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Deception In The Odyssey

Decent Essays

Deception in ancient Greece meant something almost entirely different than it does in the modern United States. For example, today, ‘deception’ is used most frequently in talking about a bad one night stands and how one member of the ‘night out’ cannot believe that he/she was fooled by someone just for sex. In ancient Greece, however, deception was most commonly attributed to females, and it played on the point that women were out to foil men’s plans of fulfilling their destiny in their manhood. Some of the most prominent female deceivers in Greek literature are the goddess Demeter, Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, and the goddess Athene. In the Hymn to Demeter, the daughter of the goddess Demeter, Persephone, is kidnapped by the god of the …show more content…

Athene is prominent in most Greek literature, but her role in the first four books of The Odyssey by Homer is one of her most famous roles. In Book I, she “…was disguised as a friend, leader of the Taphians, Mentes” (Odyssey, 1.105) and tells Odysseus’ and Penelope’s son, Telemachos, what he must do in order to discover truths about his lost father and to rid the home of the suitors. Telemachos is nearly 20 years of age, has been raised by his mother his entire life, and it has taken a toll on his level of maturity. Telemachos lacked a male, father-figure role model in his life, and being raised by only a woman was demeaning and thought to cause the boy to not reach his potential in manhood. However, when Athene comes to Telemachos as Mentes, she tell him that he “…should not go clinging to your childhood” and that he is “no longer of an age to do that” (Odyssey, 1.296-97). Unlike Demeter and Penelope, Athene is actually not disguising herself in order to obtain a personal goal, but rather to ensure that Odysseus’ son reaches maturity and that Telemachos does know that his father is alive and trying to come home. Athene’s use of trickery and deception is harmful to no one except the intruding suitors, since Telemachos needs to reach maturity, and the suitors need to leave the home of Odysseus. Thankfully, once the suitors realize what Telemachos has to do (Telemachos leaves Ithaca for Pylos and Sparta to see if he can discover news of his father), the suitors begin, for the first time since their arrival, to feel threatened by someone. Athene brings about the maturation of Telemachos, and therefore causes the suitors to become worried about there being another man in the

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