Boldness In Odysseus

Attributes of Odysseus and his Crew

The great man of exploits, leader of the crew, commands his men to pack up and sail away. However, they are entranced by the lotus plant, so they do not listen to their leader. The plant makes them lose all their determination, and the only thing they desire is the lotus. The leader sees how this goes against their whole mission, to return home. He corrals his reluctant men, and drags them back to the ship. They are begging to stay, but the man knows deep in his heart that this is in their best interests. It is moments like this in Homer’s Odyssey that demonstrate the type of person our epic hero is and how he differs from his crew. In “Courage vs. Boldness: How to Live With Spartan Bravery” by Brett and

Kate McKay, courage and boldness are contrasted as two very different traits; courage is manly while boldness is boyish. Odysseus, the hero of the Odyssey, displays courage throughout the poem but his crew is quite bold. This is shown as Odysseus endures twenty years of hardships that none of his crew members are able survive with him.
Odysseus’ courage always outdoes his crew’s boldness.

The book Tides of War by Stephen Pressfield is mentioned in “Courage vs. Boldness”, and it defines courage as having endurance, or being able to “slog it out”. The difference between that definition and boldness is that boldness is impatient and ravenous. This can be seen in Odysseus’ encounter with the Cicones. After leaving Troy, the first place Odysseus stops is Ismarus, the island of the Cicones. Odysseus and his men decide to ransack the city, stealing treasure and the wives of natives. Odysseus realizes when enough is enough, but his men are ravenous and disobey Odysseus by continuing to sack the city. They stay for too long and the Cicones fight back, killing 72 of the crewmembers. The boldness of the crew is what causes 72 of them to be killed. They were greedy and not prepared to endure with what they had gained already. If they had left, they would have all survived. Unlike the crew, Odysseus was prepared to leave the island with what they had already taken. Odysseus can slog it out, but the crew is antsy and avaricious which leads them to their

downfall.
Another example of Odysseus showing courage and his crew showing boldness is when they are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to eat sacred cattle. In addition to endurance, courage also incorporates reverence. Boldness, however, does not show reverence. When they all land on Thrinacia, the crew is tempted to eat the sacred cattle of Helios, the sun god. Odysseus warns them not to eat the cattle, or they will be punished. However, Eurylochus, one of the crew members, persuades the starving crew to eat the cattle. He argues that starvation is the worst possible death. Because the crew eats the cattle, they all end up being destroyed by Zeus’ lightning bolt, except for Odysseus. The crew demonstrates boldness once again since they are not prepared to endure starvation. On the other hand, Odysseus shows courage by slogging through this tough time. Odysseus also shows reverence to the gods by taking his problems to these immortals. He respectfully prays to Zeus while they are in this predicament, asking for his help. The crew does not show reverence; they display the complete opposite. They slaughter the sacred cattle that are owned by Helios, a god. Because of this disrespect and inability to endure, they end up dying at the hands of Zeus while Odysseus is the only man to survive.
An epic hero is someone who must show courage, and Odysseus is no exception.

He isn’t a god, but he is certainly a step above average mortals. The crew and other mortals in the story are mostly seen as bold, and this is why we focus on the epic hero and his journey. Odysseus’s courage allows him to survive while the bold do not. The Odyssey solidifies this by killing off bold characters like the crew, and even Penelope’s suitors. In Ancient Greek culture, epic poems gave the Greeks role models. The Greeks looked up to Odysseus, and yearned to be like him: a courageous hero. By examining Odysseus, it is easy to see how his success and failure exceeds everyone else’s which is attributed to his

courage.