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Trickster Archetypes In Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

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A trickster is “someone who tricks or deceives people especially in order to get something” (Merriam-Webster). Examples of the trickster archetype can be found in the Odyssey by Homer. For example, while Polyphemus has trapped Odysseus and Odysseus’ crewmates in his cave, Odysseus tells the Cyclops “Here, Cyclops, try this wine-to top off the banquet of human flesh you’ve bolted down” (Homer 222 lns. 388-389)! Enjoying the wine, the Cyclops demands for more, just as Odysseus anticipated he would. When Polyphemus becomes suitably drunk, Odysseus talks to him, “So, you ask me the name I’m known by, Cyclops? I will tell you. But you must promise to give me a guest-gift as you’ve promised. Nobody-that’s my name”(Homer 222-223 lns. 408-410). This is significant in the near future, when, after the Cyclops passes …show more content…

452-459).

Odysseus is a trickster in this scene because he convinces Polyphemus to get drunk so that he can attack the Cyclops, and because he deceives Polyphemus into believing that Odysseus’ name is “Nobody” so that when Polyphemus called for help none of his friends would help him, for they would believe that he wasn’t actually being attacked. This is all done to gain freedom from the Cyclops’ Cave.

The trickster archetype can also be found in the characters Gretel and “the Witch” in the story of Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm. In the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel are young siblings living alone in the woods with their parents. Their parents are too poor to scrounge up

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