Odysseus Character Traits

Odysseus’ Personality Over His Journey Why do epics fascinate people and captivate them? Is it because the story, the adventure, or maybe the humor. Humans may never know, but here’s the rundown on Odysseus from The Odyssey by Homer. In this epic poem the hero Odysseus is sent from his home to fight the Trojan War. On the return the Gods put him through many trials and tribulations until he gets home. When, as Homer narrated to listeners, his home itself was besieged by traitors attempting to steal his home and wife. Odysseus is arrogant yet clever and patient throughout these trials, a near impossible combination of traits. Odysseus has proven that he is clever time and time again. For example, In book nine he is trapped in the cyclops’
The cyclops, Polyphemus, has eaten a few of his men, but Odysseus has an idea. During this the book states “now I chopped out a six foot section of this pole and set it down before my men, who scraped it; and and when they had it smooth, I hewed again to make a stake with a pointed end”(228-231). This shows that Odysseus is able to come up with ideas that people who aren’t as clever wouldn’t think of. This is a defining trait because his good ideas are part of his charm. In addition in book twelve Odysseus orders his men to tie him up to a mast of the ship and not to untie him even if he orders them to. He does this so he can listen to the sirens, also his men are ordered to fill their ears with wax so they are deaf to the sirens songs and won’t jump into the water and drown. This shows that odysseus is able to escape death with his plans, because no man ever lived to tell the
This is significant because it shows that Odysseus thinks he knows the intentions of supernatural beings. Finally, in book twelve when Odysseus comes up against the sirens because he doesn’t put wax into his own ears. This illustrates that he thinks he can listen to the sirens without any consequences for example if the ropes were not to hold due to some rush of adrenaline he would die and his crew would be lost and would rule in anarchy. This further proves that odysseus has no care for consequences that could destroy his crew if he were not there. This proves that Odysseus acts like he is better than he is. Odysseus has shown multiple times that he is these traits. Whether he used these traits to best cyclopes, or to listen to sirens. To annoy gods or befriend them. Odysseus has shown that he is a man whose personality is one of his best assets as he uses them to defeat his enemies and to escape death. This is useful to people because if humans were more like odysseus by the end of the story we would get past issues much faster and wouldn't freak out about little disputes and would listen