Character Of Odysseus In Homer's The Odyssey

“The Odyssey”, written by Homer, is a book full of epic stories, tales, and myths, all revolving around the book’s namesake, Odysseus. There are many characters that go in and out of the story, coming and going as they are needed to advance the plot, such as Athena who seems to always appear when any one of the major characters is in need of godly help. The one character however who is always constant and is always an extremely important part of the story, is of course, Odysseus. Throughout the tale, Odysseus is put in many different situations that make it possible for the reader to see what kind of person and what characteristics he possesses. I chose Odysseus to analyze due to his adventurous personality and how intriguing it is. In “The

Homer repeatedly puts Odysseus into situations where he must lead his men or anyone else who may be with him into battle or out of a dangerous scenario using his only wits to guide him. Take the Trojan Horse for example. Odysseus had the task of leading troops into Troy during the Trojan War and came up with the now infamous idea of the Trojan Horse. He and his troops constructed a large hollow and wooden horse that Odysseus and his army hid inside of. When the horse was brought into Troy, they waited until the city slept and came out of the horse, conquering the city. Because of this, Odysseus was henceforth known as “(The) Mastermind of War”, (Homer 3). Because of Odysseus’ genius and clever strategy, the war was won for Odysseus and his men. Another situation where Odysseus used his cleverness and wits to solve a problem was when Odysseus and his men were trapped in the Cyclops Polyphemus’ lair. Polyphemus trapped them all in a giant cavern with a boulder at the entrance so they could not escape. Odysseus developed up a plan where he tricked Polyphemus into getting drunk and then stabbed his eye, blinding him. Because of Odysseus’ cleverness, he was then able to then cling to the underside of sheep with the rest of his crew and escape the cave. In another instance, he evaded the creatures Skylla and Charybdis by himself for the second time. Using his quick thinking and cleverness, he evaded the broiling sea by “(Springing) for the great fig tree, catching on like a bat under a bow”, (Homer 224). He stayed up in the tree until it was safe for him to be back in the open ocean. Odysseus’s quick and clever actions allowed him to evade death at the hands of the sea monsters and ultimately, this characteristic aided him in many ways throughout his