A true hero

"Ah, great goddess,"  

worldly Odysseus answered, "don't be angry with me.

All that you say is true, how well I know,

Look at my wise Penelope. She falls far short of you,

your beauty, stature. She is mortal after all

and you, you never age or die...

Nevertheless I long-I pine all my days-

to travel home and see the dawn of my return.

And if a god will wreck me

.........................

This quote shows what it really means to be a hero. You must sacrifice pleasure and resist temptation to achieve 
a higher ideal, even if it means immense suffering and sorrow on the part of the hero. This is what Odysseus does, 
more than any other man, her suffers, spending decades away from his wife and child, fighting constantly to see 
them again and being faced with barrier after countless barrier. Yet he still faces them with a steady courage, 
taking every opportunity he can to make it home, even when it means leaving a paradise with a gorgeous goddess 
willing to make him immortal with his only hopes resting in  small boat that he had to build himself, and knowing 
full well that as soon as he was at sea, the gods would harass him further.