Great Battle Between Odysseus And The Suitors example essay topic

"What do you admire, and what do you find to criticise, in Odysseus' behaviour as a hero?" What I admire about Odysseus' behaviour as a hero is his confidence. Rather than being self-doubting of his abilities he is proud of them. We see this in Book 9 when he deals with the Cyclops Polyphemus. Firstly, he tells the Cyclops his name is 'Nobody'. This idea helps him to escape at the end when Polyphemus screams "O my friends, it's Nobody's treachery, not violence that is doing me to death", and the other Cyclopes believe that nobody is hurting him.

He escapes the cave using a sharpened, burning stick to blind the son of Poseidon, and then laughs to himself about how the 'cunning notion of a false name' fooled the Cyclops. He shows a lot of pride in what he has done when he says this. A hero should be smart and have confidence in his own abilities, and Odysseus certainly shows both of these traits in this book. In Book Ten Odysseus shows his loyalty to his men. He kills a huge stag on Circe's island for his men. Later, when Eurylochus comes back alone from Circe's house, Odysseus says he has "absolutely no choice" but to save his men.

He could have easily left his men behind, but he insists on saving his men. After befriending the goddess, Odysseus refuses to eat until he sees his companions safe and sound. The scene of their reunion is a compassionate one, and even the goddess Circe herself is moved. In book 21 we see Odysseus' great strength, a very admirable quality in a hero. When nobody else could string the great bow, Odysseus 'strung the great bow without effort or haste' and shot an arrow through every axe. Skills with a weapon are necessary to have for a hero.

Book 22 sees the great battle between Odysseus and the suitors. He kills all the suitors despite their pleas. He shows some compassion however when he saves Phemius and Med on, who were forced to work for the suitors. He could have killed them just like all the others, but spares their lives at the request of his son.

I admire that he is kind to them after being so ruthless to the others. Book 23 is when Odysseus and Penelope get together again. Odysseus shows why he went through his journey in this book. After all the obstacles and deaths of his friends he has reached his goal.

I admire him as a hero in this book because we see he really cares for Penelope. I think back at all that he went through in his journey and admire him because he did it all for her and their son. Some might argue that Odysseus was not just simply confident, but arrogant. We see an example of his arrogance in Book 9. Once he has escaped from the cave of Polyphemus he decides to taunt the Cyclops. He reveals his real name and says 'So he was not such a weakling after all, the man whose friends you meant to overpower and eat in your hollow cave!" .

This taunting nearly costs him his life as Polyphemus throws a rock at the ship and misses. The Cyclops also curses Odysseus. Had he been quiet he may not have went through as much suffering. In Book 10 he needs help from Hermes to save him and his crew. Hermes gave him a milk-white flower called 'moly' and told him that it would "make him immune from evil". A true hero would not need help from the Gods to save him in my opinion.

Book 21 shows that Odysseus can be quite greedy. While Telemachus was setting up the axes he decides to try and string the great bow himself. After a few attempts he almost had it strung when Odysseus 'put an end to his attempts with a shake of a head'. Odysseus doesn't want his son to string the bow himself and he wants to be the only one that can do it.

He seems to be quite selfish by doing this. In Book 22 he is ruthless in his assault on the suitors. He only saves two people and they were at the request of his son. He does not give any reason for killing them when Eurymachus tries to talk his way out of death by promising to repay him. Anti nous had already been killed and he was their leader, and killing the rest seems un-heroic to me.

In Book 23 Odysseus forgets all about everyone apart from his wife Penelope. He is the ruler of Ithaca yet forgets about his duties to be with his wife. After such a battle the people of his land would be in need of direction and someone to calm their nerves but Odysseus was too busy. A hero needs to be a good leader and Odysseus does not act like one here..