Odysseus Character Analysis Essay

Improved Essays
Odysseus is the legendary king of Ithaca in ancient Greek myth, son of Laertes and Anticleia. He appears in Homer’s epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey , serving as the protagonist for the latter. He is often portrayed as being extremely smart and clever, and in The Iliad he is credited with creating the Trojan Horse, which famously allows the Greeks to get inside the city of Troy and ultimately win the war. He actually tries to avoid serving in the war, attempting to pose as a mad farmer and not be known as the king of Ithaca, but the crew sees through this, and place his then infant son Telemachus in front of his plow. After this, he is forced to join the warmongering Greeks. His journey home from the war is the main plot for The Odyssey. …show more content…
However, the main conflict of the epic is his favor, or lack thereof, with the god of the sea, Poseidon. Poseidon takes the Trojan’s side during the war, so he is angry with the Greek victory. And during the course of his voyage home, Odysseus blinds his son Polyphemus the Cyclops, and his men eat the sacred sheep of Helios, further fueling Poseidon’s fury. The misfortune and eventual shipwreck of Odysseus’ crew is attributed to this. But even through this, he finally returns to his kingdom. His return is bittersweet, however, as he discovers his wife, surrounded by suitors. Still, he reclaims his throne, wife, and son after twenty years away from his kingdom. Odysseus today has several cultural impacts, including a “Trojan Horse” becoming a term for anything innocent used as a guise that then turns out to be malicious, and an “Odyssey” being a term for a long journey. Odysseus is a powerful figure who still has literary impacts today, and he long will in the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Week Four Summary Response Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, entails the story of Odysseus and his long journey home after fighting in The Trojan war for ten years. It then takes him ten more years to reach his home in Ithaca where his wife and child have been fighting off suitors trying to steal Odysseus’ throne, King of Ithaca. His journey home begins when he escapes the clutches of the Calypso. Along the way, he faces many great obstacles and trials. Once he makes it home he then proves his identity, slaughters the suitors, and takes his wife back along with his throne.…

    • 188 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the epic poem ,the Odyssey, by Homer relates Odysseus’ heroic journey to his home in Ithaca after the defeat of Troy. His prideful boasting about the victory has the god, Poseidon, pitted against his voyage home, and in Odysseus’ absence, suitors take over his home and threaten his wife, Penélopê, and his son, Telémakhos. In her attempts to bring Odysseus home, Athena urges Telémakhos to begin his own travels in search of his father. During Odysseus’ trial to return to Ithika appearance reveals itself in diffrent ways to aid Odysseus and Telemachus.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, the main character in this poem is Odysseus. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca and he was an incredible person, everyone in the town loved him as if he was in their family. In the beginning Odysseus and his wife Penelope have a child, but Odysseus’s time is cut short with the child since he had to go to fight in the Trojan War. During the story Odysseus won the Trojan war heroically by trickery. He escapes and hurts a cyclops and survived a horrendous storm.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever spent nearly 20 years trying to reach one goal? Have you’ve heard the great story of The Odyssey by Homer? This is a heroic story of a man and his determination to return to his homeland and to his family. Odysseus, the heroic man, that endures different obstacles that are in his way in order to return home to the life he once had. Throughout his journey, Odysseus loses friends and encounters Greek gods.…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Odysseus Hero Analysis

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    Odysseus’s ruthless actions and tendency to do whatever he needs to do in order to succeed causes him to be unworthy of his heroic title. In order to show how ruthless and willing Odysseus is, Homer writes how the supposed hero either kills his enemy, or he blinds them and that undeniable truth about his ruthlessness in Homer’s words reads, “rammed it/ deep in his crater eye, and leaned on it/ turning it as a shipwright turns a drill/ in planking, having men below the swing/ the two-handled strap that spins it in the groove. / So with our brand we bored that great eye socket/ while blood ran out around the red-hot bar. / Eyelid and lash were seared; the pierced ball/ hissed broiling, and the roots pooped/…While he had arrows/ he aimed and shot, and every show brought down/one of his huddling enemies.” (Homer 992, 1042)…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Odyssey Hero's Journey

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. Its all part of the fairy tale”.- Peter S. Beagle. The Odyssey by Homer is an epic about Odysseus. Odysseus is the king of Ithaka and the protagonist of the epic, who goes to fight in the Trojan war. On his way back from the Trojan war, Odysseus encounters many problems due to which held him back.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Odysseus Is A Trickster

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Odyssey, written by Homer, is an adventurous journey Odysseus experiences on the way back home to Ithaca and Penelope. Odysseus comes across many situations where decisions need to be made in order to find safety. Odysseus has many roles in the Odyssey. Odysseus is known as a soldier and a king, as well as many more things. However, Odysseus was also acknowledged as a trickster, which defines Odysseus as a person and has been an aid in many situations, for when Odysseus encountered the Cyclops, Circe, and the suitors back in Ithaca.…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Odyssey, an epic poem by Homer later adapted into a play by Simon Armitage, is a narrative depicting the journey of the greek hero Odysseus back to Ithaca after fighting in the Trojan War. His voyage spans twenty years, and throughout the course of his trip back home, Odysseus and his men encounter various obstacles that they need to overcome. Since Odysseus is essentially the leader of his crew, it is most often his responsibility to defeat the enemy and solve the problem at hand. At times, his actions could be classified as violent and unjust, such as him causing unnecessary conflicts with enemies and resorting to killing them. Nonetheless, Odysseus is still a war veteran, and has been exposed to this brutal style of solving issues for…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Arrogance In The Odyssey

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Odysseus, the son of laritiz, is the main character in Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus is a skilled warrior and the king of Ithaca. While he might be admired by many for his war tactics and ideas his relationship with the gods is a totally different story. He shows lots of attitude towards the gods and refuses to give them any credit for helping him in his accomplishments. Throughout his journey home to Ithaca Odysseus displays many acts of intelligence, arrogance, and bravery.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Odysseus Hero Analysis

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When reading The Odyssey, most think of the main character, Odysseus, as a true and epic hero on his adventures. In reality, Odysseus is not as much of a hero as his made out to be. His decisions are cowardly and unwise of him to make. The Greek gods do most of the work during his venture to Ithaca. Plus, Odysseus’ motives are almost entirely for his own self gain.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The timeline of The Odyssey begins after the Trojan War, but Odysseus’ story begins well before The Odyssey and the war. At the start of the Trojan War, the hero, Odysseus, is home in Ithaca with his wife, Penelope, and newborn son, Telemachus. This is where Odysseus receives “information… that acts as a call to head off into the unknown” (1), better known as the call to adventure. The elopement of the Spartan king’s wife, Helen, with Paris to the city of Troy culminates into “the famous Trojan war, [and serves as] the theme of the greatest poems of antiquity, those of Homer and Virgil” (Bulfinch). The Trojan War is what ultimately serves as a herald as it causes Odysseus’ call to adventure.…

    • 1331 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Homer’s “The Odyssey”, Odysseus goes through a twenty year struggle to return back home to Ithaca. Poseidon delayed Odysseus’ homeward return from the Trojan War. Through his long journey to return to his home, his people, and Penelope and Telemachus. Odysseus reveals many virtues and vices, that he struggles with. His men also struggle with vices, which at the end costs them their lives.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Greek epic, The Odyssey, is a story of Odysseus, a war hero whom, after the Trojan War, had to find his way home to Ithaca. On his journey, he comes upon many perils, afflicting his crew and himself. His journey lasts twenty years, and the story consists of many different islands. The Odyssey can be interpreted as an allegory for the curiosity and temptations people face in life, as Odysseus must keep himself and his men from the Lotus Eaters, and Sirens, who lure them away from their voyage, and the Cyclops, who Odysseus meets out of curiosity.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout this voyage, Odysseus constantly speaks and thinks of returning home to Penelope and their son Telemachus, a thought that allows him to persist through all odds for twenty years. Odysseus’ absence from his household has left it unprotected and vulnerable to forces that might ruin its integrity, a great fear that makes his need to return home so urgent and strong, as Odysseus describes: “‘Yet, it is true, each day I long for the sight of home. If any god has marked me out again for shipwreck, my tough heart can undergo it. What hardship have I not long since endured at sea, in battle! Let the trial come’”(V.228-33).…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The story of the Odyssey, tells of a cunning hero who has gone on a journey to fight in the Trojan War, to recapture a queen named Helen, who was supposedly kidnapped. Ten years later, the war is over, but Odysseus hasn’t found his way home. Maybe it’s just an inevitable force(s) that causes him to stay away from his homeland for another ten years…who knows. Furthermore, the story shows its complexity through multiple themes its surrounded around. The most profound ones are: appearance versus reality, loyalty, and spiritual growth.…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays