Was Odysseus really a hero?
There have been many heroes throughout history. As time progressed the stories may have been altered and what these heroes may or may not have done is questionable. In the Greek epic the Odyssey, written down by Homer, Odysseus is glorified for his accomplishments but the author fails to emphasize on how he really was as a person. Odysseus was not a hero by modern standards because he constantly put his own good above that of his crew, was unfaithful to his wife, and betrayed the trust and hospitality of the Cyclops.
Though Odysseus was faced with many hardships his twenty years away from home, he virtually killed his entire crew. When Odysseus and his crew had to deal with Scylla and Charybdis he practically fed half of his crew to prolong his own life. However he did say “Friends, have we never been in danger before this? More fearsome, is it now, than when the Cyclops had us pinned us in his cave? What power he had! Did I not keep my nerve, and use my wits to find a way for us?...watch the drift, or we fetch up in the smother, and you drown us.” At the island of the Lotus-Eaters his men were having a fantastic time, without a care in the world, but then Odysseus forced them to leave the island. “All hands aboard……or you lose your hope of home.”
As Odysseus traveled, his men grew hungry and at one of their first chances to get food, Odysseus told them that they could not eat it. The cattle that Odysseus’ crew wanted to eat belonged to Helios, the sun God. His men were going to die of hungry anyway so why wouldn’t Odysseus just let them eat the cattle of Helios, and let them have the chance of survival instead of certain death. Odysseus told his men “Old shipmates, our stores are not in the ships hold… provision, or we pay dearly for it… Helios; and no man escapes his eye.” Odysseus then came to his senses and let his men eat the cattle, but then Helios is angered by the slaughter of his cattle and seeks Zeus’ help. Odysseus...