For a majority of class Wednesday we focused on the theme of heroism, and more specifically in regards to Odysseus. Personally, I have always viewed Odysseus as a heroic character, especially considering The Odyssey is an epic poem, but not all of you were quite as convinced. And, that made me think - What makes a hero? Must a hero have a specific goal or drive? Are heroes a product of their environment/culture? Is one's hero all's hero?
In my eyes, a hero is more than a winner. My hero does not have to be the biggest, strongest, or fastest; nor does he need to be the richest or most powerful. For me, heroism is most synonymous with leadership. Leaders and heroes are competetive without depending on success, demanding but still caring, strong but still in touch with emotion, charismatic without being austentacious, and most importantly leaders and heroes perservere. Odysseus, is a hero.
Against all intuition Odysseus leaves his kingdom, embarking on a journey towards Troy, where he fights and wins the Trojan war. But Odysseus' win at Troy was just the first step in a journey that would ultimately take him over 20 years to complete. For 20 long, arduous, bloody years Odysseus struggled to return home to his wife and his son. At every turn he was led further astray from his path, and further away from his family. He battled against the strength and brutality of the cyclops, the tempting, compelling words of Circes, endured 7 years of capture with the demigod Calypso, and endured years upon years of lost fatherhood and husbandry.
But what did Odysseus do? - He perservered. Odysseus, after 20 years of travel returned home to his son, his wife, and his kingdom; but, no before outwitting and crushing all opposition of the suitors that had inhabited his palace. I realize that Odysseus has flaws, and in heinsight there are points during his journey which differen't and perhaps more time and effort economical choices could have been made, but he is human. And, while some may argue that in this world of Greek mythology that human are merely pawns of the Gods, this pawn conquered, this pawn forged past the knights, past the bishops and rooks, and past the queen to the king. Check mate.
I totally agree with your point about heroes not always having to be the biggest or strongest. My idea of a hero is also one who is not perfect. I think the fact that Odysseus did overcome so much makes him heroic. But what makes his relatable in addition to being heroic is the fact that he is flawed. It's kind of cool to us to still find this cunning, strong, witty, powerful war hero to also have humanness; flaws, mistakes, accidents, failures. It makes us mortals think, hey, he's almost kind of normal, but still has that bold and brave essence we look for in our heroes.
ReplyDeleteThe chess metaphor was really accurate! It's like Odysseus is a passed pawn. A king who becomes a soldier who becomes a beggar who becomes a king. That kind of sounds like my memory of the movie ads for the film Gladiator-- "the man who became a slave who became-- Gladiator." That's another swashbuckling story, about a character who is a powerful leader of men, like Odysseus, another human hero, but there's no happy ending until after the hero dies-- no reunion with his wife and son in the living world, as there is in The Odyssey. Your observations about what makes a leader and what makes a hero-- especially your summary of Odysseus's zigzagging detours and perseverance-- make some excellent points and really good reading.
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