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, th....
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