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How did odysseus goal develop his character
Odyssey good and bad actions
Odysseus character traits
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Another Side of Odysseus
Odysseus is considered a marvelous yet vain leader. If one were to venture deeper into the possible feelings and thoughts Odysseus has whilst doing some of the disputably arrogant things he does, light may be shed on a new feeling towards him. Because Odysseus is a cunning, courageous, and strong leader, he does things that can be perceived as presumptuous and selfish.
Odysseus is tactful in dealing with the Sirens. He listens to the advice Circe gives him and makes sure his men and him will not be deterred. She tells him not to let the song distract him or his men and they must keep going on their way, otherwise most of them will die. In the text, Odysseus says “..she urged that I/alone should listen to their song. Therefore/you are to tie me up, tight as a splint/ erect along the mast/lashed to the mast/and if I shout and beg to be untied/take more turns of the rope to muffle me” (12. 672-756).
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The text says Odysseus shouts to the cyclops as he sails away “...if ever mortal man inquire/how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him/Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye:/Laertes’ son, whose home’s on Ithaca!” (9. 457-460). He just escaped the cyclop’s home and him and his men still alive are leaving the land along with the sheep they stole from the cyclops. Odysseus proclaims his true identity and doesn’t think twice about it. It was brave of Odysseus to do such a thing, but it causes him a lot of trouble. He feels invincible for having deceived the cyclop’s, and rightly so. He wants the beast to know what he’s done and how powerless the he is now. Odysseus is acting on adrenaline and pride, causing him to shout and embarrass the cyclops. The amount of nerve it would take to do such a thing to someone so frightening is a tiny bit admirable. But because of Odysseus not thinking before he speaks, him and his crew suffer dire
One of Odysseus’ traits is bravery. One example of Odysseus’ bravery is when he injures a Cyclops that is 5 times his size, “I drew it from the coals and my four fellows/ gave me a hand, lugging it near the Cyclops/ as more than natural force nerved them, straight forward they sprinted, lifted it, and rammed it/ deep in his crater eye. 329-332” This quote shows how brave Odysseus and his men are to face the Cyclops. Odysseus was intelligent to think about this idea, but he was brave for actually following through and doing it. Odysseus was also brave for fighting Penelope’s suitors even when he was outnumbered, “Now shrugging off his rags the wiliest fighter of the islands/ leapt and stood on the broad doorsill, his own bow in his hand/ he poured out at his feet a rain of arrows from the quiver/ and spoke to the c...
There are many instances where Odysseus lets his pride get in the way. When he and his men are leaving Polyphemus’ island, he stops to taunt the beast and boast about what he had done. He tells Polyphemus that, “if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye.” This quote clearly displays how prideful and Odysseus is. Rather than leaving the wounded and betrayed cyclops alone, he goes out of his way to taunt and enrage him even more. He lets his pride and his arrogance get the best of him in this instance, purely to tell the wounded creature to spread the glory of his name. When he is discussing Scylla with Circe, Odysseus asks how he can “fight off Scylla when she raids [his] crew.” He does not want to accept the fact that he can’t fight his way through something. The fact that he can not fight Scylla makes him feel inferior to the monster, because he is driven by his pride which demands that he
Odysseus’ recklessness and resourcefulness are predominant traits apparent in the Cyclops episode. When trapped in the Cyclops’ cave and after four men have already been devoured, Odysseus comes up with a cunning plan to escape. They cannot simply kill Polyphemus while he is sleeping and run away, due to the ‘huge boulder rolled across the mouth of the cave. Instead, he uses the resources available to him by getting Polyphemus drunk before sharpening the Cyclops’ staff, heating it in the fire, and stabbing it in his eye, blinding him. This is an extremely reckless undertaking, as it further enrages Polyphemus.
There are many occasions in the story when Odysseus let his pride overcome his judgment and his crew suffered a consequence. When Odysseus defeated Polyphemus, his pride got in the way and caused him and his crew a lot of trouble. Instead of listening to his crew, who advised him "Why bait that beast again? Let him alone!" (495), he stayed and waited until the Cyclops of the cave returned. When Polyphemus stumbled into earshot of Odysseus, Odysseus shows how haughty he was. He insulted Polyphemus and told him “Cyclops, if any mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes’ son, who took your eye.” (502-505) knowing that Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, the sea God and that all of his travels were to be made on the sea. In return, Polyphemus curses Odysseus and makes his journey hard and treacherous. Odysseus let his pride cloud his judgment and this led to him acting like a madman and openly challenging a monster, which makes his travels home a great deal longer. Anyone in his right mind would know better than to insult a monster, especially the son of a God whose help you a...
When people think of Odysseus, they think of a great, cunning, warrior. Who wouldn’t see him that way, he fought his way through Troy and embarked on a journey back home to see his son and wife again. On the surface Odysseus seems like a genius but in Homer’s, The Odyssey, Odysseus shows many instances where he outwits his foes but his foolishness heavily outweighs his smarts; he becomes boastful after a victory which leads to more hardships, he leaves precious cargo in the open for his brutish crew to mess with, and refuses help from the gods which nearly leads to his demise.
Over a lifetime, people grow into smart people with different personalities and different interests. In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus does something just like that. Faced with many hardships and rough decisions to make, Odysseus has to either become different for the better or stay the same forever. The definition of change is to make or become different. Over time in the epic, Odysseus changes for the better of his future. Before Odysseus returned home, he didn’t care and simply nothing mattered. When he returned home, he was a completely different person. His change to himself got him home to his wife and son as a more mature person.
Throughout the whole book he is having his men go and do crazy things that make them risk, and some even lose, their lives. After Odysseus offends Poseidon by harming the cyclops he started taunting the cyclops. One of his men scream, “God Sake Captain! Why bait the beast again? Let him alone!” (493-494). This is showing that he was “baiting the beast” again and putting his men in even more danger after he just saved his life and all of theirs. Odysseus also puts his men in danger by not telling them about Scylla. He doesn’t tell his men that six of them are going to die. Odysseus says, “Voices came down on me in distinguish, calling my name for the last time,” ((820-821). This is showing that Odysseus just put his men in even more danger plus he isn’t fighting for his men. Odysseus was such a bad leader to his
Odysseus is strong, loyal and brave. Odysseus is referred as being strong and hard working. He is the friend you'd want to call for help to finish all the tasks you need to finish. Odysseus is strong and hard-working, but above it, he is the hardest working for anyone else. Odysseus has never ordered his men to do something he won't or can't do. He manages to constantly challenge himself more than his men. Odysseus is a born leader based on all of his qualities. He isn't ruling his men around him because he wants power. Odysseus was born to become a great leader and have control and powered. He is not a lazy slacker who is bossing his servants around; instead, he is next to the building and cutting on whatever task needs to occur to complete his ship. Eurylochos could have complained about overworking and not having time to relax, but Eurylochos recognizes Odysseus work ethic and respects him for
Odysseus displays his desire for glory through his careless actions during his encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus. The desire for glory Odysseus displays is shown through the words he speaks to Polyphemus. He is a clever character but makes rash decisions that affect the outcome of his original goals and intentions. While Odysseus is trapped inside of the cave of the Cyclops, he begins to taunt Polyphemus. “I called back to the Cyclops, stinging taunts: So, Cyclops, no weak coward it was whose crew you bent to devour three in your vaulted cave—with your brute voice! Filthy crimes came down on your own head, you shameless cannibal” (Fagles, 226). Odysseus was insulting the Cyclops, and those insults caused the rage of the monster to boil over. The Cyclops was already angry with Odysseus blinding him, and was even more demoralized and angry when Odysseus began to taunt him. As Odysseus goes on with his insults and as his anger rises, he says, “Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed—say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, La...
Odysseus wouldn’t of taken ten years after the Trojan war to get home if it wasn’t for his prideful trait. Pride causes Odysseus suffering all throughout the book. For example, once Odysseus was on his way off the island of the Cyclops, the epic says “I would not heed them in my glorying spirit, but let my anger flare and yelled: “Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes son, whose home’s on Ithaca.” After Odysseus and his men escape Cyclopes island, Odysseus pride kicks in and he tells off the Cyclop that he blinded. Telling the Cyclop his real identity, and his business. The Cyclop prayed to his father Poseidon (sea god), which Poseidon is still upset and still hold a grudge towards Odysseus, because Odysseus did not thank the gods after he won the Trojan war, and because of his pride, he said he did it all on his own. This would only cause more trouble for Odysseus and his journey home to extend
This is where he is wrong. He wants to leave the island and get back home, but really if the Cyclops has help from the gods that feel sad for him being blind he could be able to go to Odysseus’ home and destroy it all. So then when Odysseus is back all he will have is a destroyed hometown and a blind Cyclops to deal with. This is where individual good vs communal good, people in that type of situation especially with gods, and monsters involved you can’t just think about yourself you have to think about others. Yes, Odysseus was not selfish for leaving so that he could see his wife, but he was selfish of not thinking what could happen with a world of gods and a son of a major god, Poseidon. In this type of setting, you can not think about yourself you have to think about the entire world around you because with one word from the gods they can easily destroy cities themselves, or seduce others to destroy the cities for them, with a reward. Odysseus thinks that he can rule over the world and through his selfishness his actions will cause no harm as said, “The poem in effect redefines justice in terms that privilege the individual over the community, since Odysseus’ vengeance brings on neither exile nor death at the hands of his victims’ families”(10 Schein). In this case, Odysseus is very lucky because he is loved by the goddess Athena but for others this at times is the exact opposite, through their actions all they get is punished that leads to death. In addition, Odysseus has to stab the Cyclops eye, Zeus had to kill all of Odysseus’ men, and Penelope had to get a new husband. Without destroying the eye Odysseus and his men would have been trapped in the Cyclops’ cave. Zeus would have been hated by Helios, and as a leader you need to have as many people you can to like you. Also, Penelope had to find a new husband because that is her only way to have a social stance, without a man
The Character Odysseus in Odyssey "Odyssey" is an epic story that has been a significant piece of literature since it was first composed and will remain so for ages to come. One of the reasons it has been so is because of the hero, Odysseus. Odysseus was one of the first Greek mythic heroes renowned for his brain as well as his muscles. Indeed he is a man with an inquiring mind, and he is also a man with outstanding prowess and bravery" (123helpme.com/assets/3603.html). "We also must not forget that he is a top-notch athlete which only adds more to this seemingly insuperable character.
Odysseus orders his men to tie him up to the mast of the ship, so he can be the only one getting tortured by the Sirens’ song. Circe foretells that Odysseus and his men will die, in an effort to sacrifice himself for the crew, he tells his crew to tie him up. This daring moves is another reason why he is parted from the other characters, as a hero.
His stubbornness also contributes to his hot-temperedness. As Odysseus and his crew leave Polyphemus, Odysseus’ pride prompts him to yell out his name and address: “Cyclops…Say Odysseus, / raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, / Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!” (9.558-562). This arrogance causes him to be cursed by Polyphemus, and Odysseus has complications on his journey back. When Odysseus comes across Arnaeus, the response he gives shows his pride: “‘I’ll bloody your lip, splatter your chest / and buy myself some peace and quiet for tomorrow’”
From the get-go, Odysseus lies about his name, stating that his name is really Nobody. After coming up with a plan to escape the Cyclopes’ land and succeeding, Odysseus egotistical personality will not let him just leave the island peacefully; he has to boast to the Cyclops and give himself credit. Unfortunately, this is not Odysseus’ best moment, as this leads to Poseidon’s eventually revenge on Odysseus for interfering with his son, the Cyclops. Ultimately, this events shows Odysseus’ true colors as the unreliable, overconfident person he