphemus's cave. He then took the spear and drove it through the eye of the beast, blinding him. The cyclops then moved the boulder and the men escaped by hiding under sheep.This example shows that O. is a hero because he is daring. If the cyclops was to find any of them or he had missed and woken him then this surely would have meant death for them. The second reason is in book twelve when O. must pass the sirens. To do so he slabs beeswax on the ears of his shipmates. This will make it so them can not be lured into the captivity of the sirens. O. then lashes himself

In the book The Odyssey, a general from Ithaca, named Odysseus, has gone through a long journey to get home from the war in Troy. He and his crew have faced many rigorous unexpected challenges on their way home. On this journey, Odysseus has tried to be the hero and have everyone come out alive, but he was not successful. The actions of Odysseus, during his journey, does not qualify him as a hero. He is dishonest to his crew and friends and he takes them for granted.

On the island of the Cicones, after a fierce battle, Odysseus instructs the crew ( formerly a small army squadron) to round up slaves, food and other materials and board the ship to row back home. The crew says no and wants to feast on the comfy beach. A few survivors of the battle run inland to the main city to warn the main army. In the end, Odysseus and his men escape, leaving many dead. Now, it is right that this time, their deaths were not entirely his fault and Odysseus did care about his crew over here, trying to convince them to get on the ship and go home. But Odysseus couldn’t have done anything to change their minds. It was him against many who wanted to just stay on the beach. This time, it was the crew’s fault that so many were slain. But at the Cyclops, they were making a getaway, and Odysseus taunted the Cyclops and brought Poseidon’s wrath upon himself, making him at the fault for his crew’s deaths from that point on. So, to sum it all up, Odysseus is responsible for the deaths of his crew. If he hadn’t neglected them, brought a powerful god’s wrath upon them and expected them to follow him blindly, they would have made it back to Ithaca. Odysseus is a good example of what a leader shouldn’t be like. That is what Homer may have been trying to hint at when Odysseus had all his men killed; that a great leader shouldn’t be reckless and think about their own needs, but rather

The majority of those who read The Odyssey consider the protagonist of the story, Odysseus, a hero. On many occasions, however, Odysseus makes decisions beneficial to himself alone. For example, when Odysseus and his men find themselves on Polyphemus's island, Odysseus's actions are self-centered and at the expense of his men. This can be said for most of Odysseus's actions in the story, as his main objective is to reach his home. Having his men by his side when he returns seems a trivial thing to him. Odysseus could be considered a hero, but many of his actions say otherwise. Due to the many unfaithful and self-centered decisions he makes in the story, Odysseus is not a hero.

In homer's Odyssey the main character Odysseus is a person who only tries to help himself. Although he earns the trust of his men while in Troy, he loses it on his perilous journey home. Many times in the epic he manipulates others, commits foolish acts and is full of hubris. He tries to take shortcuts and as a result of this is men are killed and his boats destroyed. He plays with the lives of his men and he is punished for it. Odysseus is not a hero because, he is foolish, lacks faithfulness and is consumed by his Hubris and selfishness.

Joseph Campbell once said, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” True heroes are those who do something for others rather for themselves, Odysseus doesn’t exactly show this trait in The Odyssey. In The Odyssey, Odysseus along with his men try to go back home to Ithaca but due to Odysseus nature, only he actually returns alive. In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus proves he is not a hero because he is arrogant, secretive, and unfaithful; resulting for readers to believe that every action has an consequence.

Odysseus’s actions may seem selfless and/or heroic however they are actually being mistaken for acts of selfishness. “They tied me up, then, plumb amidships, back to the mast, lashed to the mast and took themselves again to rowing” (Homer 1134). Homer is describing the crew lashing Odysseus to the mast so that he may hear the sirens sing. Odysseus thinks he is being heroic and manly, but he is actually placing his life and that of the crews in danger all because he wants to hear the song of the sirens. Odysseus knows how loyal his crew is to him so, if one of them was to untie him they could have all ended up dead. Odysseus might think he was performing a heroic action but in actuality he was performing an act of selfishness. When Circe captured Odysseus’s men he was advised not to save them by his best man, Eurylochus, however “Against this advice, Odysseus rushes to save his men from the enchantress” (Homer 1125). Odysseus appears to be heroic but looking closer this rash decision was selfish. He rushed to save his men for honor. He cares more about honor than the safety of his crew. The rest of his crew that wasn’t under Circes spell would have been lost if Odysseus died because they rely so heavily on him. When a leader mistakes his selfish decisions as heroic it can place him and the people around him in danger. Odysseus’s inability to think through his rash decisions and recognize the right choice over the honorable and selfish one makes him unfit to be a

Odysseus displays a praiseworthy hero in more than one way. Again, he uses strategy over strength every time he lands upon a new island. Once Odysseus lands on new, unknown lands, he does not run to the king and queen telling them his name and entire life story. He knows that bragging and being rude will not get him very far. When he enters King Alcinous’s castle, the first thing he says to the queen is, “I come to beg you for mercy” (7. 184). He knows that by saying this they will have sympathy

In the end, I think Odysseus is a hero because although he does make mistake and although no one is perfect he tried his best to get him and his men home safely. Odysseus has many good qualities consisting of quick thinking, creativity, protectiveness, and many more. He also has bad qualities like curiosity and ignorance. So even though people make mistakes and don’t always do the right thing I think that they can still be a

First, Odysseus men came to Circe island and some of his men went off to hunt for food. To begin, One of his men come back and told Odysseus that everyone else was turned into an animal by a witch and one of them is the pig the men who stayed back were trying so hard to kill. Second, when Odysseus went back to his men he almost died from falling from the mountain that Circe house was on. Third, Odysseus boat was almost destroyed from the sand and erosion that happened to it, but that did not stop him, he fixed up his boat and went back to his journey. Finally, Odysseus did not back down from a witch that could have easily harmed him but he was not scared he wanted to keep his men safe.

Circe gives Odysseus a golden cup of honeyed wine for when Odysseus does not turn into an animal Circe, knows that he is Odysseus. Circe helps Odysseus and his men by telling Odysseus the dangers of their journey ahead. Circe says, "Son of Laertes and the gods of old, Odysseus, master, mariner, and soldier, you shall not stay here longer against your will; but the home you may not unless you take a strange way round and come to the cold homes of Death and pale Persephone. You shall hear prophecy from the rapt shade of blind Tiresias of Thebes, forever charged with reason even among the dead; to him alone, of all the flitting ghosts, Persephone has given a mind undarkened" (Applebee et.al 925). In conclusion, Circe is an archetypal hero because she gives Odysseus advice and aids him to Persephone who tells him how to return to

Both Odysseus and Rainsford go through life or death experiences and come out alive, but how did they both do it? In The Odyssey, Odysseus faces many obstacles that he has to overcome in order to make it back home to his friends and family stationed in his homeland, Ithaca. In “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Sanger Rainsford is hunted by General Zaroff and has to use whatever means possible to win the game. Odysseus and Rainsford come out alive in the end because they share similar traits. For example, they show great self-discipline and they know how to use their wits.

From the passages i have read Odysseus is not a hero. The heroes that I've seen in the movies and books many of them don't kill there men on purpose which Odysseus did exactly that.Odysseus had many flaws one of them was the fact that he said that men were better than gods.Odysseus also abandoned his family.Odysseus is not a hero.

Odysseus is not a hero. He was arrogant, boastful, and too proud. He got his men stranded, transformed, eaten, abandoned his family, and committed adultery against his wife, at least twice, while he was being tossed about the sea by Poseidon after he maimed his cyclops son. He is stated to have become desperate and humbled by our story’s end, but I don’t feel like that is the case. I think he revamped his old characteristics when he slaughtered the suitors in rage and revenge that had been squatting in his house for the decade he was gone. He was supposed to be a king and he didn’t act accordingly.

Then, with a flick of her wand, she turns the crew into mere swine and leads them to a pigsty. In this scene, Circe is able to seduce twenty men with her sexuality. This goes to show the extent of her potent sexuality, that even when faced with clear signs of threat, Odysseus’ crew venture inside Circe’s house solely because of her beauty. Later, before Odysseus enters Circe’s house, he is aided by Hermes, who gives him a drug to prevent Circe’s magic from working on him. He is able to prevent her magic, but when he tries to run through Circe with a sword, she coaxes him by saying, “‘Come, sheathe your sword, let’s go to bed together,/ mount my bed and mix in the magic work of love/ -we’ll breed deep trust between us’”