Is Odysseus a Hero??

Is a hero the guy flying around big cities, impossibly strong and wearing a cape with underwear over a spandex bodysuit? The guy who always arrives just in time to save the girl? Or can a hero simply be someone who always places the safety of others before their own? By definition, a hero is someone admired for their courage and nobleness. Odysseus may have had courage, yet he constantly placed his men in danger and cheated on his wife more than once; Therefore, Odysseus is not a hero.
“My men came pressing round me, pleading: `Why not take these cheeses, get them stowed, come back, throw open all the pens, and make a run for it? We'll drive the kids and lambs abroad. We say put out again on good salt water!' Ah, how sound that was! Yet, I refused. I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer-no pretty sight, it turned out, for my friends.” Odysseus was a man of pride and sometimes, too much of it. His men proposed a perfectly safe plan, one in which everyone would get away unharmed, and Odysseus threw it down. He had to meet the Cyclops and by doing that he was putting his best men in danger-so much that by the end of their Cyclops encounter, he had lost half the men he had taken to the cave. His pride comes out once more as they leave the island and Odysseus mocks Cyclops and mockery is not the way of a true hero.
Besides his excess of pride, Odysseus is easily sidetracked from his main goal of getting home to his wife, Penelope, and his son. It was acceptable when he slept with Circe, the witch, for the freedom of his men. What is unacceptable, however, was for him to stay more than one night because she requested no more than that. There was no need for him to stay five nights which, in reality, turned out to be five years! Just as well, when Odysseus reached Calypso's island-alone-he was not obligated to sleep with her or even stay on her island; he stayed there by choice. On top of that, while he enjoyed the company of another woman , Penelope was weaving and unweaving her shrine every night in hopes of his return. A true hero would not give into temptations such as Circe and Calypso.