Examples Of Guile In The Odyssey

The Odyssey is an epic poem written by the very well-known Greek poet, Homer. It details the events of Odysseus and the struggles he faced to returning home after the Trojan War. In The Odyssey, King Odysseus of Ithaka has not returned to his homeland for over a decade, and while he is away, a mob of unruly suitors has infringed his palace to court his wife, Queen Penelope of Ithaka. The plot of the book focuses mostly on Odysseus’s voyage home; however, the book illustrates how hard times were for Penelope. Throughout The Odyssey, Penelope has to cope with 108 suitors in her palace harassing her for her hand in marriage and taking advantage of the land. From beginning to end, Penelope remains faithful to her king and never stops believing her husband is alive, even though she has no evidence if her husband is alive. Because of her cleverness, she managed to fend off the suitors until Odysseus returned. Homer shows Penelope’s cleverness through her actions while Odysseus is away. Penelope's guile is shown by prolonging the time spent to knit a funeral shroud for Laërtês, placing the suitors in the impossible competition with Odysseus’s bow, and testing Odysseus to distinguish whether …show more content…
Being that, Penelope claims she is going to marry the winner of the “Test of the Bow.” The bow that is used in the competition is Odysseus’s double torsion bow. In fact, this unique bow is extremely difficult to bow without not knowing how to, and Penelope is highly aware of this. Along with trying the string the bow, they have to shoot it through 12 axe heads, which is impossible for them. In Book 21, Homer says, “So one by one the young warmed and greased the bow for bending, but not a man could string it. They were whipped” (21.205-207). Add another quote and