The Value of Cunning over Strength

1582 Words4 Pages

Odysseus was the person who originally came up with the idea of the Trojan horse, the strategy by which the Greeks were finally able to take the city of Troy itself and have it fall (Hunter). Odysseus came up with this very cunning idea of to take down Troy. This is what led to the fall of Troy. If he never thought of this idea Troy may have never have fallen. Therefore, Odysseus's amazing wits won over Troy and they could have never done it without him. He could have just said lets go brute force into Troy and most of them if not all of them would have fallen on the battlefield that day. He made sure all the ships and camps were hidden and did it during the celebrating that was happening in Troy. This way he was able to make it seem like it was a gift from the gods. I believe this is the best example of reinforcing my thesis from a secondary text. The reason why is that the Trojan Horse is the reason why they won the Trojan War. For ten years the battle was go in neither direction. However, then came along this idea that Odysseus thought of all on his own he claimed (WorldPress.com). The pure genuis of this strategy to wait patiently inside of a giant wooden horse until the city went to sleep was an unthinkable idea it seemed like back then.
Women found in this book also had to have cunning and strength of character to not be pushed around like a sex slave and become an object more than a human being. They displayed as much cunning as Odysseus throughout The Odyssey. They have to rely on the power of cunning over strength because they are weaker than the men as it has been for centuries. Homer's majority of minor characters it seems like are women. He is using all these minor characters to reinforce the theme...

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...ave probably died. However, when they work together they can defeat anything. The use of cunning through deception and disguise played a large role in Odysseus’ success in getting home; even when he was home he used disguise and deception. Women helped Odysseus become disguised sometimes and Odysseus did much of the deception. Odysseus and the women in The Odyssey were showing throughout the book the power of cunning over strength and how many different scenarios they used it in. I felt the examples I chose to enforce my thesis were appropriate, the better of the bunch, and showing different scenarios.

Works Cited

Homer, Robert Fagles, and Bernard Knox. The Odyssey. N.p.: n.p., 1996. Print.
Hunter, James. "Odysseus." Odysseus. Mythica, 03 Mar. 1997. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
"The Value of Cunning Over Strength." Blog. WorldPress.com, 13 Oct. 2012. Web. 03 May 2014.

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