Odysseus - Summary The Odyssey PDF

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Summary

Essay exploring the character of Odyssues in The Odyssey...

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In today's world, heroes are often overlooked and unappriciated. Despite this, people usually see a hero as someone who has helped them, or even a greater cause. Odysseus, from the Odyssey, does not fit this description at all. Homer's the Odyssey and multiple other texts prove my point. Odysseus should not be considered anything close to a hero, not now, not when the Odyssey was written, not ever. On many occassions, Odysseus only thinks of himself, he is extremely selfish. Instead of doing a heroic act and going down with his crew, he sacrifies six of them to a creature in the sea named Scylla. The heroic action in this situation would have been to die with his crew, which was an option. In his article, "The Truth about Being a Hero," Karl Marlantes writes a quote from Joseh Campbell in which he says "The moral objective is that of saving people, a person, or idea. He is sacrificing himself for something." The belief that the objective is to sacrifice yourself for another whether it being a human being or idea, is a common trait in modern heroes. Odysseus, on the other hand, gives his crew to this creature. In contrast, Campbell says the objective is "saving people, a person or idea," and Odysseus does do this in a way. He does save himself and there were many other crew members that were spared. The actions of Odysseus could be justified by claiming he deeply loved Penelope and wanted to return home to her. Though, those crew members also had families and wives they wanted to see once again. Along with being selfish and loving Penelope so deeply, Odysseus broke the heart of Calypso. You can see how hurt Calypso is when she asks Odysseus, "Can I be less desirable than she is? Less interesting? Less beautiful?" (Homer, 1209). The pain of the one you love leaves you is very strong, but I imagine it is so much worse when they are leaving you for another one. Odysseus would not have hurt Calypso so as bad if he would have left before he led her on for the span of his time there. Once again, the only person's feeling Odysseus took into account were his own. The crew, who were living to serve Odysseus, had a rather lot of information hidden from them. If he was a true hero, rhe amount of knowledge on the journey would have been that of Odysseus'. True heroes are not liars. He hid what he knew about Scylla and Charybdis. This

information was given to him way ahead of time and he had plenty of time to inform his crew. The knowledge of what was going to occur would have helped the crew possibly keep the six men they lost. Circe tells Odysseus, "No ship's company can claim to have passed her without loss or grief," (Homer, 1232). If this is true, it makes sense why Odysseus wouldn't tell his crew, correct? Of course not, think of how many seemingly impossible tasks the crew accomplished. With the help of his crew, they could have beat Scylla together. Odysseus was given another prophecy, yet this one was from Tiresias. In this prophecy, Odysseus is told that his whole crew will die, he will be the only surviver. Once again, keeping in mind the impossible this crew has done, their chances of survival could have been very likely, if only they had been given the oppurtunity to work together. The only reason I can see that Odysseus would not have told them was when they dropped their oars and panicked in response to sounds coming from the sea. Yet, they were unprepared for this, they would have been able to make a plan in order to face the upcoming struggles. Referring back to Karl Marlantes' article, he discusses a very hopless time when "a troublemaker" is described, yet his actions are very heroic. "Here he was, most of his body naked with only flapping rags left of his jungle utilities, begging for a rifle when he had a perfect excuse to quit," (4). The similarities between the person being described and the crew are few but the situation is so similar. Both were beaten, tired, and it seemed as though they should have just given up after the events they'd been through. Yet, the "troublemaker" didn't give up, why would have the crew? They were so close to the end, what would have been the point of just giving up. The amount of killings Odysseus is responsible for is ridiculous. In the end, he was responsible for the deaths of his whole crew. This is due to the fact he didn't give them the chance to even attempt to save themselves. His men became nothing more than sacrifices so he could return home safely.Although this was predicted to happen, he did not try to even stop it. Odysseus claims, "I told them nothing, as they could do nothing," (Homer, 1235).This quote proves Odysseus lacked faith in his men. Clearly, with this sort of attitude, there was no way the crew would have ever survived. The killings continue with Odysseus' return to Ithaka. This also connects with the

selfishness Odysseus shows throughout the story. Killing the suitors was unecessary. The punishment could have been simpiler and less drastic, such as only forcing them into slavery or stealing their best animals. Kirk Douglas wrote an article titles "Heroes with Solid Feet," and his friend, a Jewish lady living in Berlin in the time of World War II, which was a dangerous area for Jews in this time. She says, though, "Not everyone here was wicked." In this quote, someone who was surrounded by people considered one of the most evil in history, found beauty, found good people. Of course there are differences in the situation, but not every suitor was a horrible person. There is absolutely no way there was only pure evil among the suitors. As you can see, Odysseus was not, and still not, an example of a hero. He acted selfishly, lied to his own crew and killed a large number of people. A hero changes lives, not destroy them....