Zero to Hero
“Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary”-Gerard Way. How does one make himself extraordinary? By having strong, valuable qualities that separate them from the rest of the human race. Odysseus from The Odyssey, composed himself to be an exceptional man. Odysseus is loyal, brave, and clever. These qualities make him a heroic individual.
Odysseus’s loyalty to his men and wife while on his journey is evident to the reader. Odysseus’s loyalty to his men is very crucial to their safety while traveling the oceans and seas. The first example of his loyalty is to men while on Circe's Island. While on their dangerous and prolonged journey, Odysseus’s ship stops on Circe’s Island after escaping the land of the cannibals.…show more content… His bravery is shown daily throughout this journey. Odysseus displays enormous amounts of bravery while facing Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla is a monster who eats passer-byers and cannot be killed. Charybdis is a monstrous whirlpool who sucks down whole ships and their entire crew. Before Odysseus leaves Circe’s island, she tells him that six of his men will be eaten by Scylla or his whole ship will be swallowed by Charybdis. Knowing that death is imminent, Odysseus encourages his men to continue rowing, knowing that if he tells them the disheartening news, the crew's morale would dwindle to a point of no return and they would all be doomed. When Odysseus arrives home to Ithaca, he furtherly proves his bravery while facing the suitors. Odysseus bravely faces more than 100 suitors in a fight to the death to save his home and family. Suitors charge at him with their weapons raised. “He drew his own sword as he spoke, a broadsword of fine /bronze / honed like a razor on either edge. The crying hoarse and loud/ he hurled himself at Odysseus. But the kingly man let fly/ an arrow at an instant, and the quivering feather butt/ sprang to a nipple of his breast as the barb stuck in his liver./ The bright broadsword clanged down./ He lurched and fell/ aside” (80-85). With arrows from Odysseus’s bow and help from his son, Telemachus, Odysseus defeated the vulgar suitors and saved his family, home, and Ithaca. This was…show more content… Odysseus’s cleverness is displayed numerous times while on his passage home to Ithaca . The first evidence of his cleverness is while on the island of the Cyclope. He cunningly told the Cyclope his name was Nohbdy, drunk, the Cyclope believed him. When escaping from the Cyclope to avoid being eaten alive, Odysseus and his men stab the Cyclops in the eye. While in pain and furious the Cyclopes yells in desperation to his other Cyclopes, “Nohbdy, Nohbdy’s has tricked me, Nohbdy’s ruined me!/ To this rough shout they made a sage reply:/ ‘Ah well, if Nohbdy has played you foul/ there in your lonely bed, we are no use in pain given by great Zeus’”(316-321). The neighboring Cyclops think that all is safe on their island and Polyphemus blindness is an accident not by Odysseus and crew. This allows them to escape the island safely. Odysseus’s cleverness is furtherly proven when he arrives home in Ithaca. With the help of the Goddess Athena, Odysseus is disguised as a beggar when he reaches his estate. This is extremely clever because they suitors will not know that Odysseus is alive and home. That way, no harm will come to him, his son, or his wife. His thinking ahead and cleverness in these two situations saved his life and the lives of his loved