ancient Greek heroes.  Odysseus is clearly brave and he possesses determination and perseverance in spades: he willingly travels to the Underworld, despite his terrible fear, in order to speak with Teiresias, the blind prophet who can tell him how to get home; he forms a plan to blind the Cyclops, Polyphemus, so that he and his men will have the best chance of escape and he plays a key and dangerous role in that plan; on his quest to reach home, he willingly encounters many monsters -- the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis -- knowing that he could be injured or even killed, and so forth.  Is he perfect?  Nope, not at all.  He's arrogant, proud, and sometimes even greedy.  However, most heroes aren't perfect because they're human.  Thus, Odysseus has his flaws, but he has a number of heroic qualities that, in my opinion, outweigh them.