Odysseus – A Character Analysis

 

  Odysseus – A Character Analysis

Odysseus certainly gets mixed reviews when it comes to an analysis of his character by Homeric commentators. There are those who regard him as an adulterous, whore-mongering, savage, lying, deceitful, swash-buckling pirate who cheats, lies, steals and screws his way back home and once there, continues to lie and deceive his family, friends and enemies and then wantonly murders 108 local and regional noblemen and strings up 12 downstairs handmaidens, whose only crime was that they had been seduced by these upstairs lotharios. Those on the other side of the argument paint a picture of Odysseus as being a loving family man and leader of men who is wrongly harassed by the gods, and must use his skills and uncanny abilities to overcome all the odds and to weather the storms and the hazards of the sea to be reunited with his family, and to reclaim his rightful place at home in Ithaca. As is typically the case with such arguments, somewhere in the middle lies the truth.

The opening line of the Odyssey reveals what Homer regards as the most important personal characteristic of his hero:

ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον,

The word πολύτροπον has been rendered quite differently by many translators over time. Pope translated it as, the man for wisdom’s various arts renowned. Murray (1919) writes the man of many devices. For Wilson (2018) it was, a complicated man. Fitzgerald (1961) offered, that man skilled in all ways of contending. For Butler (1919) it read, the man of many devices. In my translation (2024) I use, that man of many ins and outs. Fagles (1996) says, the man of twists and turns and this is probably closest to the original meaning of the word, many turns or ways.

            No one is quite certain what the name Odysseus actually means and its etymology is uncertain. However we know from Book XIX of the Odyssey how he got his name. Odysseus was the son of Laertes and Anticlea. Soon after he was born, his grandfather Autolycus was visiting their home and the nurse Eurycleia pressed the grandfather to name the child.

Autolycus had come to the rich land of Ithaca when his daughter’s son was just a newborn baby and when he was finishing eating his evening meal, Eurycleia put the baby on his knees and spoke to him. “Autolycus, you must find a name for this child of your own dear child, for he has been much-desired.” Then Autolycus answered her and spoke. “My daughter and her husband gave him whatever name I spoke. Since I have come here angered (ὀδυσσάμενος) by so many, whether by men or women all over the fruitful earth, let Odysseus be given as his significant name. For my part, when he has grown up and comes to the great house of his mother’s people in Parnassus where all my wealth is, I will give it to him and send him off rejoicing.”

            We can gather something of a description of the physical looks of the hero from passages in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. In Book III of the Iliad, Priam and Helen met on the walls of Troy and the old king questioned Helen about the Achaeans on the battlefield before them.

Secondly, when he spotted Odysseus, the old man asked her another question. “Come now my dear child and let me ask who that man is? He is shorter than Agamemnon the son of Atreus by a head but is broader in the chest and shoulders. His weapons lie upon the rich earth but he goes about the ranks of his warriors like a ram. Yes, he is just like a thick-fleeced ram roaming through a large flock of white sheep.” Then Helen, born of Zeus, did answer him. “That is the prudent and crafty Odysseus, son of Laertes, nurtured among the people of Ithaca. He is a rugged one and is known for all sorts of wily strategies and deceits.”

            Later in the same book of the Iliad, Priam’s counsellor Antenor described Odysseus:

Menelaus with his broad shoulders was the tallest of all, but when seated, Odysseus was surely the most impressive. But when they started to weave the fabric of their words and plans, then Menelaus spoke fluently to the assembly, not with many words but clearly spoken, not wordy or rambling, even though he was the younger man. But when the wily Odysseus sprang up to speak, he cast his eyes towards the earth and held his sceptre firmly, neither waving it forward or backward but standing perfectly still like an unskilled man. You would have considered him a senseless man and a fool but when his great voice resonated from his chest and his words were like the snowflakes driven by a wintry storm, then no other mortal would consider wrangling with Odysseus and we no longer marveled at just his appearance.

            At various places in the Odyssey, we are told that Odysseus had bushy locks that hung down from his head and were as thick as the petals of a hyacinth in bloom, that he had a bronze tan and that he had massive thighs, broad shoulders and a brawny chest and thick arms. It is not surprising that we were told at the funeral games of Patroclus that he was a great wrestler. He sounds like a scruffy little barrel-chested guy with a short-man complex, who was well-built and muscular and the type that you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. He likely made up for his lack of height by being a rough and tumble head-butting, left jabbing/right hooking balls-kicker who pulled no punches if he couldn’t sweet-talk or lie his way out of a fight. I don’t think he was a fighter by nature, because remember that this was the fellow who tried to avoid going to war in the first place by feigning madness back home. Having said that, he was also pictured as a formidable warrior who fought strongly and bravely in many battles, both on the field and in defending the ships.

            Homer often showed us Odysseus assuming a leadership position and not necessarily one that included combat. He was more of a talker than a fighter and others, especially Agamemnon, turned to him for his ability to sway people with his words and to lead them to desired outcomes. He was chosen by Agamemnon to lead the delegation that was charged with returning Chryseis to her father and to arrange for the sacrifices to Apollo to rid the Achaean camp of the plague that was destroying their army. It was the rousing speech of Odysseus that saved the day and reinvigorated the troops and brought order back into the camp when Agamemnon’s plan to inspire his soldiers went awry and they rushed to the ships to abandon the battle. He was also selected to head up the embassy to Achilles to try and convince the son of Peleus to rejoin the fighting. When Achilles was prepared to rage into battle immediately after the death of Patroclus, it was Odysseus the leader who convinced him to allow the Achaeans troops to eat first before fighting. In Book X we saw him leading a night raid with Diomedes into the Trojan camp, having been told by Diomedes that he would not consider making the foray with anyone else. In all these situations, Odysseus was featured in a leadership position where he inspired bravery and loyalty in others.

            The term πολύμητις describes someone who is crafty-minded, of much cunning or of many counsels, and is one of the main epithets Homer used for Odysseus in his epics to signify the hero’s wisdom, skill in contriving, cunning, resourcefulness and cleverness. Odysseus was able to use this aptitude to devise clever solutions to challenges which faced him, to outwit his enemies and to overcome obstacles through strategic thinking and deception. The ruse of the Trojan horse was a prime example of his cunning and deception, as was his ability to outwit the Cyclops Polyphemus by first getting him drunk, and then escaping the monster’s cave by clinging to the underside of his ram. Odysseus adapted well to changing circumstances by using his wits to survive and to protect his crew in dangerous and unfamiliar environments.

            We often think of Odysseus as having been the master of disguise and this theme plays a major role in the story of his journey back home to Ithaca in the Odyssey. This use of deception on his part often gave him the opportunity to gather useful intelligence about people, places and events before actually revealing his true identity. He was able to survey his surroundings and his hosts and be entertained by songs from the bard in the palace of King Alcinous, before bursting into tears and giving away his true identity to those gathered for the banquet. He disguised himself as a beggar on his return to Ithaca and this allowed him the opportunity to test out the loyalty of his followers and to plan the demise of those who were against him. His patron, the goddess Athena, often aided him in his attempts at disguise by transforming his appearance and altering his looks.

            Odysseus was not without his faults, the most serious of which was his hubris. We are told that in ancient Greece, hubris was seen as excessive pride, arrogance and an inflated sense of self-worth that defied the divine order, resulting in the punishment or the downfall of the individual. Hubris was a severe character flaw and this act of overstepping mortal boundaries was considered a cosmic offense, met with divine retribution from the gods, serving as a cautionary tale about human limitations. Odysseus’s hubris or excessive pride often led him to make rash decisions or to take unnecessary risks. For example, when he taunted Polyphemus and revealed his true identity to the monster, he infuriated Poseidon and incurred his wrath, which led to a delay of his journey home and utter destruction for his crew. By allowing his crew to eat the cattle of the sun god Helios, he demonstrated that he thought he could outwit the gods, and this led to disastrous consequences. Hubris was inevitably followed by Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, who punished the offenders. 

            Another flaw that Odysseus had was his unbridled curiosity and this too often got him into trouble. For example, he fell to the temptation of having to explore the Cyclops’s cave and to listen to the song of the Sirens, and both of these led to disastrous consequences for himself and his crew. His loyalty as a leader to his men was also open to suspicion when he decided to spend a year of pleasure in the company of the sorceress Circe, instead of making for home. One could also question his true motivation as a father and husband, when we witness him getting his priorities mixed up and deciding to spend seven years as a whore-monger with Calypso. The fact that he spent time each evening gazing longingly over the sea towards home bears little weight, when we remember how he spent the rest of his nights.

            There is one interesting story in later literary works about Odysseus that, if true, reveals much about his character, but is not part of the Iliad or the Odyssey. Odysseus attempted to avoid going to the Trojan War by feigning madness and acting erratically on his farm in Ithaca. He was caught out in this ruse by Palamedes, who is said to have placed the infant Telemachus in the way of Odysseus’s plow, and the loving father diverted the blade to avoid his son and was thereby uncovered in his deception. Odysseus is said to have never forgiven Palamedes. During the Trojan War, he is said to have framed him for treason with a sack of gold and a letter supposedly written by King Priam, both of which Odysseus ensured fell into the hands of the Greeks. King Agamemnon ordered that Palamedes be stoned to death for his crime. The absence of Palamedes and this event from Homer’s epics is notable, and has been interpreted as a deliberate choice by later story-tellers to paint Odysseus in a more favourable light. If taken at face value, it portrays Odysseus as harbouring deep-seated revenge and possessing a flawed morality.

            The commentator Bardly sums up the character of Odysseus nicely when he writes,

Homer paints a complex portrait of Odysseus as a man of many turns. His positive and negative qualities include: being a political and military leader, a strategist, a loving husband and father, a soldier and sailor with a traumatic past, a pirate, a fugitive, a home owner, a mass murderer and a war hero. In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, Odysseus is known for having a morally ambiguous, Machiavellian side as the end justifies the means type. He’s willing to betray alliances, support whichever side is advantageous at the moment, and win through cunning, without any concern for honour or humane victories on the battlefield. This makes him an ideal candidate for being viewed as a morally grey anti-hero.