English Literature

One of the major ancient Greek poems credited to Homer, The Odyssey is a sequel to the Iliad, the other epic poem. The Odyssey centers on Odysseus, the Greek here also known as Ulysses (in Roman myths) and his journey home after Troys fall. Odysseus takes ten years to reach Ithaca after the Trojan War which also lasted for ten years. While Odysseus was out of the picture the assumption that he was already dead was made. Hence his wife Penelope together with their son Telemachus started dealing with a group of rowdy suitors contending for Penelopes hand, the Mnestres or Proci.

Throughout The Odyssey deception plays a huge role as a major theme. Different examples of deception were portrayed in The Odyssey especially by Odysseus himself and the goddess Athena. The importance of cleverness is highly detailed in The Odyssey. It is involved in some of the deceptions presented throughout. Deception plays a huge role in showing a characters cleverness. Being clever is one of the characteristics that make Athena desire to help Odysseus all through his hardships.

Athena showed her skills in deception by use of several disguise all throughout the poem. Athena continuously disguises herself or others in many occasions. An episode in Book 13 contains two acts of deception, one linked to the other. One deception, an act of disguise, was made by Athena while the other featured Odysseus through storytelling. Odysseus awakens on Ithaka and is confused about his whereabouts. Athena then appeared to Odysseus as a young man in hope of testing him. Odysseus replies to the phony story made up by Athena by creating a false story in order to keep his true identity secret. This was another showing of Odysseus brilliance as he was already referred to by Homer as the best in plots and storytelling amongst all men alive. Showing the cleverness of Odysseus was also the motive of Athenas disguise as a young man. Then, Athena decided to enhance Penelopes beauty before convincing her to speak to her suitors. As Homer described the motive behind this deception to fan their desire once again, setting her beauty high in the eyes of her husband and son. Athena wants Odysseus and e to be inspired and be brave to fight against the suitors of Penelope. The speech also shows that Penelope is still faithful to Odysseus, but Odysseus in the other hand wasnt so sure of her loyalty by that time. He was told by the ghost of Agammon, who was killed by his own wife, that the day of faithful wives is gone forever. Penelopes beauty was enhanced for her suitors to give her gifts and listen to her speech.  Reminiscent of Penelopes cleverness through her speech and thus make Odysseus fight for her.

From the beginning it is explained how it is a story of a man of twists and turns. Odysseus is a natural when it comes to disguising and the story of this classic repeatedly turns on his deception. Deception was apparent as well when Odysseus withholds his identity and used the alias Nobody in order to deceive the Cyclops and save himself as well as his crew. At the end of the epic, Odysseus disguise allowed him to gain access to his own palace and be able to set up the concluding confrontations with Penelopes suitors. Through the deception, the characters who truly love Odysseus were noticed like Penelope, Eurycleia, and Argos the dog, as they recognize Odysseus their king even before he reveals his disguise.

The Odyssey is filled with deception as much as the Illiad is filled with rage. Deception often causes troubles and predicaments in reality but in the Odyssey deception seems to go without any foremost effects or consequences.