During his second courageous act, his wife and only son are murdered and he is to be executed. This changing his journey home as I will discuss as we move on. Furthering his acts of heroism he manages to save the lives of many slaves by battling in the arena, saving a senator from execution, and avenging his wife and son by slaying the emperor. His acts of nobility occur when he saves the senator and fulfils the wishes of the dead Marcus Aurelius. He gives Rome back to the senate and returns the power back to the people.

Maximus' continuing acts of selfless heroism and putting his life at stake for those who betrayed him make him great. His first act of selflessness occurred when he agreed to help out Commodus' sister, who knowingly let his child, wife, and almost himself be slain. He forgive

Starting with Odysseus' courageous efforts he first defeats the Trojans at the battle of Troy with the wooden horse. Much like Maximus his story begins with him winning a great war that has gone on for years. Odysseus must use his intellect more so than his brute strength, such as when he escapes the Cyclops. Unlike Maximus Odysseus makes the mistake right off the bat of revealing his name to the Cyclops when he is leaving, thus he cannot return home yet because he hasn't become a nobody yet. The reoccurring theme between the two that I see is that the must reach a certain state before the end of their story can take place. Odysseus has to become a plain man not a war hero, and Maximus must win the crowd over and they need to know who is so he cannot be slain in the dungeons. In his last great show of strength Odysseus strings a bow and kills the suitors that were trying to steal his wife from him while he was gone.

However, not taking anything away from Odysseus, I believe that many people in his case would have taken the chance to kill all the men that tried to get with their wives if they were away. I believe it took lots of courage to wrestle with Poseidon, leave islands with beautiful women, and his use of intelligence to beat the Cyclops was great.

Odysseus finally reaches his home in the end and yes becomes that "nobody" that we so often mention. His journey home was filled with trials much like Maximus' was. Odysseus suffered the wrath of the gods, cannibals, giants and even had to wrestle Pos

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Approximate Word count = 1021
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)