Odyessus’s Use of Bravery Throughout his Adventures

“The Odyssey” is an epithet that encompasses a hero’s retelling of his own journey at sea. The hero in question, Odysseus, is highlighting the most important parts of his adventures. While discussing his adventures, many of the greek values, such as bravery, hospitality, honor, and respect are observed and debated. Some sources believe that, “Odyssues’s heroism is the way he combines cunning and wisdom with boldness and power” (Ford, “Heroism in The Odyssey”). One of the Greek values that Odysseus demonstrates the most is bravery. Odysseus cultivates his ideas and performs all of his actions with bravery, and his bravery provides him with the confidence to never back down from a risk, whether good or bad.

Odysseus’s great bravery brings a multitude of benefits to his crew and him. Due to this bravery, they are more successful, and they bring back more from their adventures. However, despite the positive aspects of Odysseus’s bravery, there are also consequences. Odysseus’s great bravery and boldness also cost his crew and him in many ways throughout the story. Odysseus led his crew into the Cyclops's cave without fear, although much of his crew had fears and doubts themselves, “My men came pressing around me, pleading: ‘Why not take these cheeses… and make a run for it?...We say put out again on good old salt water!’ Ah, how sound that was! Yet I refused” (Homer 1114). This quote shows Odysseus’s bravery in contrast to his own crew’s fearful ideas. Odysseus’s crew followed his leadership and ventured into the Cyclops’s cave with him. Odysseus further demonstrates his bravery in the cave, when he encourages the crew to stab the eye of the Cyclops after he had attacked them. They then leave the cave with goods such as sheep, cheeses, and more. After securing everything on the boat, Odysseus makes a bold choice to reveal his name to the Cyclops because he is proud of his victory. This leads to his journey being cursed and all of his men are doomed, by the Cyclops and Poseidon, to die. When the crew is reflecting after the encounter, the consequences of Odysseus’s bravery are especially obvious. Many of the men died in the cave after Odysseus led them there, and after being cursed, there is no hope for the men to reach their homes again.

The ways in which Odysseus uses his bravery makes him less of a hero. Sometimes he uses his bravery with only the interest of himself in mind. Odysseus makes a final decision before entering the Cyclops’s cave, “I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer—no pretty sight, it turned out, for my friends” (Homer 1114). This quote shows that Odysseus only wanted to take the risk of entering the Cyclops's cave to prove that the Cyclops would not demonstrate hospitality or the other Greek values. He also wanted to prove that the Cyclops was less than human and less than Odysseus himself. Odysseus took the risk that put his crew in danger, and the tragedy that resulted demonstrates the true nature of his intentions when entering the cave. Contrarily, a time when Odysseus’s bravery saved lives and had a positive outcome, was when he led the Trojans to victory through his idea of the Trojan horse. This risk was one of the factors that allowed the Trojans to win the war against the Romans, and thus Odysseus used his bravery with good intentions because the result benefited not only him, but others too. Despite this instance where Odysseus’s bravery and boldness came from good intentions, most of his other ideas came from selfish intentions that led to tragedies.

Odysseus’s misuse of his bravery as well as his power can also be seen in the real, modern world. Oftentimes leaders in politics and other social areas rise to their position because of their positive acts of heroism and bravery. While they are gaining their power, their actions hold the intent of benefiting others around them. When they are finally in the position of power, however, they begin to set their brave intentions for themselves. They focus more on the prospect of others knowing their name and all of their achievements. They also focus on gaining more and more power. A modern day example of this are the decisions that politicians make in various positions such as president, congresspeople, senators, and more. Sometimes, they make decisions that will bring the most good to themselves instead of thinking of other people, even though it is a leader’s role to consider others in their decisions. Overall, Odysseus’s use of his power and bravery, makes his personality and role as a hero and leader more complex. This is relevant to the modern, real world because the decisions made by leaders in the real world also add to the complexity of their roles in society as either good or bad.