Odysseus
Odysseus is a Greek hero, King of Ithaka, son of Laertes, husband to Penelope, father of Telemachos, favorite of Athene, nemesis of Poseidon, and inventor of the Trojan horse. Odysseus’s most dominant characteristic, besides his pecs, is his cunning. He is known for being the wiliest of the Greek heroes, and his wits save his life several times – most notably in the episode with the Cyclops. His mastery at improvisation, disguise, and dissembling help him hide his identity from potential enemies and scope out the loyalty of the person he is fooling. Though some modern sensibilities might question Odysseus’s morality, because of his lying all the time – like pretending to be a Cretan, and deceiving his son and wife – he justifies these actions by their ends. His disguises and lies are usually sanctioned by Athene, his patron goddess, who also takes on many guises to manipulate humans and achieve her goals.
As for his pecs, well, let’s just say that Odysseus can come off as that guy – what with all his ripping his shirt off in public, taunting the Cyclops after blinding him, and so on. The thing is that, even though Odysseus talks big, he can kick butt – at discus-throwing, verbal spars, bow-stringing, arrow-shooting, wandering the sea, being in disguise, confusing his opponents, and generally being The Man.
What gets Odysseus into trouble is when his justifiable pride shades into hubris, or arrogance. At worst, this can cloud Odysseus’s better judgment – as when his not-so-tactful taunting of the Cyclops sets off the whole feud between him and Poseidon. Because Odysseus just had to get the glory of besting the monster, he ended up wandering the sea for seventeen years and losing all of his companions to an untimely death.
That said, even if Odysseus’s pride does sometimes get out of hand, his hubris doesn’t even come close to that of the suitors, who trample on the laws of god and man by their violations of hospitality. Besides, Odysseus knows how to rein things in, as when he dresses up as a poor man to infiltrate the palace. Sure, he’s still eager to prove his strength, but he manages, with Athene’s help, to keep up appearances long enough to test the palace’s inhabitants. This allows him to weed out the truly evil suitors from the decent ones – even though he does just kill them all in the end.
Odysseus’s ruthlessness during this final slaughter can make us pause – especially when he has the maids slaughtered after forcing them to clean up all the blood-and-guts mess in the palace. “What happened to mercy or forgiveness?” we might ask. One of the things to remember while reading the Odyssey is that Greek values were different than ours. Justice may be blind, but she’s also one tough cookie. (She carries a sword as well as those scales, remember?) In any case, Odysseus does spare the loyal maids, the singer, the town crier, and others that are loyal to him. And let’s not forget, the whole poem does end with forgiveness – specifically when the families of the dead suitors are forced by the gods to forgive Odysseus and his family.
And while we’re on the topic of cultural differences: if you start hating Odysseus for cheating on his wife left and right while she slept alone for two decades, just remember that there was a double-standard back in the day, like it or not. We're not supposed to see Odysseus as a jerk for this. We're supposed to think "It’s not his fault these beautiful, immortal ladies can’t keep their hands off him!"
