Odysseus A Hero Analysis

Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, is not what people would consider a hero. He lies, cheats, steals, and murders. There is no doubt that most men had to endure what Odysseus but the big question is, did he do any of the things he did with decency or honor. Heroes are supposed to be a good person overall. Meaning that heroes do everything with decency and honor. So does it mean that Odysseus is a villain? No he is not but he is not a hero as well.
Odysseus has no respect for anyone, he only has respect for himself. He values himself over anything else, especially his own crew. They were willing to fight and die for him but he had the nerve to call them “mutinous fools”. He called them this because they ate some cow from Helios’ land after going through everything they had gone through. When he knew that his crew was going to die for it, he didn’t do anything about it. He could have easily paid homage to the gods to try to get forgiveness …show more content…
Yes, that can be said and that is true but that was the only time he had respect for them and tried to help them. He basically killed his crew and never tried to help them as much as he could. The other argument that can be made is “He was out at sea for twenty years and saw all these beautiful woman, all men would more than likely do the same if they were in his situation”. Wrong, men who loved his family would wait; his wife waited, why couldn’t he? Penelope could have easily run to a new man that is a king of a different island but she waited for him, he screwed her over by cheating on her.
Odysseus will a hero, he is basically a reverse version of Robin Hood. He killed his men, had no respect for anyone, and he couldn’t stay true to anyone. None of those are hero qualities. Those are non-hero qualities. Odysseus will never be a hero; he will always be a