Cleverness And Cleverness In Homer's The Odyssey

One of the major themes of Homer’s Odyssey is the importance of cunning over strength. This also happens to be the case with Odysseus and his long ten year journey home from fighting in Troy. Odysseus uses his intelligence over strength to ‘fight’ through tough times and bring himself home to Ithaca. Odysseus uses his intelligence when he has his men tie him down while passing the Sirens, so he himself will be able to hear their beautiful song, but not be entranced by their singing. He also uses cunning to escape from the Cyclops’ cave without being harmed. He then uses his cunning by storing away all of the armory, shields, and knives from the suitors so he is able to kill them easily.

The Greeks also valued intelligence and intellect. Although there were certain areas in Greece that valued it more than others, such as Athens, the Greeks were generally an intelligent race of people. An example from the Odyssey is when Penelope (Odysseus’ wife, Telemakhos’ mother) tells her suitors that she needs to finish weaving a shroud for an old man before she marries. She proceeds to weave on her loom every day, but unravels it during the night, so that she will never have to marry. Another example is when Odysseus finally arrives home, and he disguises himself so he can question people about his home and the situation, all without being noticed. In this way he gained information without revealing himself.

The Greeks valued intelligence and wit very strongly. “The Odyssey” offers countless examples of this. In fact, Odysseus himself gets out of many tough situations and conquers many obstacles with his wit and cleverness. He tells Polyphemos the Cyclopes that his name is “Nobody” and succeeds in blinding him and getting

One great example to show just how cunning Odysseus is, is the story about the cyclops, who had planned to eat Odysseus and his shipmates. One of the ideas that Odysseus had to get rid of the cyclops was to have him drink so much wine that he wouldn’t be able to focus and so he could be knocked out. Tricking the cyclops gave Odysseus and his shipmates another chance to get away from the cyclops. A piece of evidence from the cyclops story that shows Odysseus’s cunning trait is a quote from the story, it says “My moment was at hand, and I went forward holding an ivy bowl of my dark drink,” this quote shows Odysseus’s idea of giving the cyclops the wine so he would be knocked out and so Odysseus could have a better chance at killing him and getting away.

The Cyclops says to the Cyclopes: “Nohbdy’s tricked me, Nohbdy’s ruined me.” The Cyclopes reply: “Ah well, if nobody has played you foul there in your lonely bed, we are no use in pain given by the great Zeus.” Odysseus’ cleverness helped him evade the fate that would have befallen him if the other Cyclopes caught him. One more leadership quality possessed by Odysseus is wisdom. Odysseus’ wisdom is displayed when Odysseus conquers the town of Ismarus. Odysseus says: “I told them ‘Back, and quickly!

One of Odysseus’s most well known traits is his ability to use his wits to conquer challenges that stand in the way of him and Ithaca. Out of the many examples strewn in the epic, the tale of the Cyclops is the most obvious situation that clearly depicts the main character’s sharpness. In this scene, Odysseus and his men are trapped and must escape the Cyclops, Polyphemus. After they have already struck Polyphemus in the eye, ruining his vision, the men tie themselves to the underbelly of the rams in order to sneak out when the animals are sent to the pasture. In the text it states, “Blinded, and sick with pain from his head wound, the master stoked each ram, then let it pass, but my men riding on the pectoral fleece the giant’s blind hands blundering never found.” This excerpt conveys that Odysseus’s astute plan worked efficiently because none of his crew was noticed by Polyphemus. Odysseus was able to flee the Cyclops, which is respectable considering he used his brains rather than brawn.

The Cyclops is obviously pleased with the spoken words and gestures, and as a result, he gives in to his greed as he takes the wine. Odysseus's confidence in his own ability was the first step towards his success with the Cyclops. However, he has to take it a step further in order to make a successful get-away. Once again, a demonstration of his sharp intellect shows how Odysseus is smarter and more cunning than the average human. A quote that demonstrates his intelligence is,

Second, Odysseus remains level-headed throughout his journey by continuing to be a strategist and maintaining wisdom. Odysseus shows his ability to strategize mainly on Ithaka. When he is with Athena on the shore, ““Whoever gets around you must be sharp and guileful as a snake: even a god might bow to you in ways of dissimulation. You! You chameleon! Bottomless bag of tricks! Here in your own country would you not give your stratagems a rest,”” (XIII, 371-376). Here Athena herself says that Odysseus could fool even a god with his tricks and strategies. To have a god of wisdom and say this to him shows how good of a strategist he is. Another example of his mastery of stratagems comes soon after when he plots with Athena, “under the old grey olive tree those two sat down to work the suitors death and woe,” (XIII,465-466). Athena and Odysseus devise a strategy together and unless Odysseus was an excellent strategist, Athena would not let him plan with her. His strategies allow him to save himself and as many other people as possible which makes him a hero. Odysseus also sows his level-headedness through his wisdom. One example is in the lair of the Kyklops, “if I killed him we perished there as well, for we could never move his ponderous

For one he told the Cyclops his name is nobody. This is witty because he knows that when he stabs the cyclops in the eye and he cries out for help, no one will come to help him because he will say nobody has stabbed him. In addition to telling the cyclops that his name is nobody, he also escapes the cave riding underneath the sheep. This is showing cleverness because Odysseus knows that if he and his men try to escape the cave they will get caught, so he decided to ride underneath the sheep’s belly to escape from the now blind cyclops.

Odysseus has all of these qualities, and he id admired by those look up to him. Odysseus is not the book smart type of smart he has the ability to be sly smart and overcome obstacles that might stand in his way. Epic heroes possess braveness and intelligence but also have inner weaknesses. They also have weapons but Odyssey’s mind should also be considered a weapon because of how witty and mentally strong Odysseus is in this story. He has to show an extreme amount of intellect throughout the story in order to solve those obstacles.

He shows he’s smart on his journey, but he was the smartest when he went against the Cyclops. Odysseus was intelligent when he baffled Polyphemus by telling the Cyclops his name was "Nobody." He also had the plan to carve a giant stake out of a tree in order to blind the Cyclops, thus enabling him and his men to be freed from Polyphemus's cave and being tied to the underbelly of the Cyclops's rams (The Odyssey). This was very smart of him for the reason that he was clever enough to lie and say he was “nobody,” by him doing this it tricks the Cyclops. To think of hiding his men under the rams was also smart for the sake of he got his men out without getting caught. Bamboozling, the Cyclops got his men out of a dilemma.

Odysseus is intelligent. For example, Odysseus uses a strategy to make sure he doesn’t get lured by the sirens. He tells the crew, “Therefore you are to tie me up tight as a splint, erect along the mast, lashed to the mast” (12. 24-27). This shows that Odysseus rescued the sailors and himself from an obstacle that had the potential of not only ending their journey

Odysseus is clever and brave. Odysseus is a very clever man. For example when Odysseus and his crew come to an island of Cyclops. They wander into a huge cave that eventually is revealed to be a cyclops’ home.

Odysseus uses cleverness when he runs into the Cyclops by knowing if he had killed them they would be trapped in the cave. He is smart by using an olive branch tree to stab the Cyclops in the eye. Another way Odysseus uses cleverness is when he listens to Circe about the Sirens. He puts beeswax in his crew's ears, and he has his men tie him down so he can listen to the song as Circe said. Odysseus is also clever when the Cyclops ask for his name, and he says his name is Nohbdy. Odysseus tells them: “Cyclops, you ask my honorable name? Remember the gift you promised me, I shall tell you. My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends everyone calls me Nohbdy” (12.

In book 9," In the One-Eyed Giant's Cave" I learned and discovered about Odysseus cleverness and wittiness is thoroughly shown throughout this section. To my understanding I discovered examples on how and why Odysseus had a clever and witty side to him. But Odysseus was not always witty and clever towards the end, I definitely realized he was a little ignorant too shown by an ignorant choice he made.