Odysseus: Metis Is His Most Important Quality
Odysseus� most important quality as an epic hero is his metis, a Greek word meaning artifice, stratagem, or plan. Homer even associates Odysseus as �polymetis,� or a man of �many turns.� Robert Fitzgerald, translator of the Odyssey in The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, interprets this word to describe a man who is �skilled in all ways of contending� (219). Thus, unlike Achilles in the Iliad, Odysseus is not famous for his great strength or courage, but for his keen ability to deceive and trick others.
In the Iliad, there is evidence for Odysseus� cunning ways. For example, Odysseus presents himself as a humble, commonplace man to enhance the effectiveness of his oratory: His ...
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the snowflakes on a winter�s day,
Then could no other mortal man rival Odysseus. (III, ll. 210-220).
In addition, Agamemnon expresses his anger towards Odysseus� deceptive nature during a battle by addressing Odysseus as �you crafty-minded Odysseus, excellent in civil tricks� (IV, ll. 339).
Odysseus� polymetis can be observed in Homer�s illustration of Odysseus� aptitude for carpentry and shipbuilding in the Odyssey. His woodworking skills are portrayed when he builds a raft to leave Kaypso�s island after seven years of captivity. Homer describes this boat as not a mere primitive raft, but rather to product of a skilled, experienced builder when he compares Odysseus to a �man well-skilled in carpentry�:
Showing him in that place her stand of timber
the loveliest of nymphs took her way home.
Now the man fell to chopping; when he paused
twenty tall trees were down. He lopped the branches,
split the trunks, and trimmed his puncheons true.
Meanwhile Kalypso brought him ...
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