What Makes Odysseus a Complicated Hero?

Odysseus is not complicated because modern readers are suspicious of heroes. He is complicated because Homer made him that way.

The first word attached to him in the poem is the famous polytropos: many-turning, much-traveled, hard to pin down. A modern translator's much-discussed "complicated" catches one part of the force. Odysseus is never only one thing.

The Same Gift Saves And Endangers Him

In the Cyclops' cave, Odysseus survives by intelligence. He gives Polyphemus wine, says his name is Nobody, blinds him, and escapes under the sheep. It is a perfect trick.

Then he ruins the perfection by shouting his real name across the water. The same hunger for identity that makes him heroic makes him vulnerable. He wants not only to survive, but to be known as the one who survived.

He Lies Even At Home

Once he reaches Ithaca, Athena disguises him as a beggar. Odysseus tells false stories to Athena, Eumaeus, Penelope, and Laertes. Some lies are tactical; some are tests; some are almost a reflex. He has become a man whose identity is protected by fiction.

That is useful. It is also lonely.

He Wants Home, But Not Simply

Odysseus refuses Calypso's immortality and says he wants home. That choice is central. But the poem also lets him stay with Circe for a year, insist on hearing the Sirens, and narrate his own adventures at length among the Phaeacians.

The desire for home is real. So are the delays.

The Home Pack ($19) follows Odysseus through name, disguise, scar, bow, bed, and the long work of being recognized again.