After reading The Odyssey, two main traits that can be used to describe the central character, Odysseus, are clever and arrogant. Throughout the poem, Odysseus continually demonstrates his cleverness in his ability to outsmart his adversaries during his adventures at sea. A perfect example to support this would be when he encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus is keenly aware how well he succeeds at being clever which has lead him to become quite arrogant. He believes because his cleverness has helped him escape life threatening situations that have saved his life and those of his men, that he is invincible which makes him arrogant. He shows his arrogance during his encounter with the sirens and also when he returns home to a line of suitors vying for his wife.
During Odysseus’s interaction with the Cyclops but more specifically with the Cyclops Polyphemus, he demonstrates many instances where he uses cleverness to outsmart his opponent while being held captive in a cave. Odysseus tries to explain to the Polyphemus that they are lost and need help. He reminds Polyphemus of the Greek tradition of the guest-host relationship and that Zeus will repay the unoffending host. Polyphemus replies with anger and force, stating that he doesn't care for the gods and states that
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Cyclopes have more force than the gods. Polyphemus inquires as to the whereabouts of Odysseus’s ship. Odysseus assumes he is going to terrorize the ship with his other men on board. The clever Odysseus replies, “My ship? / Poseidon lord, who sets the earth a-tremble, / broke it up on the rocks of your land’s end” (Homer 9.187-189) His ship is really docked on the shores of the land of the Cyclopes, but the Polyphemus believes him. While still held captive by Polyphemus, Odysseus strategizes a way to escape the cave. During the time the cyclops are off working in the fields, Odysseus is busy constructing a huge spike he intends to use on Polyphemus when he returns to the cave. Odysseus knows that if he could blind the Cyclops he would be able to escape because the cyclops would go for help thereby opening the cave’s door. He realizes that if he killed Polyphemus, he would not be able to open the door to the cave so he needed him alive. In order to stab Polyphemus in the eye, he needs to be able to incapacitate him. He shows his resourcefulness by offering Polyphemus wine that he has taken off his ship with the purpose of intoxicating him. After Polyphemus has drunk many bowls of wine and is very drunk, Odysseus tells Polyphemus that his name is Nohbdy, saying, “My name is Nohbdy: mother, father and friends, / everyone calls me Nohbdy” (9.274-275). This is yet another example of his cleverness. After stabbing Polyphemus in the eye once he passed out from all the wine, Polyphemus opens the cave door and screams in search of help from the other Cyclopes. When the others ask him who did this to him, he replies “Nohbdy”. Thinking Polyphemus is saying “nobody” they retreat without helping. The final example of Odysseus’s cleverness is when he and his men camouflage themselves under a flock of sheep in order to escape the cave. He knows that with Polyphemus’s impaired vision he would not be able to see them hidden under the sheep. If it were not for the all the ingeniousness of Odysseus, he and the others probably would not have survived the Land of the Cyclopes. Odysseus’s success at escaping life threatening situations by using his quick wit has also led to his second character trait, which is arrogance. The two instances where his arrogance reveals itself the most are as follows. Right after he visits Circe’s island, Circe offers Odysseus bits of advice on how to overcome the sirens. Sirens are mythical creatures that lure in sailors to their rocky shore and wreck the sailors’ ships by possessing people with their singing. The only way to escape the enchanting singing is to block your ears with beeswax, according to Circe. Odysseus forces his men to plug their ears with the beeswax, while arrogant Odysseus wants to hear the sirens’ sweet tune for himself. He demands his crew to tie him up on the ship’s mast while he hears the sirens sing. Here it says, “They tied me up, then, plumb / amidships, back to the mast, lashed to the mast, / and took themselves again to rowing” (1234.117-119) to show that Odysseus’s crew has tied him up to listen to the siren’s song. He shows how arrogant he is by wanting to be the only man to hear the Siren's song and thinking he is immune to their special gifts. The last example of Odysseus’s arrogance is when he returns home to Ithaca and finds out what the suitors have done to Odysseus’s palace and that they have bid for his wife while he is still alive.
Odysseus exclaims that he is going to kill all of the suitors in his palace that have bid for his wife. The suitor, Eurymachus speaks up and offers Odysseus restitution of all the wine and meat they have eaten, twenty oxen for each suitor and gifts of bronze and silver. The arrogant Odysseus replies
Not for the whole treasure of your fathers,
all you enjoy, lands, flocks, or any gold
put up by others, would I hold my hand.
There will be killing till the score is paid.
(1259.61-64) In simple terms, Odysseus tells the suitors that he denies any offer that the suitors have for him and that he can ONLY be satisfied if all of the suitors are dead. This shows he is arrogant because he doesn’t want anything else than what he desires. Odysseus, the protagonist of the poem, is a complex character. Throughout the poem Odysseus brings to light many different traits to define his character but none more evident than the two described in this essay. Readers may argue that he has different main characteristics like emotional, strong or brave. I have reason to believe them based on the evidence from the epic, but his cleverness and arrogance still stick out the most. The examples described above supply sufficient proof to support the theory that Odysseus’s two main characteristics are clever and arrogant.
In The Odyssey, Odysseus portrays an important trait to the story, perseverance. His perseverance really stands out as something that he has and always will have. On his long journey home, he never gives up and just stays where he is, no matter how tempting. He always manages to push through and keep getting closer to his goal of returning home. An example of when he does this is when he is faced with the challenge of getting past Skylla and Kharybdis. He knows that either path will kill at least some of his men and possibly him, but he knows he has to keep going. "And all this time,/ in travail, sobbing, gaining on the current,/ we rowed into the strait---Skylla to port/ and on our starboard beam Kharybdis, dire/ gorge of the salt sea tide." (Homer, 12. 301-305). In O Brother, Where Art Thou, Everett also showed his perseverance. While trying to get back to his wife, he also faces many obstacles that he must get through. There were many people and things keeping him from where he was going, but he pushed through and got there anyway. His greatest obstacle to get through was when he came upon the sirens. He went down to the river and the sirens got the men drunk enough to fall asleep. While asleep, Pete was turned in by the sirens, but the other men hadn't been turned in yet. They woke up and were forced to get out of there as fast as they could with a frog they thought was Pete. Delmar wanted to stay and try to change Pete back but Everett told him they needed to persevere and keep going, and they did. Another trait that both of these men show in their stories is their cleverness. Odysseus show...
Odysseus’s revenge towards the suitors, whose only crime was the crime of theft, was unnecessarily cruel, after all, a hero must be able to forgive. It has been twenty years since anyone on Ithaka have seen, or even heard news about Odysseus. Therfore, it would have been perfectly pliable to pronounce him dead. “ He has been gone for twenty years.” The people of Ithaka were all under the impression that Odysseus, has in fact, passed a...
Every day people make decisions. Some are more important than others, but all decisions have consequences, no matter how small. The decisions that you make, and the decisions others make could affect your life. They may have positive effects, but they may also have negatives effects like in The Odyssey by Homer. In general, Odysseus and his men made some decisions that lead to some very negative effects.
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.
In this paper, I will argue that although the surface meaning of this passage is the slaughter of the suitors by Odysseus and his men, the deeper meaning of the passage is the
When people think of Odysseus, they think of a great, cunning, warrior. Who wouldn’t see him that way, he fought his way through Troy and embarked on a journey back home to see his son and wife again. On the surface Odysseus seems like a genius but in Homer’s, The Odyssey, Odysseus shows many instances where he outwits his foes but his foolishness heavily outweighs his smarts; he becomes boastful after a victory which leads to more hardships, he leaves precious cargo in the open for his brutish crew to mess with, and refuses help from the gods which nearly leads to his demise.
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.
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...
Next, Polyphemus demonstrates hubris by believing that because he is a giant, he is unbeatable by anyone, even a god. This is shown when Odysseus meets Polyphemus and greets him with gifts, as it is a custom to show courtesy to hosts and guests alike, (unexpected or not). Failure to give gifts can lead to revenge from the gods. Odysseus tells Polyphemus this, but Polyphemus “would not let you go for fear of Zeus” because the Cyclopes “have more force by far ”. (205; 200) Polyphemus then angers the gods further by kidnapping and eating Odysseus’ men, both of which are considered extremely uncivil in Greek society. Polyphemus is so confident in his invulnerability he lets the men roam free inside the cave, a mistake that leads to his downfall.
To begin, Oedipus is arrogant. There are many instances throughout the play where Oedipus’s arrogance is
In The Odyssey, Homer, or more so, the characters, often referred to Odysseus as the ‘Great Odysseus’. In the text, it is obvious to see that Odysseus demonstrates arrogance, charisma, over-confidence, and pride. Odysseus and his m...
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 portrays his selfishness right as the book begins and this shows how truly incompetent of an individual he is. One form of selfishness Odysseys shows is adultery. He is unfaithful to Penelope many times throughout the book. He reveals this trait specifically when he is with Kalypso on Ogygia and with Kirke on Aiaia. Odysseus shows his selfishness when he steps foot on Kalypso’s island because he chooses to stay with her for seven years. He did not care about the crew’s feelings on the matter, since all’s he cared about was himself. By the time the seven years were up, the crew members finally realized they had to make Odysseus leave. These actions also make a liar out of Odysseus because he said he wanted to return home more than anything, yet he did not even make the slightest attempt to leave. On Aiaia, Odysseus was forced to sleep with Kirke to save his men from staying swine, but he still committed adultery. No matter what the reason, adultery is a choice that can be controlled. An additional negative quality Odysseus obtains is being self absorbed. This trait is seen when Odysseus traveled to the Land of the Dead. He shows his selfish qualities in this example because he travels there initially for his own benefit. Odysseus also has attendances to t...
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.
The challenges that Homer give the protagonist is all a test of character. Odysseus continues to pass the obstacles with flying colors, but his arrogance is the one flaw that is in dire need of correction. Some of the many challenges Odysseus overcomes on his voyage home is defeating the Cicones, surviving the Island of the Lotus Eaters, outsmarting the Giant Cyclops, saving his men from Circe, Traveling to Hades, passing between Scylla and Charybdis, escaping Calypsos’ Island and many more. Odysseus survives these obstacles and uses his smarts to escape near disaster. Often times he was the only one to survive these things and his crew often lost their lives due to their own stupidity. “‘We left the island and resumed our journey in a state of gloom; and the heart was taken out of my men by the wearisome rowing. But was our own stupidity that had deprived us of the wind.’”(P127 L75-79) Odysseus shows how he is an extraordinary man by being much smarter than his crew and the men that follow him. As a part of this stripping of Odysseus, Homer shows that Odysseus is a collective symbol of Everyman. On the one hand Odysseus is a great warrior, who is extremely intelligent, noble, and a great man. Although he has many god- like qualities he is still human. He shows that he is human and like every man, because of the fact that he still has major flaws. The