Identity In Odysseus Part III

Melissa Mueller, author of Recognition and the Forgotten Senses in the Odyssey, states that “Odysseus, by contrast, keeps his own body and voice. His disguise consists instead of the accelerated aging of his other attributes. Rather than taking on another’s features, he remains on the spectrum of self-sameness. Even when he is a beggar, Odysseus’s own voice appears not to have undergone any significant alteration.” (Mueller 12). Odysseys is not completely unrecognizable in his disguise. His disguise was flawed, and this was proven a number of times throughout the end of The Odyssey when he was recognized without revealing himself. Odysseus’s identity was only revealed to Telemachus. Eurycleia, his wet nurse, and Argus, his personal hunting dog, were both able to see through his disguise. Both individuals, at one point, had a very strong bond with Odysseus. Perhaps these individuals are able to see through his disguise because they knew Odysseus very well. On the other hand, Telemachus needs Odysseus to reveal his identity because he left while Telemachus was too young to have a strong bond with his father. If these individuals were able to recognize Odysseus through his disguise, Penelope, who would unarguably have the greatest bond with Odysseus would most definitely be able to see through his

Odysseus’ journey home was a long difficult venture which resulted in the loss of some of his crew, due to various monsters. Once Odysseus finally returned to his kingdom, he was disguised as a beggar and said that he was a friend of Odysseus. After a few days of witnessing his house be trashed by suitors, he revealed himself to his son, Telemachus, who the suitors planned to kill. Odysseus and Telemachus came up with a plan to kill all of the suitors while at the feast they were planning to hold. Penelope was also planning on holding a competition to figure out which one of the suitors she should marry.

Penelope waited a long, lingering twenty years for her beloved Odysseus return to Ithaka and into her arms. Penelope proved her loyalty by ?wearing out [her] lifetime with desire/ and sorrow, mindful of [her] lord, good man/? (Homer 18:229-230). Even though the pestering suitors were like vulture swarming in on fresh meat Penelope was able to hold them at bay with her faithful devotion to her mighty Odysseus. In order to do this the cunning and wily Penelope lead them to believe that she would marry one of them only to later let them down. She used the weaving of the funeral shroud for Lord Laertes to keep them under control. ?So everyday she wove on the loom-/ but every night by torchlight she unwove it;? (Homer 1:110-111). Attestation of Penelope?s loyalty to Odysseus is the unweaving of the shroud because she did not want to marry one of the suitors and had full confidence in her beloved king?s return. The archery test that Penelope purposes is functioning to hold off the suitors, for none are a match for Odysseus, as well as prompting Odysseus to proving himself to her. ?Upon Penelope, most worn in love and thought, / Athena cast a glance like a gray sea/ lifting her. Now to bring the tough bow out and bring/ the iron blades. Now try those dogs at archery.? (Homer 21:1-4). Penelope tests Odysseus to make him prove that it is he before she will trust him. The test of the bedpost that she puts to Odysseus once again proves Penelope?s

He competed in a bow and arrow challenge to win over his own wife, Penelope. Odysseus revealed his identity to his son, Telemachus, and some of his servants to then slaughter Penelope’s wooers that tried to win her over when he was away. He had the aid of Zeus’ daughter, Athene to help guide him.

Each of the suitors attempts to accomplish this feat, but none of the suitors could even string the bow, much less shoot it. Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, sees that they cannot achieve it, and he asks to be allowed to attempt the test as well. The suitors disagree, but Telemakhos allows it. Now that Odysseus has a bow, he is able to kill the suitors much more easily. This hints to the fact that Penelope may have had a slight suspicion that the beggar was really Odysseus. She would have known that no one but Odysseus himself would know how to string the bow, and only one man, Philoktetes, is capable of shooting better than Odysseus.

Around the 1200 B.C., Odysseus was sailing the Mediterranean Sea for the purpose of reaching home. In his long narrative poem, The Odyssey, Homer conveys how Odysseus desperately wishes to go home to Ithaca. However, he faces brutal treatment and obstacles from several different antagonists, and more obstacles appear when he reaches home. Odysseus came across many external conflicts, which he dealt with intelligence, determination, and loyalty.

This further lead to Odysseus testing Penelope’s loyalty by disguising himself as a beggar and killing off all the

Odysseus’ Identity According to Dictionary.com, identity is “a condition or character as to who or what a thing is; the qualities, beliefs, etc., that distinguish or identify a person or thing.” In life, we experience many distinguishable events that define us as who we are. In the literary classic The Odyssey, the main character is given a multitude of circumstances he must navigate his way through that both change him and let himself change. Odysseus attained his identity as a person from his exposure to his own mens’ deaths, his constant refusal of temptations bestowed upon him from Calypso and Circe, his acceptance of the harsh reality that he cannot control the gods’ decisions, and most of all our hero’s torturous memories of witnessing his entire crew and boats being demolished before him.

Unlike Odysseus Penelope is confined by the gender roles of her time and cannot use physical strength against the suitors or even direct verbal rejection, instead Penelope resorts to her emotional resilience and wit in order to challenge the suitors. She wrongly reassures the suitors that once she finishes weaving a gift for Odysseus’s father, she will choose someone to marry her, “’Young men, my suitors, let me finish my weaving, before I marry’…every day she wove on the great loom but every night by torchlight she unwove it.” (II. 103-104, 112-113) Penelope’s actions are strategic and well calculated. Her main goal, like Odysseus, is to successfully overcome her situation. She understands that she may not be able to physically fight the suitors but she can trick them until Telemachus or Odysseus are able to. By crafting a lie that delays the suitors from marrying her immediately, Penelope restrains the suitors from seizing Ithaca, her household, and posing a threat to Telemachus or Odysseus. Her lie gives Odysseus a crucial advantage in the physical fight against the suitors as he comes back to a city and household where Penelope

Odysseus must now face the other suitors in order to win Penelope. He must rely on physical strength to get past this task then to face Penelope and convince her it is really Odysseus. After defeating the other suitors Odysseus was cleaned up and made to

During his journey Odysseus used what he has learned from is mistakes to return home and kill the suitors of his wife. On the island of Cicones,and with his encounter with Polyphemus, Odysseus learned that bragging can bring great misfortune. On Ithaca Odysseus never brags to the suitors and is able to enter his house with the Antinous and the other suitors knowing his real identity. He takes the punishment of Antinous and the other suitors without saying a word and is able to see those who have invaded his house. Odysseus is able to see who is loyal and who is not and take his revenge with the suitors never knowing who

Furthermore, Penelope is an important character as her identity “functions as a stable and unchanging reference point for the adventures of Odysseus” (Katz, 6). As Katz explains, Odysseus’ travels are interwoven with his lust for home and his desire to be with his wife again. As well, her identity becomes a parallel to Odysseus’ identity through her use of polutropus (tricks and turns). She proves, by the end of the poem, that she is the perfect match for Odysseus as both of them share the same skills with rhetoric and language to get what they want. Their like-mindedness is evident during the recognition scene between the two. Penelope tests Odysseus’ knowledge of their marital bed - before blindly trusting his claim of identity - by asking the slaves to move their immovable bed: “[putting] her husband to the proof-but Odysseus/ blazed in fury, lashed out at his loyal wife” (Homer, 23.203-204). In his angry response to Penelope’s test, Odysseus proves his identity to his wife as he explains why the bed cannot move. When she hears their familiar story of the creation of their bed, - which only the two and a slave know about - Penelope submits to her long-lost husband in an emotional reunion. Her caution, before accepting Odysseus’ claim, shows the wary protectionism stance that she had to adopt while her husband was gone so she could protect the kingdom from the suitors.

In the play Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, Oedipus tries to find a monarchy killer, and his identity. While searching for his identity, he finds out his dreadful fate. Seers telling him he's the wound of his city’s plague, him believing that he is a murderer of his own father, and believing he married his own mother. In Oedipus’ journey for his identity, Oedipus meets various people that believe gods are all powerful beings, capable of various powers and abilities.

Chapter 21- Penelope gets Odysseus’s bow, to check if any suitor was capable of stringing it and shooting it through the line of 12 axes. Meanwhile, Odysseus reveals his identity to Eumaeus and Philoetius. No one can string or shoot Odysseus’s bow so Odysseus, still disguised, shoots the bow effortlessly and flawlessly.

In the tragedy of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles a man realizes the truth of his identity and faces the consequences of a terrible fate. Citizens of Thebes beg King Oedipus for help. King Oedipus has already dealt with the Shinx that would tell riddles that were very confusing and if they got it wrong the Sphinx would eat them. When Oedipus got the riddle right the Sphinx went crazy and jumped off the cliff. Then Oedipus became their King and Oedipus sent Creon to get help from Apolo. Then Creon comes back from Delphi and reports that the oracle says to find the former kings murderer. When King Oedipus seeks information about Lauis’ and about who might of killed him Creon suggests that they get the blind seer, Tiresias. Oedipus tries to welcome