Making a Hero

A hero and heroic journeys are the most important elements of Ancient mythology, and the Odyssey by Homer as an example of such epics. Joseph Campbell identifies three main stages of the hero’s journey found in monomyths: Separation, Initiation and Return. In the Odyssey, the main hero goes through these stages in order to prove and test his courage and heroism. Thesis Through physical journeys and trials, his personality changes for the better: while ‘initiation’ tests his psychical and psychological strength, separation and return reflect his personal qualities and new values.

In contrast to traditional model proposed by Joseph Campbell, the Odyssey follows a parallel construction: readers know about his return and separation simultaneously. The first stage, separation, begins twenty years prior to the events depicted in the Odyssey. Readers know about Odyssey’s departure and causes of this separation through memories of Odyssey and other characters. The main difference is that Homer tells about separation through memories and isolated stories.

Only in Book XVI, Homer describes the separation: “it is such a long time ago that I / can hardly say. Twenty years are come and gone since he left my / home, and went elsewhither” (Homer, Book XVI). This quote is very important because it tells readers about the past and helps Penelope to recollect events. Penelope is sure that Ulysses is “laid before her” (Homer). The most important is that the story about separation coincides with ‘return’ of the hero and his moral development. The rest of the story (the return) describes his new qualities and values developed during initiation from the psychological point of view.

The second stage, initiation, consists of several trials and battles which show courage and enormous physical strength of Odyssey. The main trials include: the encounter with the Cicones, several years spent in Calypso’s cave; the battle with the Cyclops and the encounter with the Sirens show that only. The first encounters show his physical strength while the second ones test his psychological qualities. “Odysseus then you are, o great contender, of whom the glittering god with the golden wand / spoke to me ever, and foretold /the black swift ship would carry you from Troy” (Homer, Book X).

This remark tells readers that his journey is not over and he needs great courage and bravery to overcome all difficult situations and eternal evil. It is possible to make certain distinctions between two stages of personal development (separation and return): for instance, fresh strong feeling in is a different thing from the mass strong feeling in the people; or that some types and manifestations of feeling are gross self-indulgence and are not at all the thing they appear to be; or that an appearance of strong feeling may be only a mask hiding some weakness or other. Physical sufferings and trials have changed his personality and world views.

At the stage of return, Homer does not tell about low morals of Odyssey and his habits, but describes him as a real hero who returns home. He inherits his honesty. In his love for women he shows that he has none of snobbery. At the end, the main hero is depicted as a keeper of law and traditions of the society. Also, Homer shows that it is dangerous thing to forget about human dignity and human code of ethics. “’The royal pair mingled in love again and afterward lay revelling in stories. / … Odysseus told of what hard blows he had dealt to others and of what blows he had taken-all that story” (Homer, Book XXIII). This remark shows that after Initiation, Odyssey is a loving husband and father, fair ruler and son. At this stage, Odyssey combines the moral and social qualities of an ideal hero.

In sum, the remarkable feature of the Odyssey is a cyclical structure of the Hero’s journey based on physical and psychological development of the main character.  Using a cyclical structure, Homer compares and contrasts the qualities of two different characters: Odyssey before and after the initiation stage. The inferences in the paper are important because they help to identify and analyze the main elements of the text, and then synthesize and summarize the main findings of the analysis.

Works Cited Page

Homer. The Odyssey. N.d. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy10.txt