The Odyssey: Sacrifice Vs. Success

HEROISM: Sacrifice versus Success

A hero is someone who is confident and competent. They show that they are fearless and put others before them. A hero is alert and aware of the lives he or she lives. Heroes usually have a passion for what they do and they do it and finish it, no matter the consequence. Therefore sacrifice contributes more to heroism because heroes putting themselves before others shows that they are selfless.

In the book The Odyssey, Odysseus is a very good example of how sacrifice contributes more to heroism than success. In the Odyssey, when he is trapped at Calypso's island he states that “By nights he would lie beside her, of necessity, in the hollow caverns, against his will, by one who was willing, but all the days he would sit upon the rocks, at the seaside, breaking his heart in tears and lamentation and sorrow as weeping tears he looked out over the barren water.” (5.154-158). In reality, he states that he just wants to go home because he does not like being trapped and also in this chapter was where he was told he had to sacrifice six of his men to the six-headed monster they were going to face on their way home. Odysseus wanted to tell him men but he did not want to freak them out, going back to say that sacrifice is more heroic than success. In life, people make plenty of sacrifices for other human beings for example, when your mother has to drop out of

college because she got pregnant and therefore could not continue with her education.

That’s a sacrifice right there that someone made in order to be a hero to their child. As humans, we tend to sacrifice more for ourselves than others.

In the article “The Psychology of Leadership” by Reicher, Platow, and Haslam, they state that “The wise leader is not simply attuned to making identities real but also helps followers experience identities as real. In this vein, rituals and symbols provide perspective by reproducing a dramatized representation of the world in miniature.” The author explains how leaders help people find themselves by providing that extra push of courage and faith.
Some people might say that sacrifice contributes more to heroism, and that is correct, due to the fact that to be a hero you have to make plenty of sacrifices and be able to have a reason to lead others. They need to have a reason as to why they are making those sacrifices.
Sacrifices and success contribute to heroism but the sacrifice is more likely to be made when the topic heroism is approached. If you were a hero would you think sacrifice or success contributes more to heroism?

Work cited:
Raffel, Burton. Trans. Beowulf. myPerspective : British and World Literature. New York, New York, Pearson, 2017 pp.19-42
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Books, 1996
Haslam, S. Alexander., et al. The New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence, and Power. Psychology Press, 2011.