Tabitha Adams - English
The conventional Homeric hero is a great warrior; passionate, violent and ready to face death in
order to achieve a glorious immortality, through the memory of his name for generations to
come. In The Iliad, Achilles is the epitome of the Homeric hero. He is a mighty warrior described
as the best of his race; “far the strongest of the Achaeans” 1 , furthermore he is a half god, the
grandson of Zeus, tantalizingly close to immortality. The Homeric hero is often consumed by
such fits of passion and glorious rage that he is reduced to bestiality. In The Iliad, having slain
Hector, Achilles bores holes through the dead man’s heels and drags him behind his chariot.
Apollo describes this behaviour of Achilles as that of a savage beast, “Achilles’ mind is
unbalanced…his thoughts are wild, like a lion who gives in to his great force and overmanly
heart” 2 .
From the very beginning of The Odyssey we can observe that Odysseus is an unconventional
hero. The very first lines of the epic poem read, “Tell me, Muse, the story of that resourceful
man” 3 , here Odysseus’ most important trait is revealed, he is ‘resourceful’ which can also be
translated as ‘ingenious’. The actual name of the hero is not mentioned until line 21 whereas
Achilles’ name is mentioned in the first line of The Iliad, demonstrating that The Odyssey is
much more about the hero as a man with a personality, rather than the hero as an iconic
legend, as with The Iliad.
There are numerous occasions where Odysseus displays his cunning or ‘ingenious’ nature
expressed in the first line of The Odyssey. For example he is willing to disguise himself as a filthy
beggar in order infiltrate the city of Troy, as described by Menelaus in Book 4, “He disfigured
himself with appalling lacerations and then with dirty rags on his back, looking like a slave, he
slunk into the broad streets of the enemy city... not detected by anyone.” 4 The contrast
between a hero and a ‘slave’ is very great, showing Odysseus is clearly willing to degrade
himself, a very uncharacteristic behaviour of a noble Greek hero, but one which demonstrates
his guile since it enables Odysseus to manipulate the unsuspecting society. He uses his cunning
again in the Cylcops’ cave in Book 9, calling himself ‘No-body’ so that when Polyphemus cries
out that ‘No-body’ is hurting him, the other Cyclops do not come to his aid. As a Greek hero, the
hero’s name is of the greatest importance to him since it is his key to immortality, therefore for
Homer to present Odysseus as literally calling himself a ‘No-body’, emphasizes the great self-
restraint and moderation of this hero.
1
Pg. 152, Homer., 2003. The Odyssey. London: Penguin Books
Pg. 84, Fowler, R. ed., 2004. The Cambridge Companion to Homer. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ( 24.39-42, Homer., Iliad)
3
Pg. 3, Homer, The Odyssey
4
Pg. 47, Homer, The Odyssey
2
5
9