Odysseus Is Not a Hero

Odysseus is Not a Hero Odysseus is often mistaken for being a great hero, and is often one of the first Greek characters to spring to mind at the mention of heroism. His great twenty-year journey after the Trojan War is one of the great epics of Greek literature. However, Homer's the Odyssey does not portray Odysseus as a hero, or a great king. Rather, Odysseus is an amusing anti-hero, and a bad king.

The reasons that Odysseus is not a hero include that he is irrational, stubbornly prideful, selfish, thieving, adulterous, and homicidal. There are many examples from Homer's the Odyssey that illustrate this character's antiheroism. Odysseus displays the characteristics of a bad king through his irrational behavior. One example of this irrational behavior is when his men wish to steal cheese and goats from the cave of the Cyclops before the Cyclops returns home and then leave the island at once to avoid getting caught by the monster.

Rather than discouraging his men from stealing because stealing is bad, he instead waits for the Cyclops to come home. "I would not listen to them, for I wanted to see the owner himself, in the hope that he might give me a present. When, however, we saw him my poor men found him ill to deal with." (Book IX) This is not logical thinking.

If Odysseus wanted cheese and goats from the Cyclops, he should have taken them, not waited for the Cyclops to give them to him as presents, because the Cyclops would have no reason to give him presents for trespassing! It is also irrational of Odysseus to react in such a frightened manner of the Cyclops at first, because the Cyclops has just been shown to be a humble and gentle creature. "He...milked his ewes and goats,.. then said..

'Strangers, who are you? Where do sail from?' " (IX) This creature, gentle enough to milk goats, politely asks who they are, and they react by recoiling in fear and horror! Again, the Cyclops very accurately calls him a "fool" when he introduces himself as being descended from those famous for "sacking so great a city and killing so many people," (Book IX) and therefore expecting hospitality. By requesting that the Cyclops "show..

some hospitality, and otherwise make us such presents as visitors may reasonably expect" (Book IX) and then lying to the Cyclops that they have no way to get off of the island and they are intending to stay there, he is in fact requesting that the Cyclops eat them, for lying trespassers that admit to being ruthless killers and refuse to leave one's home deserve to be killed.

How irrational it is of Odysseus to say to the Cyclops after several men have been eaten, " You ought to be ashamed of yourself; how can you expect people to come see you any more if you treat them in this way?' (Book IX) the Cyclops obviously does not want people to visit him! Another fault that makes Odysseus an anti-hero and therefore a bad king is how stubbornly prideful he is.

An example of this behavior is when he is escaping the island of the Cyclops and decides to jeer at him from the sea and boast by telling him his true name. Odysseus tells that even his men "begged and prayed of me to hold my tongue." (Book IX) Had Odysseus not further taunted the Cyclops, the monster would not have learned Odysseus's real name (and his father's name, and his birthplace!) and therefore called down the wrath of gods upon the ships.

Another stubborn behavior of Odysseus is that he refuses to let anyone else steer the ship because he is the captain. Because of this, when they are approaching land, they wind up off course again because he falls asleep at the wheel.

"We got so close in that we could see the stubble fires burning, and I, being then dead beat, fell into a light sleep, for I had never let the rudder out of my own hands." (Book X) Odysseus yet again shows his stubborn pride when he challenges Circe's advice that Scylla cannot.