Kill and Odysseus Slaughters Bunches Essay

Mrs. Heimes English 9D 25 January 2013 Odysseus: Zero or Hero? Odysseus, saves citizens, saves shipmates, is a cold blooded killer and promiscuous man. When I think of Odysseus I think of a criminal or a zero. Odysseus is a zero for three main reasons 1. He is a killer and does not protect his shipmates 2. He is not a team player and he is not a leader 3. He constantly shows he can not be trusted. â€Å"There will be killing until the score is paid† is a quote from Odysseus in book 22. Everybody knows that heroes do not kill and Odysseus is no exception. In book 22 Odysseus slaughters bunches of men because they pursued his wife Penelope. On page 960 the blue text reads Odysseus and his men are compared to falcons who show no mercy to the flocks of birds they pursue and capture. These men were killed terribly because they pursued Odysseus wife because Odysseus was gone for 20 years. When Odysseus’ men were going to go straight to Scylla Odysseus did nothing. â€Å"She ate them as they shrieked there, in her den, in the dire grapple reaching still for me†. While Odysseus’ could have warned them of Scylla Odysseus decides that their lives are not very important. Because of Odysseus’ actions all of his men died. Since the the dawn of time it has been a universal fact that to be a hero you need to be a team player. When Odysseus gets his shipmates killed it is a perfect example of Odysseus not being a team player. Odysseus is the only person survive from his expedition why because he did not properly protect his shipmates. Let me read this quote â€Å"Driven by hunger they ignore Odysseus’ warning and eat Helios’ cattle†. Odysseus’ could not properly feed his men and he could not control them. When you look at the cyclops cave situation you realize that Odysseus is not very clever or smart. One of Odysseus’ men say â€Å" Take the cheeses, get them stowed, come back, thrown open all the pens, and make a run for it†? While doing that was clearly a better choice Odysseus’ refuses and decides that he wants to meet the cyclops. This is not a good Idea for many reasons the first is what could or would the Cyclops do for them. Every hero has to show that they can be trusted and depended on. While Odysseus did make it back to his homeland he also got all of his shipmates killed. The deaths of all of Odysseus’ shipmates came from a fault from Odysseus. Odysseus alone survives† Page 937 blue text. Odysseus constantly is unfaithful to his wife but after 20 years when his wife Penelope is looking for a suitor Odysseus kills all of the suitors. In this moment Odysseus shows me that he is not only a hypocrite but a killer. As I state in this paper Odysseus is a zero and clearly not a hero. Things like being a killer being untrustworthy and being a bad leader do not add up to Odysseus being a Hero. Things like saving lives being trustworthy and a good leader are things that do add up to being a hero and Odysseus is none of these.