Odysseus Arête And Metis In Homer's Odyssey

Arête and Metis

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twist and turns”, the first line of the epic, The Odyssey. A story about a man named Odysseus, who was indeed a man of twist and turns, and his adventures back home to Ithaca. Throughout his journey he showed many examples of excellence and wits, or what Greeks called, Arête and Metis. He battled giants Cyclops and raging sea monsters. He even fought a whole army of suitors, only with the help of his son and two loyal herds. Not only he displayed amazing skills, he also showed great wits. He tricked a Cyclops into thinking that his name is “Nobody” and he built a boat that eventually saved his life. Although he did many of these remarkable acts, many people would agree that these

He demonstrates these two traits when he was stuck in the depths of Charybdis, a monster who sucks up the sea then vomits it back out three times a day. As he was heading back home, a lightning bolt struck his ship, which caused him to head back into the direction of Charybdis. He then “snapped the mast from the decks and with this he lashed the mast and keel together, made them one, riding my makeshift raft as the gale winds bore him on and on”(284). Again his fast and creative thinking saves his life as he manages to drift across the sea. However, Charybdis was about to swallow the sea and so Odysseus quickly jumped on a tree branch and hold on for life. “I reached the crag of Scylla and dire Charybdis vortex right when the dreadful whirlpool gulped the sea salt sea down. But heaving myself aloft to clutch at the fig-tree’s height, like a bat I clung to its trunk for dear life” (284). This shows how remarkable Odysseus is capable of holding onto a tree branch for his dear life until the sea monster vomits the sea back up. His cunning wits kept him sailing further, while all his men died at the boat. If Odysseus never created a raft he would have died. He would have also died if he hadn’t held onto the branch longer. It was both his cunning wits and excellent strength that kept him alive and continuing his journey back

Throughout his journey Arête and Metis has been very prominent part of his survival. He used both these traits while fighting Cyclops or while trying to avoid getting eaten by a sea monster or when killing all the suitors of Ithaca. In all scenarios he demonstrated his great use of both traits and endure the long journey to home and is still in one piece. If he hadn’t used his metis, he might have never made it out of the cyclops cave and if he hadn’t used arête then the cyclops would still be eating Odysseus. Arête and Metis both helped Odysseus to survive and endure his long journey back to Ithaca and did not caused his