What do you define as a hero? Someone that you base your life on? Or maybe it's the one person in your life that gives you the courage to face your fears. .
What is an epic hero? An epic hero is someone that puts their life on the line in order to save someone else, but they also fight evenly against any opponent. This shows fairness and equality between him and his fellow man. This is one quality that an epic hero must have. An epic hero must be strong physically and courageous, while still upholding the ethics of their society through exemplary leadership, loyalty, strength and bravery. This would mean showing commitment to the "team". The commitment is part of the epic hero as a whole. An epic hero is someone who is fair, yet committed to his crew.
Odysseus was a hero in trouble. We share with him in that we face difficult choices in our lives every day. Although our decisions are mainly just for us, his choices affected the lives of his men as well. He was a great soldier at war, but that did not seem to gain him any respect in his home land. Although the Trojan War would not have been won without his help, only his crew members trusted him and had respect from him.
Over all, I believe that Odysseus was not an epic hero. Although he did think for the good of his crew, he did not put himself in danger instead of his crew or anything of that sort. He did not put his life on the line in order to save someone else. An epic hero would be respected by all in his home land. Odysseus was not. He had to fight for his life back after traveling for 20 years just to return.
When you think of someone you define as you "hero", does he/she really have the qualities of a hero? Everyone has there own definition of a hero. To children, it could be someone that flies, or that "beats the bad buy". What's your definition of a hero?.
