To be a "better" man, either Aeneas or Odysseus man must simply be "more good" than the other. However there are no set definitions of what makes a "good" man, as "goodness" is objective rather than subjective. We can merely look at individual aspects of both characters, such as bravery, compassion, leadership skills and so on in the hope that, through his actions, one man would unquestionably prove himself the "better man."

Upon first meeting of the men, the reader is presented with two weeping men, which is slightly strange for conventional heroes. Aeneas, ninety lines into the first book of the `Aeneid', cried for fear of a huge storm as "a sudden chill" passed over him, making his limbs grow "weak." With little previous character development, Aeneas appears to be a pathetic and only rather cowardly shadow of the "great Odysseus."

Before the reader first met Odysseus...