In The Odyssey Odysseus is smart in many ways and shows it. As Odysseus is in the of Helios and wakes up from his sleep and sees his men eating the cattle of Helios, he describes his men,”. . for their own recklessness destroyed the male children and they killed and on the feasted on the cattle of Lord Helios. . .” (Homer 1.10-14) This is smart because he knows that to feed on these cattle was not a good idea . When Odysseus is in the Cyclops cave and they are trying to escape, he ties his men to the bottom of the sheep so the Cyclops doesn’t feel them.(Homer 9.437-439) This is smart because the Cyclops were feeling the sheep to make sure they were sheep not men, and Odysseus was able to find a way for he and his men to escape by using the weakness of the Cyclops of not being able to see the men even when they were tied to the sheep. Both of these examples show that Odysseus can be characterized as smart.
In The Odyssey, Odysseus is arrogant and cannot control the urge to try to prove to his men just how much of a smart leader he is. For example, when he is sailing away from the Cyclops and the island he yells at the Cyclops stating his name. (Homer 9. 500-505) . This is arrogant because he has just saved himself and his men and now puts them all at risk by giving the Cyclops their position and thus putting them all in danger again. Later, he yells at his men for opening the wind bag that Aole gave Odysseus to help him on his way home. Instead of accepting his own blame in the journey taking longer he blames his men for it. Had he told them what was in the bag instead of hoping they would just think he had the know how to make the journey on his own with no help from anyone. These examples show through indirect characterization that Odysseus had arrogant tendencies that kept him from being a better man and hero than he was.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus can be indirectly characterized as smart and arrogant. He is a round character because he possesses both good and bad traits. In The Odyssey Odysseus is trying to find his way home and makes many good and bad decisions, even though he was a hero because he made it he still had many flaws. Even heros can be human because everyone makes mistakes.
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