Odysseus: The Ideal Greek Hero

A hero is somwone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself- Joesph Campbell. Odysseus is an an optimal hero in both the physical and metal sense. In the physical sense he is a tremendus hero, because he was challenged to all these extreme dangourous adventures; he umexpectly walks out alive after questioning for ten years long and facing the most extraordinarily dangerous creatures and people. Why would Homer set up this whole exciting experience with all the strange comings that Odysseus has to go through, if this was not to show that this stong and intelligent man is a great hero of the Greek world? What will a strong itelligent hero of greek times look like?
Mental sense proves that Odysseus is a hero, he remains
Furthermore, at the end he has no conflicts with any of the gods. Even Poseidon is no longer angry with him, something that raises Odysseus in the rankings of the ancient Greek heroes. This man after going through all those ordeals is finally reunited with his family in his house, which was his ultimate goal from the beginning of his long and tedious
These flaws include the fact that he loses his men and the fact that he boasts about himself and commits blasphemy toward Poseidon when he says, "I am sure that even great Poseidon will never give you back the eye you lost" (Odyssey, Book IX, page 185). Nevertheless, this does nothing but adds to the idea of Odysseus being the ideal hero in the ancient Greek society. He is a mortal hero, a human, and humans have flaws. This again goes back to where we talk about the transition in the Greek society. The Greeks now embrace their mortality, they are not afraid of it. Even with his flaws, Odysseus achieves his goals and he is definitely the ideal hero for many generations to follow. The people can look to Odysseus as being a hero that they can relate to; unlike the previous perfect and unrealistic heroes, such as Hercules, that could only be