Title George F. Kennan, an american diplomat and political scientist, once said, “Heroism is endurance for one moment more.” We often think that being a hero means someone who is fearless. This is not always true as we see in Homer’s The Odyssey. We may think that to be a hero you have to be strong and fearless, but really, a hero is someone who does not give up and perseveres - even in the toughest circumstances. Odysseus is faced with countless and potentially fatal obstacles throughout the book. Everytime he could have given up - but he didn’t. He endured the pain and hardships which made his heroic. At the end of the book, we learn that a “heroic superhuman being” feels fear and doubts himself like any other person. Odysseus exhibits
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To begin with, when the nymph, Calypso, went to tell Odysseus that he could leave, she “found him there on the headland, sitting still,/ weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away/ with the tears wept for his foiled journey home…” (5.167-169) The human weakness that is shown in this quote is when it says that his life was flowing away. This shows that he is losing life and only mortal humans can die. Second, when Odysseus is recounting how his crew felt when he Cyclops first spoke to them he said that “the hearts inside us shook,/ terrified by the rumbling voice and his monstrous hulk” (9.288-289). He describes how their hearts shook with terror. They would only be scared if they were fearing for their lives. Only mere humans can lose their lives. If you can’t die, then there would be no reason to be fearful of the Cyclops. Moreover, when Odysseus is concerned about fighting the suitors and says to Athena “but this worry haunts me, heart and soul-/ how can I get these shameless suitors in my clutches?/ single handed-handed, braving on an army always camped inside. There’s another worry that haunts me even more./ What if I kill them - thanks to you and Zeus - how do I run from their avengers?” (20.40-45). In this quote, Odysseus is worried about how he’s going to win these suitors. He is fearing that maybe he is not strong enough to face the many suitors. Notice how in all these quotes that show his human weaknesses, there’s always something about fear and death. Only humans would worry about death they aren’t immortal. Altogether, Odysseus does show human weaknesses several times throughout the
To begin with, when the nymph, Calypso, went to tell Odysseus that he could leave, she “found him there on the headland, sitting still,/ weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away/ with the tears wept for his foiled journey home…” (5.167-169) The human weakness that is shown in this quote is when it says that his life was flowing away. This shows that he is losing life and only mortal humans can die. Second, when Odysseus is recounting how his crew felt when he Cyclops first spoke to them he said that “the hearts inside us shook,/ terrified by the rumbling voice and his monstrous hulk” (9.288-289). He describes how their hearts shook with terror. They would only be scared if they were fearing for their lives. Only mere humans can lose their lives. If you can’t die, then there would be no reason to be fearful of the Cyclops. Moreover, when Odysseus is concerned about fighting the suitors and says to Athena “but this worry haunts me, heart and soul-/ how can I get these shameless suitors in my clutches?/ single handed-handed, braving on an army always camped inside. There’s another worry that haunts me even more./ What if I kill them - thanks to you and Zeus - how do I run from their avengers?” (20.40-45). In this quote, Odysseus is worried about how he’s going to win these suitors. He is fearing that maybe he is not strong enough to face the many suitors. Notice how in all these quotes that show his human weaknesses, there’s always something about fear and death. Only humans would worry about death they aren’t immortal. Altogether, Odysseus does show human weaknesses several times throughout the