Odysseus, Y U So Foolish?

[Title inspiration goes to Madeleine Nelson, with her Homer, y u so sad? Madeleine, at this moment I have no idea what your post is actually about because I saw your post title and I got this idea, but I'll read your post as soon as I finish this one.]

Odysseus is clearly supposed the hero of this story, but he does SO MANY STUPID THINGS. Like seriously, his life could be so much easier, and he could actually get home to his family like he claims to want.

But if he wants to get home to his family, why does he sleep with Calypso when she is finally letting him leave?
And why, when he is on King Alcinous' island, does he ask the bard to sing of the Trojan horse if he clearly can't control his emotions?

At this point of the epic, King Alcinous is finally like, "Dude, who the heck are you?" to Odysseus, and Odysseus tells his story, which brings up a lot more questions:

Why does Odysseus stay in the cyclops' cave for longer than necessary to grab some food? What did he think was going to happen, the huge cyclops would come back and invite the strangers who stole his food to a tea party? I don't think so. Well actually, I guess maybe he did expect a tea party since that's how the other kings had treated him, but in this situation Odysseus took advantage of the cyclops in a similar way to how the suitors were taking advantage of his family. Seriously, what was going through Odysseus' head?
AND THEN ODYSSEUS GETS ON THE BOAT AND TAUNTS THE CYCLOPS?! Are you kidding me Odysseus? Your 20 year journey is completely your fault. Seriously the whole thing could have been avoided.

And what was the deal with Odysseus and Circe? He legitimately just was like, "Nope, I'm not going home yet, even though I can, instead I'll just stay here for a year and live in luxury and bed this super hot wicca babe, no matter that I have a wife and child at home waiting for me." He's a king, so I guess his subjects were waiting for him too. I really do not understand Odysseus at this point.

In book 12, Odysseus continued with the trend of foolishness; he wanted to listen to the sirens song just so that he could be the only one to have heard it and survive, and then he went and tried to fight Scylla even though he was told not to?

I really have no idea what to think of Odysseus at this point -- actually, I do, but it's definitely not that he's a hero. I don't see him as a hero at all so far, and I can only hope that he will be a dynamic character and have some legitimate hero moments later on because so far I am not impressed by him.

My Mommy Taught Me Stranger Danger

In class right now we are reading The Odyssey, and a common theme that keeps popping up is hospitality. In books three and four, King Nestor at Pylos and then King Menelaus welcome Telemachus into their homes and feed him and help him, a complete stranger, as much as they can. This also happens to Odysseus in book six and seven. First, Princess Nausicaa gave him clothes even though he was just a random naked dude who washed up on the beach. Then in the next book her parents, King Alcinous and Queen Arete, end up welcoming a random stranger, who just appeared out of nowhere might I add, to their feast. They then offer up their daughter for marriage without knowing anything about this dude -- not even his name. Still ignorant of the name of this complete stranger, they offer him a boat and other such things of value.

That's just kinda weird.

I don't know if that's how people actually were in Ancient Greece or if it's just a theme shown throughout the book to emphasize the way the swaggering suitors are being rude and taking advantage of Odysseus and Telemachus' home and valuables. Either way, this would not at all happen in current times. Nowadays, we are incredibly cautious and if I ran into a naked dude at the beach I would probably be really creeped out. If he asked for my help I'd give him a sweatshirt if he asked while calling the police so they could help him or be able to track my phone if he tried to kill me or something. And lets be honest here, if some random dude just appeared during dinner, I'd probably pull a Rapunzel and hit him over the head with a frying pan.