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Recommended: Essay on the themes in odyssey

The character Odysseus is a protagonist whose extraordinary adventures feature in Homer’s Odyssey, which is an epic poem and Sophocles Philoctetes which is a tragedy. This essay will display the differences and similarities of Odysseus character in these two excerpts.
The two excerpts have a similar portrayal of Odysseys because they both illustrate how cunning his character is. In particular, they highlight how he uses this skill to concoct schemes. In Homers work Odysseus uses a plan to disguise himself as a man from Crete to trick the goddess Athena, who is impressed by his cunning calling him ‘foxy, ingenious’. The fact that Odysseus is receiving this praise from a goddess shows his prowess in thinking of artful plans. Likewise in Sophocles version, Odysseus is cunning which is shown through his plot to deceive Philoctetes. Odysseus commands Neoptolemos ‘to take Philoctetes by deceit’. This manipulative plan illustrates this characteristic in Odysseus because of the careful strategy and finesse that he implements into it to make it successful. Further evidence for this par...

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