9/12/14
1st Heroes are not gods; they aren’t The God. They are pseudo-humans who have to struggle with normal problems, with some extraordinary things thrown in there. In Homer’s “The Odyssey”, Odysseus, the hero, proves he is an epic hero through his struggles with human, natural, and superhuman adversaries. Odysseus proves that he is an epic hero through his battles with human adversaries. An instance of this is when Odysseus kills Antinous. (Page 481) It took an incredible amount of strength to pull back the bow since all of the suitors could not. Another example is when Odysseus kills all of the suitors. (Page 482) He killed one-hundred and eight men with only the help of his son and two servants as stated in the “Bibliotheca”. This would have been near impossible for a normal man and was a great expression of his strength and skill. In summary, this is why he is an epic hero. Second, Odysseus expresses he is an epic hero through his battles with natural adversaries. Namely his struggle with the power of the lotus flowers and their power over the mind. (Line 90) He used his cunning to get his men to tie them up so that they could not stay and carried them back to the ship. He also had a hard quarrel with the living whirlpool, Charybdis. (Line 709) He had to hold on to a fig tree as the whirl sucked in all surrounding water until Charybdis spit it all back out. This took an incredible amount of strength to hold on for that long a time. On the whole the clearly asserts his