The Heroic Hero Of Odysseus In Homer's The Odyssey

I believe that a hero is defined by a person who is admired for courage, outstanding achievements, and noble qualities. In Homer’s “The Odyssey”, Odysseus shows many heroic traits when he tries his best to lead his men home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. He depicts his leadership by showing self-control, cleverness, and loyalty. First, one of Odysseus’ main heroic traits is self-control. He portrays an example of self-control in the Cyclops episode. Poseidon’s son, Polyphemus, a colossal one-eyed Cyclops, traps Odysseus and his men after they are caught eating the monster’s cheese. Polyphemus traps them in his cave by blocking the only entrance with a massive rock slab. His men tried desperately to move the gigantic rock, but they failed to succeed. They give Polyphemus a abundant amount of wine to make him drowsy. When the Cyclops fell into a deep slumber,
Odysseus intelligently decides to stab Polyphemus in the eye, instead of killing him so he was still able to move the enormous rock slab. Another time Odysseus shows his self-control is in the Suitors episode. Athena, the …show more content…
He conveys his intelligence during the Sirens episode. To ensure that him and men would not be mesmerized by the Sirens intriguing song, he laid beeswax on the men's’ ears so they could not hear their song. In addition to that, he instructed the men to him to the mast of the ship so he could not follow their song. Another time the Odysseus shows cleverness in the the Cyclops episode. When he was giving Polyphemus wine to consume, he told the gigantic creature that he name was ‘Nobody’. So when Odysseus stabbed the one-eyed giant, Polyphemus called out to his other Cyclopes that were living on the island as well and said, “Nobody has stabbed me!” So the other Cyclopes thought that he was alright. In these ways he shows his intelligence. I believe that another one Odysseus’ significant traits is