More handpicked essays just for you.
Theme of deception excerpts from homers odyssey
Deceit in the Odyssey
Theme of deception excerpts from homers odyssey
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Have you been successfully to disguises your identity to survive in a dangerous situation, to achieve a goal, or to test who can trust? You probably have not. In “the Odyssey”, Odysseus survived in the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus as he claimed to be called Noman. Athena disguised herself as a shepherd to achieve the goal of helping Odysseus defeat the suitors. Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, disguised himself as a beggar to find out who he could trust. These are some examples of how disguise has been used to help Odysseus get back home safe and help him get rid of the suitors. One example of how disguise helped Odysseus was when he and his crew went to the island of the Cyclops. Odysseus chose some men to go to the cave of Polyphemus with …show more content…
Instead of waking up to the view of his hometown, he woke up to the view of a misty area created by Athena. Athena wanted to do this because she wanted to tell Odysseus “...everything first and disguise him. She (Athena)wished that…might not know him until he had punished the wooers of his wife for their outrageous violence”(Homer 152). This is the plan of Athena, for Odysseus to take revenge for all the things the suitors had done. To do this, Athena created mist to confuse Odysseus and she used this strategy to be able to talk to Odysseus. This mist can be described as a disguise that is used to make Ithaca looked like a different place. While Odysseus was contemplating about where he was, how trusty the Phoenicians were, and counting the goods that he had gotten, Athena came walking towards him. She did so “... in the shape of a young shepherd, but someone who seemed to be delicately nurtured, like a gentlemen's son:...”(152). Athena disguised herself as a shepherd because “If Athena did not have the disguise as the shepherd boy when telling Odysseus that he was back in his homeland, Odysseus might have thought it was another trick from the Gods but because of Athena’s specific disguise he trusted and believed that what the “young shepherd boy” said was the truth”(“oconnorodyssey”). After she reviewed herself to Odysseus, she told Odysseus a plan to defeat the suitors using disguise …show more content…
He used the disguise to learn about what has been going on the in past 20 years while he had been gone. In knowing who he could trust, he could make plans to attack the suitors. First, Odysseus the beggar, went to the swineherd Eumaeus and learned more about the suitors, Eumaeus and his story. Odysseus found out that Eumaeus was still loyal to him. When Odysseus the beggar tells Eumaeus that Odysseus is about to come home, “Eumaeus doesn’t want to get his hopes up, and in his weariness, it’s clear that his love and regard for his king is undiminished after all these tears.”(enotes). The reason Eumaeus acts like this is because he had been tricked before by Aitolian. Aitolian came to Eumaeus because he had killed somebody and was now traveling around the world. He went to Eumaeus and told him that he had seen Odysseus in Crete and that he would come back either that summer or in autumn (Homer 165-166) but Odysseus never came. Later in the story, with the help of Telemachus, Odysseus used his disguise to get into his own house and to learn more about the different suitors. After a night at his own house, Penelope asked Odysseus to go meet her. After they had a talk, Penelope asked the old nurse Eurycleia to wash Odysseus. When Eurycleia, the old nurse, was washing Odysseus, she noticed the scar on his leg and said “surely tha’rt my baby! And I never knew thee till I had felt my master all over!”(Homer 222).
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.
Once he and he men are sailing away from the Cyclops, Odysseus cries back to the Cyclops “if anyone ever asks you how you came by your blindness, tell them your eye was put out by Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.” Odysseus has regretted his earlier decision for Polyphemus to not know his true name, because it means that anyone hearing the tale of a man defeating a Cyclops will not know that it was Odysseus who did it. The arrogant Odysseus does not like this, because he wants all tales of his prowess to be known for his. As he cannot let the chance of more fame escape him, he reveals to Polyphemus his true identity. This sentence, with which he risks the Cyclops throwing a boulder onto their ship, show the readers just how arrogant Odysseus is. It helps the readers understand quite how willing Odysseus is to risk anything if it will add to his
For twenty years Odysseus was away from his home of Ithaca, and in this time he faced several events that would change the way he would see the world. Witnessing such events as the breaking open of six of his innocent soldiers' skulls by a Cyclops (Homer 132) and the feeding of another six of his men to a six-headed beast (Homer 186) played a large part of the changed man that returned. Though a changed Odysseus awoke on the beach of Ithaca, he would have to force all the lessons of two decades out of his personality and into the efforts to regain his life; he would need to use the strength he gained from his experiences to conceal his identity behind a mask of weakness.
In Homer's epic The Odyssey, Odysseus returns to the island of Ithaka disguised as a beggar. He reveals his real identity to his son, Telemakhos, as well as a few others who he would need to help kill the suitors. However, Odysseus does not reveal himself to his wife, Penelope. She recognizes the beggar as her long lost husband and chooses not to unveil his true identity. Penelope does this because she realized that her husband would be in danger, in his current surroundings, if she was to reveal who he really was. Therefore she acts as if she does not know the beggar is Odysseus. However, it is portrayed subtly in the book that she does indeed know that the beggar is her husband.
Odysseus masters deception in the Odyssey by disguising himself. Odysseus isn't alone, as Athena also uses disguises. With that being said, disguises allow Odysseus to succeed in killing the suitors. Athena was just as important in disguising herself because she played such an important role in killing the suitors. She did so by disguising herself as other people to help Odysseus return to Ithaca by slaying the suitors.
Odysseus is a fool because he doesn’t have a good heart. The poem states,” Spare your own people…as for ourselves we’ll make restitution …meanwhile we can’t blame you for your anger.” “You forced yourselves upon this house …Fight your way out or run for it if you think you can escape death.This shows that Odysseus didn’t have heart because he murdered innocent people when they offered him
Then there was the time when he and his men were captured by the cyclops and trapped in his cave. He got then Cyclopes drunk then stabbed him in the eye. Then the next day Odysseus tied himself and all of his men to the bottoms of the sheep so when the cyclops grabbed the sheep and took them outside he couldn't tell that they were there. Another example is when passing the sirens whose sweet song lured men to their deaths he had his men tie him so that he could not move, then had them put earplugs in (on themselves and not him) so that he would be able to hear the siren song and drown while his crew navigated the
In this scene, Odysseus arrives at Ithaca and encounters the goddess Athena in disguise. Athena informs Odysseus on his current location and asks him who he is; he uses his quick wit and tells Athena that he is a fugitive from Crete who has murdered Orsilochus. Athena sees through his lies and commends him on his “craft and guile”. One thing that Odysseus demonstrates repeatedly is his ability to perform under stress. Evidenced when he told Polyphemus his name was, “Nobody- so my mother and father call me, all my friends.” His quick thinking spared him his life. Similarly, Odysseus recognizes that revealing his identity to a stranger could have negative repercussions and acts accordingly. It surprised me when Athena commends Odysseus for his
Before leaving the island of Ithaca, Odysseus is the overly self confident king of his homeland. As he goes on his journey, Odysseus changes throughout the whole process, however his most prominent transformation occurs when during his homecoming disguised as an old beggar. While Odysseus is present at the suitor’s feast, Antinoos, “spoke, and picking up the footstool he threw it hitting Odysseus at the base of his right shoulder, where it joins the back. But Odysseus stood firm like a rock, Antinoos’ cowardly blow did not stagger him. Odysseus shook his head in silence, pondering evil deep in his heart.” (Book 17 Lines 424-428). The cruelty of the Antinoos causes Odysseus to learn humility and restraint. Odysseus has truly changed. Before his journey he would have fought back both physically and verbally, but now he says and does nothing when he is insulted and abused in his own home. This transformation and overcoming of Odysseus’ pride would not have been possible without the
Odysseus demands that the nurse say nothing about his being alive to Penelope when she finds out the beggar is actually him but disguised. Odysseus told lies to Penelope because she still has not found out that he was alive. Odysseus himself would talk to Penelope but disguised as a beggar and she didn't notice. Penelope still thought that Odysseus was still out there dead or alive she sent her
When Odysseus was scrubbing his body in the river, Athena made him look like a god so he would be accepted by the king’s wife. As Homer states, “...Athena, the grey-eyed goddess, made him more robust and taller; and she gave him thicker hair, which flowed down from his head in curls and clusters that seemed much like the hyacinth in flower” (6.123). Besides the looks, Athena also gave him massive amounts of strength. During the physical competitions, Odysseus was showing off to the Phaeacians and he threw the largest and heaviest rock the farthest distance out of all of the men. This action awed both the royal family and the spectators, which allowed Odysseus to be even more admirable. Finally, Athena shrouds Odysseus in a mist so he would remain invisible from other people, preventing him from being questioned by
Odysseus relates to the public with his character flaws that is what makes him get the impression that he is to a greater extent alive and not fabricated. In the Odyssey, Odysseus has ongoing dilemmas with his pride. An example of his intolerable selfishness with himself being his undoing is when he and his crew were on Cyclops’ Island. The protagonist had escaped Polyphemus and he had already taunted the Cyclops and almost was captured, but here is his ego taking control. This is Odysseus’s response to Polyphemus stating that a prophecy told him that a
Throughout the poem, Odysseus proves that one of his many qualities of the theme is how he is charming and cunning, he uses these two qualities to get out of problems. Odysseus demonstrates cunning by continuing through the storm created by Poseidon and not letting Poseidon’s rage and revenge overcome him. Odysseus also shows that he has cunning when he stood up to the cyclops, Polyphemus. Odysseus displays the theme’s cunning, strength, and charm many times periodically throughout The
Over a lifetime, people grow into smart people with different personalities and different interests. In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus does something just like that. Faced with many hardships and rough decisions to make, Odysseus has to either become different for the better or stay the same forever. The definition of change is to make or become different. Over time in the epic, Odysseus changes for the better of his future. Before Odysseus returned home, he didn’t care and simply nothing mattered. When he returned home, he was a completely different person. His change to himself got him home to his wife and son as a more mature person.
Odysseus traversed his epic by using his mind to deceive his enemies in order to make it through his trials and tribulations. A key trial was the way in which Odysseus deceived the Cyclops Polyphemus, Poseidon’s son. Polyphemus was considered god-like according to the text so overcoming this monster was no easy task for Odysseus and proving how cunning he was. Odysseus emotionally reacts to the Cyclops initially eating two of his comrades, but realizes that if he takes revenge he loses his only means out of the cave which is the Polyphemus’ strength to remove the doorstone. Odysseus realizes that in order to gain freedom he must methodically take down the Cyclops by getting him drunk, branding his eye with a hot iron, and then escaping under using the disguise of Polyphemus’ sheep. Getting the Cyclops drunk was a means for Odysseus to build rapport with the monster and this trust can be seen by Polyphemus falling asleep near his prisoners. During this encounter Odysseus tells Polyphemus his name is Noman essentially removing his name from himself. After, Odysseus and his men brand Polyph...