Many argue that Odysseus is more of a villain nowadays, for every example of his cunning or feat of strength there are many of venality, vice, cruelty or selfishness. The Sirens episode (Book 12) is an example of this. The only reason Odysseus ties himself to the mast, when he could have simply plugged his ears with wax like the rest of his crew, is that he chooses the risky choice, wanting to "go down into the books" by being the first man to always listen to the song of the Sirens and live. As a result he could endanger the rest of his crew by endangering himself. While Odysseus' many adventures are very exciting, he spends a lot of time cheating on his wife (with Circe and Calypso) and doesn't seem to take his wedding vows very seriously (although at this time I'm not sure if men were required to do so ). they swear that they would be faithful to their wives!) But for me, the worst thing that Odysseus does is the massacre of all the handmaids in his house, upon his return. They had sided with the suitors, true, but they were tied handmaids and were probably just trying to side with who they thought would be the victor. When Odysseus killed the trapped (and unarmed) suitors it was bad enough (Book 22) – they were strong men and warriors intent on killing him, but at least they had some chance to fight back or escape – but for Odysseus to force the maids to clean up all the blood and then hanging them all was horrible. It is true that they were disloyal, but he could have beaten them and sent them away: it seems excessive, to put it mildly, to hang them. However, it is possible that Odysseus was only abiding by the rules and practices of his time, when disloyal servants and... middle of paper... example of "look before you leap". For today's heroes, foresight is a valuable skill. An action may solve a preliminary problem or the "baseline" problem, however the result could lead to even larger dilemmas. By thinking ahead, a hero can not only avoid creating further problems for himself, but can also find a solution to the root of the problem. In short, Odysseus has many characteristics that would make him a hero of modern times: his strength, physical and mental. , his intelligence, his ability to survive the many extreme experiences he encounters, as well as the fact that he is a human being, who must survive not only those experiences, but also his own failures. If the reader only got as far as Book 12, these arguments might be valid, but, at least for a modern reader, they would almost certainly be completely undermined - if they continued reading..