Odysseus and His False Heroism

Odysseus and His False Heroism

Once studied in depth, Odysseus, from the epic poem, Odyssey by Homer, is not a hero. Odysseus, although known as a “kingly and wise man” (I, 87) to the gods, clearly does not behave like one. A hero is one that attempts to help others despite putting themselves at risk and is also a good leader. One is not a hero if he is helping just so that he has bragging rights, but is helping because he or she wants other people to be able to achieve their goal, end their pain, or even go home after a long journey. As Odysseus makes decisions throughout the story, Odysseus becomes less and less like a hero, when he demonstrates hubris, shows poor leadership skills, and kills unmercifully.

Odysseus often uses his wits to overcome challenges, however, he often boasts about it soon afterwards. There are two types of hubris that Odysseus commits. The first type of hubris is disdain. This is the hubris that one has when he boasts about how he gets out of a dangerous situation that he has gotten himself into. The second type of hubris is arrogance. This is when one does something simply to be able swagger about being able to achieve something. On the island of the Kyklopes, Odysseus demonstrates disdain when offered an apology from Kyklops. In reply to Kyklops sincere apology and offer to become friends, Odysseus responds with, “If I could take your life I would and take/ your time away, and hurl you down to hell!/ The god of earthquake could not heal you there!” (IX, 571-574). Odysseus is telling Kyklopes, who is trying to make up for his mistakes and his own hubris, that he is much better than Kyklopes, just because Kyklopes is apologizing. This immediately removes Odysseus from the hero category, as if he were ...

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... hubris multiple times in the book and his leadership skills are quite inadequate as he cannot control even a small group of men. Lastly, Odysseus is incapable to control his desire for revenge even when prompted by the suitors and killed those that have worked for him despite that they did. Overall, Odysseus is clearly not a leader due to his hubris, inability to lead, and inability to control his emotions.

Goal: Elaborate when needed

I believe that I have met my goal as I have attempted to elaborate by including details from the text and have explained what the two types of hubris are compared to just stating hubris. I also believe that I have explained why Odysseus is not a hero following each quote and have explained my definition of a hero. Using my definition of a hero and the proof that I have stated, the reader can understand why Odysseus is not a hero.