Throughout the ages very few things in history have remained constant. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, entire cultures have flourished and died off, many great empires have risen to magnificent power and crumbled to dust, and great wonders have been built, only to be eroded by time and forgotten. Humans have succeeded in retaining only one thing throughout their existence and that is their own human nature. We possess universal human characteristics that transcend time and place. Human nature has yet to change and it is more than likely that it never will. By observing the heroic epic "The Odyssey", one could find that the ancient Greeks possessed many of the same traits as humans do today.
Penelope is so good at using deceit that she uses it on Odysseus himself to discover that it is truly him. She tells her nurse to bring Odysseus' bed to him knowing that it is not possible because Odysseus had built the bed himself in the foundation of an olive tree.
ODYSSEUS karnavires 66
ODYSSEUS karnavires 68
ODYSSEUS karnavires 49Odysseus is tricked into telling the story of how he built the bed and how it is not movable by any mortal man, revealing his true identity to his wife Penelope. This use of clever trickery and deceit throughout the epic is proof that the ancients could be just as deceiving as we can be today.
Susan Sontag once said " What is most beautiful in virile men is something feminine what is most feminine in women is something masculine" This statement can be proved by the actions of the characters in the epic poem "The Odyssey" by Homer. In The Odyssey many of the female characters show masculine characteristics and the male characteristics often show feminine characteristics. Penelope and Circes both show masculine...