The Odyssey

The Odyssey
The Greeks believed that The Odyssey was composed by Homer. It is probable that Homer lived in the eighth century in Ionia, the Greek-inhabited coast and islands off central western Turkey. Homer is thought to have been writing towards the end of the eighth century BC. There was a great oral tradition of storytelling in Ancient Greece. It was not written down to be read, but was composed either orally, or at least in an oral style, and recited to the Greeks. The events being described were at the end of the Mycenaean age of Greece, which was about four hundred years prior to Homer, in the twelfth century BC. The Odyssey was composed in the style of oral poetry.
The context of this plot occurs as Odysseus’ story is ending where he has already returned to his home, Ithaca. In this excerpt from Homer’s Odyssey, Athena is speaking to Odysseus. She is flattering Odysseus for being brilliant and cunning. Athena is Odysseus' patron goddess. She defends him and protects him when he is in danger. As the goddess of wisdom, she likes Odysseus because he is a clever man.
The Odyssey is written in Ionic dialect and is entirely written in dactylic hexameter verse. The language is relatively straightforward and is a colloquial style of speech.
Odysseus' heroic trait is his mētis, or cunning intelligence. This intelligence is most often manifested by his use of disguise and deceptive speech. He has a special mastery of the spoken language that enraptures his audience and a gift that endows him to command and persuade them without physical force. The most evident flaw that Odysseus possesses is that of his excessive pride and his self-confidence, or hubris.
Philoctetes is a play by Sophocles. Sophocles was born about 496 BC in Colonus Hippius. The play was written during the Peloponnesian War. It was first performed at the Festival of Dionysus in 409 BC with the intended audience being the Athenians. The story takes place during the Trojan War, which was thought to have occurred in the thirteenth or twelfth century BC.
The genre of this work is tragedy, which is a form of drama based on human suffering. The language is pejorative and the style of speech is somewhat formal.
In the excerpt from Sophocles Philoctetes, Neoptolemos and Odysseus, who are allies, are speaking to each other. In this dialogue, Odysseus is attempting to persuade Neoptolemos to deceive Philoctetes into coming to Troy. They did not agree on the method to be applied in order to bring Philoctetes back, but eventually Neoptolemus decides to follow the advice of Odysseus.
The Odysseus of the Philoctetes is portrayed as a combination of quintessential trickster and smooth talking sophist, who has no compassion for Philoctetes whatsoever and no qualms about corrupting Neoptolemus. In this play, the cunning, the wiliness of Odysseus, which in the Odyssey is a positive trait, becomes a thoroughly bad characteristic.

Despite being the hero of Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus appears to take on the role of antagonist in this story. He serves a sort of mentor and educator to young Neoptolemus, but his manipulative ways and persuasive words have a corrupting effect on him, convincing him to lie and scheme. Odysseus desires victory above all else and is willing to use whatever kind of deceit is necessary to achieve it.

One redeeming quality of Odysseus is that his words do suggest that he is truly concerned about the fate of his city. His actions, although devious and underhanded, consist with advancing the good of the Greek society. However, they are not entirely selfless since his own welfare is inextricably bound with that of the Greeks. He has no problems sacrificing individuals or principles in order to accomplish his goals. Instead, he looks to general welfare as the only relevant standard for human action. As he states, "When you do something for profit, it’s not appropriate to hesitate."