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Kyle Kerr

Dr. Francis

Euro Lit

13 November 2012

Odysseus is No Hero, He is an Asshole

Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus was put in several situations where his “cunning”

should have been more than enough to pull him from the depths of defeat, but each time he is

either tricked, pulled in by lust, or overwhelmed by greed. Odysseus was painted as a character

who longed for his return home, but often-times, home was a secondary objective to Odysseus’s

personal appetite for things which were unnecessary. His thirst for glory led him down paths

which would have been otherwise left untraveled, and ultimately delayed his homecoming.

The first example of Odysseus’s pride getting the best of him can be shown during the

tale of the Cyclops’s cave. Odysseus had no reason to hang out in the cave, but his quest for

glory got the best of him. After ignoring his crew’s warning to not stay in the cave, Odysseus

decides he will hang out. To his surprise, the Cyclops, son of Poseidon, is the resident of the

cave, and is less than happy about the intrusion of his home. The Cyclops eats a few of

Odysseus’s men and holds them in the cave.

Although it is through Odysseus’s cunning plan that they escape, it is hardly his wit that

got him and his crew in the situation in the first place. If Odysseus could have swallowed his

pride and just moved on, six of his men wouldn’t have been eaten by the Cyclops and he

wouldn’t have pissed off Poseidon by blinding his son which led to so many more problems for

Odysseus and his crew.

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During the telling of the story, Odysseus makes it very clear that he was the one who

blinded the Cyclops when he says “if any man on the face of the earth should ask you / who

blinded you, shamed you so — say Odysseus, / raider of cities, he gouged out your eye” (Homer

9.560-563). Odysseus, rather than looking to return home as quickly as he could, decided to go

on more escapades of glory. Seeking glory through selfish means while ignoring all previous

engagements of returning home makes Odysseus hardly a sympathetic character, but rather a trite

man only looking to make a name for himself.

Odysseus’s tales of glory don’t stop with the Cyclops. When Odysseus and his men are

nearing home, rather than Odysseus being the one giving into the thought of temptation, it is his

men who give in. They open up the bag of wind given to them by Aeolus thinking it is full of

riches. Rather than approaching the end of the journey, the men were overcame with greed.

Odysseus is partly at fault for the actions of his men for not properly guarding the bag of wind

and to allow the bag of wind to be torn apart. He knew the value of the bag, and any sensible

person in Odysseus’s position would have guarded their ticket home with more vigor than

Odysseus.

The bag of wind incident led Odysseus and his men to the realm of Circe. After a bunch

of Odysseus’s men get turned into pigs and a daring rescue mission, Odysseus decides to hang

out to seek glory once again. His men come to their senses and provide a voice of reason, but

naturally Odysseus, full of pride, decides to hang out for an entire year to be Circe’s sex-toy and

live in luxury.

The men begin to question Odysseus, and Eurylochus begs Odysseus to abandon the

quest so the crew can make it out alive. Odysseus returns with “Eurylochus, stay right here, /

eating, drinking, safe by the black ship. / I must be off. Necessity drive me on.” (Homer 10.298-

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300). This shows Odyesseus’s pride as a feeling of necessity to him rather than something that

should be kept under control. Odysseus, driven by pride, ignores logic and reason, even though

the book tries to paint him as the voice of intelligence and cunning. Odysseus puts himself in

peril and forces himself to come up with wonderful escape plans, but these plans would hardly

be necessary had he thought his actions through in the first place. Odysseus is rarely put into

these situations not under his own free-will, and his crew often-times offer a voice of reason.

Even though he has failed his men many times over, he still has his sense of entitlement. As a

leader, he believes his opinion is always right, no matter how fool-hardy his plans are, how

reckless he acts, and how many times he loses.

Even after Circe turns many members of Odysseus’s crew into pigs and one of his men

dies when falling off a roof during the stay, Odysseus decided to press on with his plan, no

matter how many men die. Even after the trip to the underworld, he decides it would be a good

idea to spend one more night with Circe. Odysseus, throughout the book, talks about how

wonderful his wife is, and later Agamemnon comments on Penelope’s good nature, even through

his own distrust of women.

Agamemnon said “Not that you, Odysseus, will be murdered by your wife. / She’s much

too steady, her feelings run too deep” (Homer 10.44-45). Considering Agamemnon was

murdered by his own wife, the compliments he gives Penelope carry much more weight than the

average person. Agamemnon realized that Penelope was a strong woman who loved Odysseus

deeply and wouldn’t betray him. Even though Odysseus confirms his love throughout The

Odyssey, and the mutual love is mentioned by other characters such as Agamemnon, one would

think that Odysseus would again be trying his hardest to return home, but he doesn’t even come

close to doing that.

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For something reaching for home and “in-love” with his wife, Odysseus sure does love

his escapades. Again, Odysseus’s meandering led them to the land of the Sirens, where Odysseus

wanted to be tied to the mast so he could hear the songs of the Sirens. Just another story for the

glory of Odysseus. Instead of pressing on, Odysseus decides it would be a good idea to hear their

song, even though he knows their song fills a man with endless temptation. For a man who is

already prone to temptation, Odysseus should have just put earplugs in like everyone else and

moved on with his life. While this situation didn’t necessarily put his crew in a bad position, it

was reckless and could have left them stranded.

Next, Odysseus and his men pass through the isle in which Scylla has her domain.

Odysseus knows the tales of Scylla and how she eats a man for every head she has, but rather

than avoiding the area, he decides to sail right next to her lair. This is another situation in which

Odysseus’s pride and feeling of invincibility gets his crew eaten by a monster. First he fought the

Cyclops, and now the six-headed monster, Scylla. One would think Odysseus would wake up

eventually and see that he his killing his crew through arrogance rather than his crew dying of

means uncontrollable by him. Instead, Odysseus, time after time, ruins the chances of returning

home in a timely manner. His entire crew end up drowned at the bottom of the sea, and Odysseus

comes prancing into his castle ten years later than he should have expecting everyone to

welcome him with open arms. Had Odysseus not meandered around for ten years following the

war, it would be conceivable for someone to feel bad for him upon returning home, but that is

hardly the way things worked out.

Odysseus through escapades of questionable intent delayed his return home by ten years.

Not only did he go monster hunting for glory, he had sexual escapades with goddesses, killed his

entire crew, and hung out with kings for extended periods of time to talk about how incredible he

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was while he was questing around the seas. Odysseus is one of the most self-important and

hypocritical characters of ancient literature. He always complained about wanting to be home so

badly, but took side-streets to delay his homecoming. His escapades seemed intentional, and

when not intentional, they were down-right selfish and stupid. For a character labeled as cunning

and intelligent, he sure was a dim-wit when it came to intelligent decision making. As the book

progressed, Odysseus became less and less likable as a character and more and more obvious as

an anti-hero. Even though he did glorious things, it was in delaying what he claims his real quest

was: To return home to his family who hasn’t seen him in twenty years.

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