Odysseus

• He is favoured by the Gods (not Poseidon) and respected greatly by Mortals.
• He is a living series of contradictions-much more complicated person than the typical hero of an epic.
• This includes the fact that he seems to love and miss Penelope a-refusing immortality to be with her, yet willingly sleeps with Circe and Calypso on numerous occasions.
• He is self-disciplined sometimes in the case such as the Lotus eaters but often his curiosity is the bane of his troubles i.e with the Cyclops. He wants to gain as much knowledge as possible as seen with the Sirens.
• He can also be merciful and kind such as in letting the bard/herald off and warning Anphinomus but then brutal such as his killing of the dozen disloyal maidservants.
• He also is very ‘wily and cunning’ which is shown by the fact that he often lies (even to his family) to help him. He does not trust Calypso and makes her swear an oath that she will let him go/he lies to Penelope and says he is from Crete/he tricks Polephemus (Nobody).
• We also see a lot of confidence and he is good at charming people. In his speech to Nausicaa, even though he is naked/being nice to Athene and Calypso/charming the Phaecians. Yet he can be blunt when the occasion demands such as in the Phaecian games. As Athene says “you are so persuasive”.
• Odysseus is also very intellectual and unlike many other epic heroes, he calculates exactly what he is going to do before he does it.
• He is also a master of disguises and tricks people numerous times about who he is. Also is Troy we find out that he disguised himself as a beggar.
• He is seen to grow through the epic which is shown when he deals with the Suitor’s insults in his palace and does not fight Melanthius after he has kicked him. This is in contrast with what took place with the Cyclops earlier on.
• His biggest difficulty is controlling his men-Cattle of Helios, Aeolus’s bag of wind, men wanting the stay after defeat of Cicones.
• He does, however, need a lot of help from Athene throughout the epic.

Penelope

• She is a devoted wife and mother (unlike Clytemnestra) who misses Odysseus dearly. She always has hope that he will return. She also does not want to cause a civil war-noble.
• She is also a very complicated woman.
• She lacks he natural character to remove the Suitors from her house.
• However she has cunning which is admitted by Antinous who says that she has misguided the Suitors for nearly 4 years until her servant betrayed her.
• She does this through the weaving of the shroud and the contest of the bow and axes. She also does it through sending private messages to all the Suitors who think they are in with a chance and saying she won’t pick a husband because of her sons youth.
• We also see her cunning when she tricks Odysseus in regard to his bed.
• However, she lacks the natural strength to remove suitors in that she cannot get rid of them/Telemachus ends up ordering her around/Athene has to put her to sleep/she even calls for death near the end.