Theme Of Hubris In Odysseus

As one can surmise from the tumultuous situations he is forced into over the following years at sea, Odysseus endured great hardships all due to his hubris. His crew was decimated and he was forced to live without his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, for far longer than he ever expected. However, like Gilgamesh, Odysseus is ultimately not ruined by his hubris. Instead, Homer decides to end his tale by finally allowing him to arrive home with “More [gifts] than he ever would have taken out of Troy / Had he come home safely with his share of the loot” (13.142-143), suggesting good fortune in the end for Odysseus. Although he indeed finds trouble at home as his wife has many suitors competing to win her hand in marriage and hoping to kill Telemachus, Odysseus is able to slay the suitors and reunite with his family. Odysseus’ life seems to return to the state of normalcy that it would have been if he suffered no tragedy at sea.
Sophocles’ Ancient Greek tragedy
The despair that iconic characters like Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Oedipus, Adam, and Eve experienced exemplified the dangers of excessive pride, self-confidence, and vying for godlike qualities such as seeking omniscience or attempting to control one’s predetermined fate. However, these characters’ downfalls (and the downfall of humanity as a whole in the case of Adam and Eve) were not ineradicable, as people may have come to believe about the effects of hubris in literature. What could this unexpectedly hopeful trend in ancient literature mean in terms of the authors’ true message, if they were also trying to convey that hubris has awful consequences? Perhaps it is simply an indication of humanity’s hope that mistakes like hubristic actions do not define us. We may all have character flaws, but it’s how we present ourselves that really