More than 2,000 years after Homer first put The Odyssey to paper, the English essayist William Hazlitt stated that “cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people’s weaknesses” (Justin 462). So true are the words of Hazlitt, equally in the 1800s as in the 8th century BCE when Homer wrote The Odyssey. The art of cunning – specifically, cunning intelligence – was a quality obviously honored by the Greeks, and is essential to the story of Odysseus in Homer’s The Odyssey.
Cunning intelligence – kerdea in the Greek original – is “predicated on the characteristics of the fox; its meaning encompasses notions of shrewdness, advantage, and profit” (Grigar 2). To the Greeks, kerdea also implied “cunning intelligence that gods and mortals of both genders may possess” (3). Without Odysseus’s cunning, and the cunning of Athena and Penelope amongst others, Odysseus would never achieve his dream of seeing his home and family once again.
The long awaited trip home for Odysseus begins with Athena – the goddess of wisdom and warriors – using her own sharp, cunning intelligence in her dealings with her father, Zeus, to arrange her favorite mortal Odysseus’s return home. She is cunning not only in how she approaches him, but in her timing: for Poseidon, the god most angered at Odysseus, is away at a sacrifice in his honor. Without Athena’s adept timing and subtle manipulations of Zeus, Odysseus would still be pining away on Ogýgia (Homer 1.25-122). Athena further shows her cunning intelligence in how she leads Odysseus’s son, Telémakhos, on a quest of his own: to learn of his father’s fate, to have an adventure of his own, to gain some self-confidence by this adventure, and finally, to keep him out of harm’s way while Odysseus works his way home.
A poor homecoming it would be for Odysseus if not for the cleverness of his wife, Penélopê, who is nearly his equal in cunning intelligence. Her holding off of the suitors by weaving and then un-weaving a funeral pall for her father-in-law is sheer brilliance, recognized even by the fooled suitor, Antínoös, when replying to Telémakhos at the assembly:
She may rely too long on Athena’s gifts –talent in the handicraft and a clever mind:so cunning – history cannot show the likeamong the ringleted ladies of Akhaia,Mykênê with her coronet, Alkmênê, Tyro.Wits like Penélopê’s never were before… (2.122-127)
It is a tough position that Penélopê finds herself in, having to maintain hope and chastity should her husband return, protect her son’s inheritance, yet still plan for her future should her husband not return. Few people of any century would have had the strength of character and will displayed by her. “The very fact that she has managed to stay the head of a household and keep it solvent for twenty years shows how shrewd she is,” especially in patriarchal Greece (Gill 2).
When her husband finally returns in the form of a beggar, she reveals remarkable intuition that there may be something more to this beggar than his appearance suggests. She does not know that this man is her long-lost husband, but chooses to follow her instincts that this is a man out of the ordinary. She sets up a test that none but Odysseus could pass – stringing his great bow and shooting an arrow through twelve axe sockets – and then, with Telémakhos, supports the beggar’s wish to try his hand at her test. A test he easily passes, though not witnessed by Penélopê. Her final act of cunning – testing Odysseus by asking a servant to move their unmovable wedding bed – angers Odysseus but verifies to Penélopê that this is indeed her long-awaited husband.
The epitome of cunning, ultimately, is Odysseus himself. So often referred to by Homer in many ways – “the strategist,” “the great tactician,” “canniest of men,” “the man of all occasions,” “the man of ranging mind,” and others, Odysseus’s cunning intelligence is what sets him apart and allows him to survive his many tribulations. Through Odysseus, Homer demonstrates repeatedly that cunning intelligence is an honored trait. However, he also shows that when a person does not exercise their intelligence – especially cunning intelligence – negative consequences can be the result. In one of Odysseus’s most brilliant moments, he intoxicates the Kyklops, Polyphêmos, with wine and then gives a false name, setting up the moment when he can be defeated:
Kyklops,You ask my honorable name? Rememberthe gift you promised me, and I shall tell you.My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends,everyone calls me Nohbdy. (Homer 9.380-384)
This foresight and planning allows Odysseus and his mates to blind Polyphêmos with a wooden spike and ensures their escape. None of the other Kyklops will come to Polyphêmos’s aid, thinking him a fool as he shouts that “Nohbdy, Nohbdy’s tricked me, Nohbdy’s ruined me!” (426). Regrettably, one of Odysseus’s most cunning moments is short-lived by his arrogance as he taunts Polyphêmos, boasting that “Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye” (526). By naming himself, Polyphêmos is able to curse him to Poseidon, who then is instrumental in delaying Odysseus’s return home.
Fortunately, Odysseus employs his cunning intelligence far more often than not, and often in the form of charm. From how he tells Kalypso that she far outshines Penélopê in beauty (5.224-233) to his saying to Nausikaa, the Phaiákian king Alkínoös’s daughter, that he had never “laid eyes on equal beauty,” (6.170) Odysseus rarely fails to say exactly the right thing at the right time to get the results he desires. He even resorts to the truth when it suits him, as in his retelling of his adventures to Alkínoös in Book 7. He displays much shrewdness when he gets Kirkê to promise to do him no more harm (10.375-377) and a notable ability to listen to and follow her well-given advice, as when he has his men tie him to the ship’s mast as they pass the Sirens.
When Odysseus finally reaches home, he must truly stretch his cunning, as shown in how he sets up the demise of the suitors, in his preparations for such demise with his son, in his conversation with Penélopê disguised as a beggar, and planning for the repercussions of killing the suitors. The restraint he shows in not revealing who he is to those who have missed him – faithful servants, his wife, even his long-suffering dog – would be beyond virtually anyone else, but further emphasizes his remarkable intelligence, his cunning, his shrewdness and foresight.
Through The Odyssey, Homer has used cunning to advance the story, to highlight the uniqueness of Odysseus and others, and to show that by using such cunning intelligence, one can prevail in situations where simple strength could not. He shows that the Greeks admired this trait and how it may be applied in life, albeit a life full of tribulations that stretches the imagination. It is not inconceivable that the primary reason Athena so favored Odysseus is because she admired his cunning, comparable to the cunning of the gods. Without cunning, Odysseus would never have made it home and Penélopê would not have been able to maintain a home for his return. Without cunning, Homer would not have had a story to write: a story with lessons and appeal that has lasted through the ages and will last for many ages to come.
Works Cited
Gill, N.S. “Odyssey II: Wily Penelope.” About Ancient/Classical History. October 2000. About.com. 23 October 2003. .
Grigar, Dene, and Mindi Corwin. “The Loom and the Weaver: Hypertext and Homer’s Odyssey.” Computers & Texts. 25 April 1998. Michael Fraser. 19 October 2003. .
Homer. “The Odyssey.” Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. The Norton Anthology of World Literature: Beginnings to A.D. 100. 2nd ed. Vol. A. Eds. Lawall, Sarah, and Maynard Mack. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002. 5 vols.
Justin, John, and Kaplan Bartlett. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature. 17th ed. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2002.
Written for Professor Stehpenson's Masterpieces of Literature I class at Pikes Peak Community College, 29th October 2003.
this is good
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