The Odyssey, written by Homer, is an epic tale of a man who is called to fight in the Trojan War, yet receives more of an adventure than he expected. He spends twenty years just trying to get home and must rise above many challenges that are presented before him. Joseph Cambell claims there are five steps to becoming a hero: the call to journey, threshold crossings, bearing woundings, using defenses, and gaining knowledge. Odysseus overcomes many demanding obstacles and through his determination he becomes a hero.
The first step in order to be a hero is the call to journey. This clearly happens when Oddyseus receives the call to fight in the Trojan War. However he did not know his journey would bring him to the house of Hades and back. Because Odysseus took the call to adventure, unaware of what might happen, he has taken the first step towards being a hero.
The next three steps include: threshold crossings, woundings, and using defenses. Odysseus encounters many threshold crossings. For example, "She (Calypso) found him sitting upon the beach with his eyes ever filled with tears, and dying of sheer homesickness; for he had got tired of Calypso, and though he was forced to sleep with her in the cave by night, it was she, not he, that would have it so. As for the daytime, he spent it on the rocks and on the seashore, weeping, crying aloud for his despair, and always looking out upon the sea."(Homer, 63). He persists for years on going home until finally one day it is allowed. He uses his defenses the entire way home, even though it is hard at times.
The fifth and final Odysseus completes in order to become a hero is gaining the knowledge that could change his life or help the general public. First, he learns not to have too much pride in the things he does, because that has lead to his downfall before: "Cyclops, if anyone asks you who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty, say It was the valiant warrior Odysseus, son of Laertes, who lies in Ithaca.
