The Odyssey
Homer (-800)
“The original adventure story — a hero trying to get home for ten years — and still the definitive text on what it means to be human.”
Character Analysis
The first antihero of Western literature. Not the strongest warrior — Achilles holds that title — not the most virtuous, not the most beautiful. Odysseus wins through cunning, adaptability, and the capacity to endure. His defining epithet 'polytropos' (many-turned, many-wiled) says everything: he is a man of transformations. He is also the epic's supreme liar, able to construct convincing false identities on demand. His deepest loyalty is to home — he refuses immortality because home is what matters more. His deepest flaw is the need to be recognized: he shouts his name at the Cyclops because anonymity, even if it saves his life, is intolerable.
Adapts his speech to every audience — formal to kings, humble to beggars, authoritative to servants. The man of 'twists and turns' in language as in strategy.