In a world where power is held within the grasp of the gods, the ability to be characterized as cunning over all other things finds its way to be an important factor in one’s survival. In the epic poem The Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by Allen Mendlebaum, the recurring theme the protagonist, Odysseus, showcases is the gift of metis, being cunning. Although this skill does not exhibit enough power to bring him home before the length of twenty years, against all obstacles thrown his way Odysseus returns home.
Upon leaving the land of the Lotus Eaters and averting one of many obstacles, Odysseus continued his journey and crossed paths with the one-eyed Cyclops, Polyphemus, and swiftly exhibited his cunning spirit. After their arrival on the island, Odysseus found himself trapped in Polyphemus’ cave but was able to find an escape with his quick wit.
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An important component in understanding Odysseus’ cunning abilities can be observed through Odysseus introduction as “No-one” to the Cyclops (Homer 180). His real name was known throughout the world and could have brought him more trouble with Polyphemus since the Cyclops was the child of Poseidon whom was the reason for all of Odysseus’ trouble thus far. Also, Odysseus must have predicted that the Cyclops would wake with great furor and yell for help after being impaled as he did soon after saying, “‘[m]y friends, no force can damage me: No-one, No-one is using treachery’” (Homer 182). Odysseus’ deceit from the beginning brought him fortune in his aversion of a quarrel with the rest of the Cyclopes inhabiting the island. Successfully, the other Cyclops thought him crazy and ignored his cries saying, “‘If no one is harming you, and you are all alone, it surely is some sickness sent by Zeus: you can’t elude that kind of malady’”(Homer
Near the beginning of his journey, he met a Cyclops named Polyphemus. He killed & ate many of his men, so he had to stop him. He got him drunk with wine, and with an olive branch, along with his crew, “straight forward they sprinted, lifted it, & rammed deep in his crater eye.” (Pg 768: Lines 331-333) That was very brave, taking down a Cyclops. When Odysseus was disguised as a beggar, he asked the suitor Antinous for food, but denied his request & hit him with a stool. “The stool he let fly hit the man’s right shoulder on the packed muscle under the shoulder blade- like solid rock, for all the effect one saw.” (Pg. 808: Lines 1228-1230) Even after that, Odysseus remained calm & didn’t reveal his identity. He also fought al of the suitors & killed them all. He only had a few followers, and had to fight hundreds of men. His actions were very bold.
Odysseus?s cunning is cardinal to his survival and that of his men. He uses his cunning to get them out of several unpleasant situations. When they are captured by the Cyclops, he can not use the strength of his men to escape, so he must use his cunning to free them. He lies and tricks the Cyclops to get out, ??My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends, everyone calls me Nohbdy?? (9.397-99). This clever deception stops the other Cyclops from helping Polyphemos helping them to escape. Odysseus also shows his cleverness when he returns to Ithaca.
Another instance that proves that Odysseus is a cunning person is when he is trapped in the Cyclops' cave. The Cyclops asks him his name and Odysseus tells him that his mane is "Nobody". This is a key part in his plan to escape, because he plans to kill the Cyclops but he knows that the Cyclops has friends nearby. Lines 454 through 455 shows why: "'Nobody, friends' --Polyphemus bellowed back from his cave-'Nobody's killing me now by fraud and not by force!'" So Odysseus escaped by blinding the Cyclops thus enabling he and his men to flee from the cave.
Homer’s The Odyssey, a magnificent story of lust, deceit, greed, and heroism, still fascinates scholars and casual readers alike today in the same way it fascinated its audience at the time it was written. The Odyssey, a journey of determination, patience, and virtue, tells the tail of Odysseus, the main character, on his voyage home to Ithaka after the end of the Trojan War. Odysseus goes through many unforeseen trials and tribulations, which exemplify his character. During these different happenings, Odysseus makes decisions that do not correspond to his character.
Like Jacob, Odysseus connived, manipulated, and deceived. On his journey home from the Trojan War, Odysseus uses his trickster ways to get himself out of trouble. One famous tail was his encounter with the one-eyed Cyclopes Polyphemous. Odysseus and his crew landed on the land of they Cyclopes. They made themselves at home, eating the cheese and goats of the Cyclopes, fully expecting him to be hospitable. Instead, Cyclops began eating then men as though they were animals themselves. Odysseus and his men were trapped in the cave and Polyphemous rolled a stone over the entrance so no one could exit. Odysseus connived a plan and gave the Cyclopes some wine. When he got drunk and passed out, Odysseus poked out the eye of Polyphemous and completely blinds him. Odysseus and his men escape the cave by clinging to the bellies of sheep (Odyssey, Ch. 9). He also disguised himself as a veteran of a Trojan war to Eumaios, a loyal servant, and as a beggar to his wife and son.
To begin with, Odysseus is an intelligent and clever man. He is a hero because he has the capacity to understand the situations and think through the struggles they are going to face. Odysseus is put against all the odds possible, and at times it seems like the gods are against him. Odysseus tricks the Cyclops, Polyphemus, in a very strategic way and handled the situation effectively. “My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends, / everyone calls me Nohbdy (Homer 498). Odysseus’ cleverness is brought out because he conceived an idea that would be adequate enough to trick a Cyclops. Later when Polyphemus is stabbed, he screams, “Nohbdy, Nohbdy’s tricked
Odysseus displays his desire for glory through his careless actions during his encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus. The desire for glory Odysseus displays is shown through the words he speaks to Polyphemus. He is a clever character but makes rash decisions that affect the outcome of his original goals and intentions. While Odysseus is trapped inside of the cave of the Cyclops, he begins to taunt Polyphemus. “I called back to the Cyclops, stinging taunts: So, Cyclops, no weak coward it was whose crew you bent to devour three in your vaulted cave—with your brute voice! Filthy crimes came down on your own head, you shameless cannibal” (Fagles, 226). Odysseus was insulting the Cyclops, and those insults caused the rage of the monster to boil over. The Cyclops was already angry with Odysseus blinding him, and was even more demoralized and angry when Odysseus began to taunt him. As Odysseus goes on with his insults and as his anger rises, he says, “Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed—say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, La...
To start, within the course of The Odyssey, Odysseus displays hubris through many of his actions. The most prominent instance in which Odysseus shows hubris is while he and his men are trying to escape from the Cyclops Polyphemus. They drug the monster until it passes out, and then stab him with a timber in his single eye. Polyphemus, now blinded, removes the gigantic boulder blocking Odysseus’ escape, and waits for the men to move, so he can kill them. The men escape from the cave to their boat by tying themselves under flocks of rams, so they can easily slip by. Odysseus, now proud after beating the giant, starts to yell at Polyphemus, instead of making a silent escape. Odysseus’ men ask him to stop before Polyphemus would “get the range and lob a boulder” (436). But Odysseus shows hubris by saying that if they were to meet again, Odysseus would “take your life” and “hurl you down to hell!” (462; 463). Polyphemus, now extremely angry with Odysseus, prays to his father, Poseidon, to make Odysseus “never see his home” again, and after which, throws a mountain towards the sound of Odysseus’ voice. (470). Because of Odysseus’ hubris after blinding Polyphemus, Poseidon grants the prayer, and it takes Odysseus 20 years to return home, at the cost of the lives of all his men.
Throughout Odysseus’s meandering and consequent homecoming in Ithaca, Homer depicts many different aspects of Odysseus’s personality in his epic poem “The Odyssey”. Although Odysseus is smart, brave, and is a great fighter, in reality, he is an overconfident madman. Throughout Homer’s classic epic, Odysseus uses his skill to overcome many obstacles. However, in each story, overconfidence is always a major theme, and Odysseus’s hubris always causes him to do crazy things. At the end, Odysseus’s arrogance is his fatal flaw, and leads him into trouble.
In Homer’s Odyssey Odysseus shows his yearning for adventure and that challenging himself brings him happiness through his actions not his thoughts. Even in the clutches of a raging cyclopes Odysseus’ accepts the challenge at hand and persevere through the loss of some of his men. “My name is Nohbdy,” he tells Polyphemus who is drunk from the liquor Odysseus had given him before. The giant “reeled and tumbled backward,”. He son fell asleep and the next stages of his plan fell into place. When the sharpened log was hot enough for his liking he and a few other men “bored that great eye socket,”(380). Instead of letting his men die while he cracked under the pressure Odysseus remained calm and allowed himself to think. Having achieved his goal of defeating the mighty cyclopes he rejoiced in his valiancy. Odysseus exuded happiness when most of his men got out alive. Odysseus’ habits of getting his men into seemingly inescapable predicaments continues on the island of Cersei. At the gate of the witch’s island his need for adventure takes the best of his judgement. Against the advice of Eurylochus Odysseus “rushes to save his men from the enchantress,” (387). Odysseus’ need for thrill and excitement draws him onto the island. He knows that he will suffer the same fate but makes a decision in the heat of the moment that could've made him unable to return home, but he wasn’t thinking of home, he purely wanted to get his men back. Throughout his journey Odysseus perfectly represents the bond between a man’s adventures and the challenges they bring to
Now that we have discussed a bit on his bravery, now we can talk about how Odysseus is cunning. The third line in book one calls Odysseus cunning, but how so? Well going back to what we talked about before about how he outsmarted Polyphemus and used his own strength against him. Also, with the use of magic, he was able to defeat Circe. When Circe turned his men into pigs, he convinced her to turn them back into men. (Book 10: lines 413-420) Odysseus is also very strategic. When he returns home to Ithaca, he remains virtually unseen and plans just the right time to attack and defeat all the
One of the major themes of Homer’s Odyssey is the importance of cunning over strength. This also happens to be the case with Odysseus and his long ten year journey home from fighting in Troy. Odysseus uses his intelligence over strength to ‘fight’ through tough times and bring himself home to Ithaca. Odysseus uses his intelligence when he has his men tie him down while passing the Sirens, so he himself will be able to hear their beautiful song, but not be entranced by their singing. He also uses cunning to escape from the Cyclops’ cave without being harmed. He then uses his cunning by storing away all of the armory, shields, and knives from the suitors so he is able to kill them easily.
“The Odyssey” is an epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus and the story of his many travels and adventures. The Odyssey tells the main character’s tale of his journey home to the island of Ithaca after spending ten years fighting in the Trojan War, and his adventures when he returns home and he is reunited with his family and close friends. This literary analysis will examine the story and its characters, relationships, major events, symbols and motifs, and literary devices.
To begin, one feature that makes Odysseus and epic hero is his intelligence. In order for him to have survived through his journey, he has to have a massive amount of intellect. To have survived a Cyclops is an accomplishment of its own. His ability to think on his feet and to plan situations and ability to make a right decision in horrid environments has helped him survive throughout his disastrous journey. When he is trapped by the Cyclops, Polyphemus, he has to carve, smooth, and sharpen a gigantic spear-shaped-pole out of a large tree that he and his strongest men would then use it on the Cyclops to blind it. In order to follow through with his plan, Odysseus has to sedate him. He gives Polyphemus an extremely strong wine, in which Polyphemus asks him his name. Odysseus replies: “My name is Nohbdy; mother, father, friends, everyone call me Nohbdy”(9.274-9.275) When the Cyclops passes out, Odysseus and four of his strongest men stab Polyphemus in his eye with the sharpened pole that he and his men ...
Homer’s The Odyssey is a Greek story that follows the journey of its primary character, Odysseus, back to his home in Ithaca after the Trojan War. Odysseus encounters many challenges in his journey home, from encounters with Polyphemus the Cyclops, the witch Circe and even the ghosts of dead Greeks. Meanwhile, his household in Ithaca is being threatened by suitors of his wife, Penelope, all wanting to inherit Odysseus’ possessions in the belief that he was already dead. Like many epic heroes, Odysseus possesses many admirable qualities. Three good characteristics of Odysseus are—cleverness, bravery and strength—here are some supporting instances from the epic that demonstrates Odysseus possession of such characteristics.