An "epic hero" can be defined as a person who fights for a noble cause. He strives with extensive wit, courage, power, perseverance, and strength that are almost superhuman. The epic hero undergoes a series of phases throughout his journey to fight for this cause. This includes the call, challenges, and the return. First, the hero is called when he has something important taken away from him and it is his duty to regain it. Second, the challenges are the obstacles within the journey. Lastly, the return occurs when the hero comes back home and fulfills his duty. In Homer's centuries-old masterpiece, "The Odyssey," Homer portrays the story's protagonist, Odysseus, as an epic hero through the extraordinary way he responds to the call, challenges, and return. .
Odysseus meets the requirements of an epic hero through his admirable response to the call, which for him was leaving Calypso's island to return to Penelope. He displays the characteristic of having continuous perseverance that is proved when he is on Calypso's island, Odysseus says, "Nevertheless I long- I pine, all my days- to travel home and see the dawn of my return"" (Homer 159). The diction like the words long, pine, all my days shows how desperately Odysseus wants to go home even though he's spent about ten years with Calypso. Odysseus's perseverance for home is shown with symbolism because dawn symbolizes a beginning; when Odysseus says that he wants to see the dawn of his return, he is saying that he wants to go back to his beginnings back home. In this quote itself, Odysseus states three times his perseverance for home. .
Not only is Odysseus heroic in perseverance, he is also heroic in the level of psychological strength that Odysseus has when there is a temptation. Examples of this can be found everywhere around the book. One major instance is Odysseus resisting immortality. When he is offered with immortality by Calypso, he answers, "don't be angry with me, please, to travel home and see the dawn of my return"" (Homer 159).