Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

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On Odysseus’s journey home from Troy to Ithaca, when he is on Calypso’s island, he is not portrayed as very clever or intelligent. In fact, Odysseus develops and most effectively displays this trait of cleverness during his encounter with Polyphemus. After Odysseus blinds the Cyclops, Polyphemus sits at the cave entrance, hoping to capture his assailant. Odysseus recalls that “I was cudgelling my brains for the best possible course, trying to hit on some way of saving my friends as well as myself. I thought of plan after plan, scheme after scheme. It was a matter of life or death: we were in mortal peril” (9.420-423). Odysseus comes up with numerous plans to escape from the Cyclops cave. With the character presented earlier in the novel, Odysseus

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