command in war as the cohesiveness that holds military men together, but we see over and over that he is ruled by impetuosity and selfishness. The Odyssey serves as a sequel to The Iliad, and the relationship between the two poems is obvious throughout. The stuff of Greek epic is that of extreme human, rather than humane, reactions which have already been set up by Achilles.
When Achilles dragged HectorÆs body behind his chariot and rode around the city three times, he showed cruelty in victory and lack of respect for his fallen, worthy adversary. Had he acted morally and responsibly, he would have been in the mode of epic hero, but he still behaved irresponsibly. Once he vented his "wrath", he returned HectorÆs body, but this action does not change or mitigate the disrespect he inflicted on Hector or his own culpability in doing this rash thing (Feeney 147).
Odysseus is a wanderer also famous for leading his followers astray, and leading others to wander about, especially regarding himself or his true identity. The acts of the truly good man, the deeds to which his capacity and knowledge direct him, remain "wrong-doing" (Lampert 258).
Odysseus is famous for his trickery, which is confirmed by the way he speaks, using shiftiness and tricks. He has the ability to say something so that it will mean one thing to one person, and another thing to yet another person; he uses complexity to confuse and get his way. Often he does not say things directly, but makes strong inferences." In the Odyssey, Odysseus' use of gnomai is not so much marked by the way in which he hides the addressee, although he makes a fair number of indirect second person addresses, as by the way in which he masks himself: in Phaeacia he speaks as a xeinos and a poet, in the Cyclops' cave as Outis, and on Ithaca as a beggar. This ability to hide his true identity is reflected in the formal description of Odysseus' oratory in Book 3 of the Iliad. Here An...