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Essay Archive - Odysseus: Metis Is His Most Important Quality
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 evidenc....
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