Odysseus as an Epic Hero

             Homer, who was a blind bard, which is a minstrel who recited long poems about heroes of archaic time periods. In his epic, The Odyssey, he presents an epic hero that displays the qualities that are valued by the society from which he comes. Homer's hero, Odysseus, is often referred to throughout the epic, as "Laertes's son", and "raider of cities". Odysseus was the King of a Greek island named Ithaca. He was also a famous Trojan War hero due to his bravery and for his intelligent idea to end the ten year bloodshed at the city of Troy, by building a massive wooden horse and hiding Greek soldiers inside of the horse. The Trojans thinking that the horse was a gift of surrender by the Greeks, they brought the horse inside the mighty walls of Troy, when the Trojans fell asleep the Greeks slaughtered the people. By studying Odysseus's reactions in the various adventures of The Odyssey, the modern reader can hypothesize that the Greek society of 900 B.C. valued the following characteristics; emotion, beauty, and loyalty in their heroes.
             It seems obvious that Homer's society must have insisted that their heroes have emotion as a characteristic. Odysseus shows this quality when the bard Demodocus sang about Odysseus, "Thus sang the bard, but Ulysses drew his purple mantle over his head and covered his face, for he was ashamed to let the Phaeacians see that he was weeping. When the bard left off singing he wiped the tears from his eyes, uncovered his face, and, taking his cup, made a drink-offering to the gods; but when the Phaeacians pressed Demodocus to sing further, for they delighted in his lays, then Odysseus again drew his mantle over his head and wept bitterly." (BL. 635) this shows that the Greek society during Homer's time values different characteristics then modern societies do, the modern people would never stand to see Harrison Ford weeping. This also shows that Odysseus was a sensitive man who was very homesick, and whenever he heard anything about his past life or his friends he would have most likely been touched.