Odyessy Theme

A theme for the odyessy is smartness over strength throughout Odyessueses journey.


In book 12 of the odyessy Odyessues is clever and tells his crew to tie him to the mast and put wax in their ears so they wouldn't be drawn to the Sirens. Instead of thrying to be manly and try to resist the Sirens music themselves or try to kill them. Also later when they are between Scylla and Charboylis they stay closer to Scylla  because it can only eat 6 men at a time instead of the whole ship if they went through Charboylis. Later when they go to Thrinacia even though Odyessues tells his crew not to kill the cattle of the sun they do and they die which is an example of strength failing. (book 12 414-418) "Sun you keep on shining among the deathless gods and mortal men across the the good green earth. And for the guilty ones why soon enough on wine dark sea ill hit their racing ship". Only the men responsible for killing the cattle will be killed which happens to be everyone except Odyessues because he did nothing wrong. Use your head and not strength to survive.

In book 19 Odyessues and Telemachus use cunning and are clever and don't just try to kill suitors with sstrength alone. Odyessues and Telemachus hatch a plan to get rid of the suitors first by hiding the suitors weapons so they can't attack them. Also Odyesseus tells penelope to use the string the bow and shoot it through 12 axes the contest to win her hand cause he knows only he can do it. Also he is an old man at this part so Penelope doesn't know it's him. (book 19 85-89) " And the crowds of servants I had and lots of all it takes to live the life of ease to make men call you rich. But Zeus ruined it all- god's will no doubt. So beware woman, or one day you may lose it all. All your glitter that puts your work men in a shade. This means that Odyessues wants his stuff back but he uses skill and smarts to get it rather than strength. To get what you want you have to fight for it in a clever way not just busting heads.

In book 22 Odyessues kills the suitors but has a strategy other than a sword to do it. Odyessues starts killing the suitors, however he does it in a clever way by first locking all the doors. Also he makes sure the suitors can't really get any weapons because they were already removed. Odyessues is smart and takes out the better fighters first like Antinous and Eurymachus who are the biggest threats. also he gets Athena to help him so he has a better chance to kill all of them. ( book 22 432-436) "When she saw the corpeses, all the pooling blood, was about to lift a cry of triumph- here was a great exploit. Look- but the soldier held her back and checked her zeal with warnings". When penelope see's the corpeses of the suitors she knew that only Odyessues could have pulled this off becuase of how clever he is. Be smart, clever and you will prevail