The Dishonest Odysseus of the Odyssey Once he returns to Ithaca, Odysseus displays dishonest behavior and does not once tell a person who he really is when he meets him for the first time. At first Odysseus hides his identity, actively lying or passively failing to correct their mistaken beliefs. He first tells Pallas Athena that he is from Crete, that he had killed a man there, and that he had obtained passage with some Phoenicians to Ithaca. He tells Eumaios that he grew up in Crete, went to Troy for the Trojan War, later returned to Crete and traveled to raid Egypt, where he was captured by the Egyptians. Odysseus (like the beggar) says that he became rich in Egypt, but was taken in by a man who intended to sell him into slavery. He says he ran away and found refuge in Thesprotia. Then, as he returned home to Crete, they attempted to enslave him again, he ran away again (though in a different way), and ended up in Ithaca. Aside from the fact that it is the story of a hard life, it has absolutely no relation to the true story of Odysseus. She tells everyone (or lets them believe) almost the same story to everyone else she meets in Ithaca before killing the suitors. There are some notable differences we will get to, but after all you have to be consistent in your lies, in enemy controlled territory. After killing the suitors, she tells Laertes an entirely different lie, focusing primarily on him (Odysseus as a stranger) having seen Odysseus alive after the Trojan War. Odysseus lies to his enemies for obvious reasons; he doesn't want them to know that Ulysses has returned. He begins by lying to his allies and friends for similar reasons. The only people he can let know his identity are the ones he has… middle of paper… and he has to fight his emotions so we can relate to him. In the end, though, he maintains his self-control and wins in the end, making him a true hero and a great character. Works Cited and Consulted Bloom, Harold, Homer's Odyssey: Edited and with an Introduction, NY, Chelsea House 1988 Crane, Gregory, Calypso: Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey, Frankfurt, Ateneo 1988Heubeck, Alfred, JB Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. 3 volumes Oxford PA4167 .H4813 1988Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext and the Hellenistic Word. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993.Tracy, Stephen V. ,The Story of the Odyssey Princeton UP 1990Van der Valk, Marchinus. Textual criticism of the Odyssey. Leiden: AW Sijthoff, 1949.