Here, Odysseus refuses immortality because he has a great mental strength to decline it. He uses his pathos to appeal to Calypso and show her that he would rather go home than to stay and have immortality. This mental strength of refusal can be found in his waiting wife Penelope as well and his endurance is supported by Thornton when he says, "Odysseus's men eat the lotus-flower and forget their home and identity; they eat the forbidden oxen of the sun-god Helios and die; they eat the feast of Circe and are turned into pigs. For more than any other need we have, hunger.what Odysseus calls the 'wretched belly - that cursed thing, who bestows many evils on men.and.makes us dependent on a natural world that begrudges us the means of survival"" (Thornton).
In "The Odyssey," hunger is a main cause of temptation. Thornton informs his reader that the men of Odysseus's crew easily fell for these temptations and found themselves in trouble, Odysseus, on the other hand did not wander into these tempting tricks. In the content of this quote, Thornton proved that Odysseus has great mental strength for resisting a strong desire. Odysseus can be described as an epic hero through his perseverance and endurance in the call. .
Odysseus demonstrates the traits of an epic hero during the challenges. Three important characteristics of an epic hero is having wit, courage, and authority. The challenges are the obstacles that he must face in order to complete his journey. An instance of Odysseus's wit can be found when he is trapped with the Cyclops, Polyphemus. His quick wit enables Odysseus to think of ideas to save himself and his crew. During this scene Odysseus's thoughts are shown when he thinks, "They lumbered, off, but laughter to how nobody's name- my great cunning stroke- had duped them one and all.but I was already plotting.my wits kept weaving, weaving cunning schemes- life at stake, monstrous death staring us in the face- till this plan struck my mind as best"" (Homer 224).
