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International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature E-ISSN: 2200-3452 & P-ISSN: 2200-3592 www.ijalel.aiac.org.au The Making of Odysseus the Hero in Homer’s Odyssey Meng Liang* School of Foreign Languages, North China Electric Power University, Changping District, Beijing China Corresponding Author: Meng Liang, Email: [email protected] ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history This paper examines in a sociological manner how the heroic identity of Odysseus is constructed Received: May 02, 2017 in Homer’s Odyssey. The making of Odysseus the hero requires the constant testing and Accepted: July 28, 2017 improving of Odysseus’s heroic qualities, the existence of a largely loyal crowd to testify to his Published: December 01, 2017 charisma, and the weaving of a myth that wraps him up. Various aspects of the Greek hero are Volume: 6 Issue: 7 fleshed out. Special Issue on Language & Literature Key words: Odysseus, Hero, Crowd, Myth Advance access: September 2017 Conflicts of interest: None Funding: None Odysseus has been the central focus of Homeric scholarship. trast. A hero can be a hero only when he is foregrounded by Much critical attention has been paid to such questions as the his contrast with the crowd that stays in the background and is heroic qualities of Odysseus as opposed to other Greek he- willing to remain there forever. So far as Homer’s Odyssey is roes like Achilles and the typicality of Odysseus as a Greek concerned, mutiny poses a serious threat to the hero because hero. W. B. Stanford, for example, argues in “The Untypi- it will bring the mutineer to the foreground and make him the cal Hero” (1983) that Odysseus, especially as represented in focus of public attention. So the hero needs a loyal crowd, the Iliad, is an untypical hero who possesses some qualities which will bring all its energies to bear upon the task of help- that are despised by the later tradition. Discussions revolving ing the hero accomplish spectacular feats in whatever cause around the heroic qualities of Odysseus, while accomplish- the hero pursues. However, mutiny is not always a bad thing. ing much in the way of bringing out different dimensions of When a mutiny turns out to be a foolish act and as a result the Greek hero, leaves the question of how the hero is con- brings a disaster even to the mutineers themselves, the hero structed unanswered. My paper attempts to offer a tentative will be able to restore his authority, which is strengthened answer to this question. rather than weakened by the mutiny. Order is reestablished People tend to be attracted by the grand facade of a hero among his crowd. Not only does the hero need a crowd, he to the extent that they are seldom concerned with the process also has to enlist the aid of a myth, a myth that establishes of the hero’s making, which goes on imperceptibly and con- mysterious relations between gods and him, a myth that mag- stantly behind the facade. A hero is more made than born and nifies his charisma, a myth that meets his political need to he is always in the making, never a finished product. He must establish and exert his authority over the crowd, a myth that make strenuous efforts to make it possible for him to become the present generation and later generations hold to be true a hero. However, his efforts alone are far from enough for (Nagy, Greek 8). Homer’s Odyssey constructs such a myth, a making a hero. A hero is the outcome of collective efforts. myth of Odysseus the hero. This is not to say that his efforts are not important. To be a In short, the making of Odysseus the hero is a complex hero, he must have particular qualities that qualify him for process that requires the constant testing and improving of being a hero. What qualities are those of a hero is not deter- Odysseus’s heroic qualities, the existence of a largely loyal mined by him, but by the society he lives in. Different societ- crowd to testify to his charisma and the weaving of a myth ies have different standards for judging if a person is a hero. that wraps him up. Therefore, a person must meet the standard his society sets It will be convenient to divide my study, which is con- before he becomes a hero. Otherwise, whatever individual ducted in a sociological manner and on the basis of textual excellence he may have, he cannot possibly be a hero. The evidence, into four stages, concerning respectively (1) Odys- social standard, however, is not enough for making a hero seus’s heroic qualities, (2) hero and crowd, (3) the weaving either. A hero needs a crowd that supports him and is his con- of a myth, (4) conclusion. Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.6n.7p.42 The Making of Odysseus the Hero in Homer’s Odyssey 43 ODYSSEUS’S HEROIC QUALITIES I would argue that tears, like divine help, do not lessen the Odysseus has some widely acclaimed qualities that make merit attaching to Odysseus the hero who “is famous for his it possible for him to become a hero. These qualities often power to conceal his feelings” (Griffin 100) most of the time. accompany his name. When people and gods address him, Rather, a hero’s tears strengthen his position as a hero. Tears they tend to bring out these qualities along with his name. are a sign of weakness. And weakness is human. A hero is a That these qualities accompany his appellation points to the human being, so he has weaknesses. His weaknesses make fact that they are universally acknowledged to be those of his strengths even more conspicuous. The reason is obvious. a hero. To be a hero, Odysseus must get the permission of Black is opposite to white, but when black is contrasted with the mythical society as presented by Homer, which sets the white, white seems whiter than when other colors are con- standard of a hero. But this does not mean that he cannot trasted with it or when no color is contrasted with it. The be individualistic. As a matter of fact, a certain degree of Odysseus with weaknesses is more heroic than the Odysseus individualism is indispensable for a hero. The Greek hero without weaknesses. Tears are a sign of fear. Odysseus is a is individualistic (McNamee 1). A charismatic hero must be human being and a human being must have fear because he extraordinary while the crowd is ordinary (Weber xviii). It is is not the most powerful. Odysseus has fear and overcomes his outstanding qualities that set him apart from the crowd. fear, so he is a hero. Tears are a sign of sorrow. A human These qualities become outstanding when and only when being has feelings and emotions. No one, even Socrates, can they are put to the test. They are dormant until dangers and deny this fact. Sorrow is a natural emotion when one los- difficulties arise. Dangers and difficulties bring these quali- es one’s friends or relatives. This sorrow expressed at the ties into full play. loss of friends or relatives is noble because it is not aimed Odysseus is noted for his bravery, as is shown by Pe- at oneself. It is the sign of friendship and affection, which nelope’s repeatedly calling him “my lion-hearted husband.” are noble, or at least not mean. Even if it is directed at one- Bravery does not mean that one does not have fear at all. self, sorrow is understandable, especially when misfortune Rather, it is the courage to overcome fear, which distinguish- is unbearably great, as in the case of Odysseus. Odysseus is es a hero from the crowd whose courage has to be inspired all tears when he is held back by Calypso (Homer 155). He by the hero. And his courage is all the more heroic when laments his bad fortune for he cannot go back to his native the danger comes from giants and monsters who are much land where live his wife, his son, and his father. His sorrow bigger than him in stature and much more powerful than is personal, but this sorrow is not as personal as one might he is. When he answers the challenge the sea god Poseidon think. His affections toward his family cause this sorrow. It poses to him, his heroic courage reaches its peak. Thus, the is rather doubtful whether he will still be all tears if he has more powerful his opponent is, the more heroic his bravery no family members to miss at all. His sorrow merely calls becomes. Or in other words, the greatest danger makes the attention to the other side of a hero. He is a man rather than greatest hero. The greatest danger, however, does not come a god, who cannot be a hero. Tears merely reveal the human from without, but from within. Fear offers no possibility of essence of a hero, who is intended to be “an image of glori- victory. The courage to overcome fear, on the contrary, em- fied human nature” (Vries 18). powers Odysseus to keep control of reality, however dan- Tears have three other important functions and these gerous this reality is. When the pressure of this reality is too functions derive from the human essence of a hero.

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