Odysseus character sketch on the Odyssey?

go to http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/odyssey/

You need to go to the local library and find another copy of your book. To have quotes for your teacher -- you need the edition of the book you are working with. OR - Call a classmate and do the assignment together!!

My copy of the Odyssey is Lattimore's translation. Others use Rouse and there are many more.

So -- start listing his personality traits - you don't need your book for that since you have read the story. Brave, courageous, impatient, loving, sexy (after all - all these goddesses wanted him as their lover), vengeful, cunning, wily, tricky, a story-teller (He tells 5 different cover stories/lies during the Odyssey), a man of deep emotions (he cries several times -- meeting his son, servants, listening to about the song of Troy)

Physical appearance -- it changes according to what he's doing in the poem. He looks like hell coming ashore to Nausikaa the Phaiakian princess. Then he washes off the salt brine and Athena enhances his natural manly beauty. Book 6 lines 220-250 has a long description..

"On his head, she (Athena) arranged the curling locks that hung down like hyacinthine petals"

Ancient Greeks - men and women prized their elaborate hairdos!)

The battle with the suitors -- Book 22, lines 400+ -- he's all covered in blood and gore.

The games at the Phaiakian court -- Book 8 lines 130-265 -- this section has all you need

"In his build he is no mean man

for the lower legs and thighs he has and both arms above them

the massive neck and the great strength, nor that he lacks youth

but the crush of many misfortunes that has used him hardly.

Also - the statement is made "you do not resemble an athlete" line 164

So, Odysseus is a powerful man, of middle age whose body shows the hardships he has suffered at the hands of the sea.

GOOD LUCK!!

I'll agree that he doesn't waste time with character development, but there certainly IS a protagonist, and the entire 5-book trilogy (STILL funny) is one long struggle: it's Arthur Dent against the Universe. Incidentally, I always thought the absurd logic in narration, the non-sequitors and the flagrant disregard for basic structure were part of the humor. Best section: from Earth: Mostly Harmless, when Arthur Dent is waiting in the train station canteen. The digression about train station food is cripplingly funny.