A Hero's Tears: How and Why Odysseus Cries Fiona Lu College

In Homer’s The Odyssey, tears are a reencountered motif that lends insight to the characters’ motives, true emotions, and defining qualities. The Odyssey splits tears into two categories-- restrained and unrestrained. The criteria for making the distinction between when tears are forbidden versus allowed serves to characterize the ideal Greek hero, namely Odysseus. This paper will specifically compare Odysseus’ tears for himself and his tears for others to examine how these varying modes of crying distinguish him as a hero and guide his noble intents.

Although Odysseus cries often, he does so in different ways. Throughout the first half of his journey, we see that Odysseus keeps his grief private; he only openly weeps for his misfortunes when he is trapped alone on Calypso’s island, but he hides his tears behind a hard exterior when he is surrounded by the public eye. For example, when he visits the Phaecians and listens to Demodocus’ song of “The Strife Between Odysseus and Achilles,” he “clutch[es] his flaring sea-blue cape in both powerful hands” and “[draws] it over his head…, ashamed his hosts might see him shedding tears” (VIII. 100-103). In the figurative sense, Odysseus hides his tears behind a disguised identity for...