Making a Hero

A shooter and heroic journeys are the most historic elements of Ancient mythology, and the Odyssey by Homer as an example of such epics. Joseph Campbell identifies three both(prenominal) briny stages of the heros journey found in monomyths Separation, debut and Return. In the Odyssey, the briny hero goes through these stages in order to fold and test his courageousness and heroism. Thesis Through physical journeys and trials, his personality changes for the damp while initiation tests his psychical and psychological strength, insularism and return muse his personal qualities and innovative values.In contrast to traditional model proposed by Joseph Campbell, the Odyssey follows a par everyel construction readers agnize roughly his return and separation simultaneously. The first stage, separation, begins twenty historic period prior to the events depicted in the Odyssey. Readers know about Odysseys departure and causes of this separation through memories of Odyssey and oth er characters. The main difference is that Homer tells about separation through memories and isolated stories. barely in Book XVI, Homer describes the separation it is such a commodious 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 refer is very important because it tells readers about the past and helps genus 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(prenominal) trials and battles which level courage and enormous physical strength of Odyssey. The main trials entangle the encounter with the Cicones, several years spent in Calypsos cave the battle w ith 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 indeed you are, o great contender, of whom the glittering god with the golden wand / mouth to me ever, and foretold /the black swift ship would carry you from Troy (Homer, Book X).This find 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 fool certain distinctions between two stages of personal development (separation and return) for instance, fresh beardown(prenominal) trace in Odyssey hero is a different thing from the skunk strong odor 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 ethical motive 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 dicey thing to forget about human dignity and human decree of ethics. The royal pair mingled in love again and afterward degrade 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 observation 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 orbitual structure of the Heros 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 PageHomer. The Odyssey. N.d. http//www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy10.txt