Question:
Why did Odysseus disguise himself as a beggar? PLEASE HELP!!!!!?
2009-05-11 21:39:52 UTC
Hey yes i did read the book, but i don't get WHY odysseus disguised himself as a beggar when he returned home! thx!!!
Twelve answers:
Katelynn
2009-05-11 22:19:41 UTC
Odysseus disguises himself as a beggar because he is not sure who he can trust at home and is unsure if things are still the same at home, since he hasn't been there in 20 years.



When Odysseus goes to Hades in Book 11, he sees Agamemnon, who warns him to not trust Penelope when he returns home. Agamemnon says:



"So don't go easy on your own wife either

Or tell her everything you know.

Tell her some things, but keep some hidden.

...But my wife did not let me

Even fill my eyes with the sight of my son.

She killed me before I could do even that.

But let me tell you something, Odysseus:

Beach your ship secretly when you come home.

Women just can't be trusted any more."



I don't know if you remember, but Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra cheated on him with Aegisthus while he was away in the Trojan war. When Agamemnon returned, Clytemnestra murdered him. (Their son Orestes eventually avenged his father's death by killing his mother; there's a play about it called The Eumenides by Aeschylus, maybe you read it also?)



Anyway, Agamemnon tells Odysseus to not to let his wife know when he returns to Ithaca just in case she's untrustworthy. After Odysseus goes to Hades and talks to Agamemnon, he spends seven years on Calypso's island, so he has plenty of time to mull over what Agamemnon told him and possibly become a bit paranoid.
Erika
2016-11-06 14:06:09 UTC
Odysseus Disguise
highwind
2009-05-11 22:00:07 UTC
Odysseus disguised himself as a beggar because everyone but his son believed him to be dead. If a king believed to be dead for 10 years showed up today, there would be a huge commotion. Imagine what that would have been like back in those days. Also, if Odysseus just showed up at his old home with the dozens of young suitors there, they would likely have killed him. Hope that helps!
Arisse
2009-05-11 23:44:36 UTC
Odysseus did not disguise HIMSELF, Athena disguised him so that he would not have the chance to make himself known and therefore at the mercy of the greedy suitors in his palace.
Linda_Doxiegal
2009-05-11 22:21:14 UTC
He has no firsthand knowledge of what is going on in his homeland. He needs to find out what is happening. He needs to know if his wife has been faithful to him, who among his servants will remain loyal to him and who is arrayed against him (the 100+ suitors). Also Odysseus needs to rearm himself -- he has no weapons except his wits (and of course the favor of the Goddess Athena)
?
2009-05-11 22:18:46 UTC
He wanted to see what was actually going on, if he'd showed up dressed as the King people would have modified their behavior accordingly. Since everyone assumed he was a beggar they acted the way always had and gave themselves away as scum.
ezekiel's mom
2009-05-11 21:53:15 UTC
He was in diguise because his home was infested with men trying to marry his wife(the suitors) if they had found out that he was alive, they would have killed him so they can claim his property.



Also he was worried that his wife had moved on and married another man vs staying faithful to him
Terry
2009-05-11 21:53:01 UTC
If the Odyssey was a wild west story you would say he wanted to get the drop on the suitors. If they had known who he was they could possibly have ganged up on him before his plan was ready to go. Also, he had to have his bow, with arrows in hand.











Terry's Answer
Catherine
2016-03-17 04:57:17 UTC
Read the book, you don't want to be shallow and vapid your whole life do you? I read this book when I was 8 years old. It was well worth it.
Barbara
2016-04-09 06:36:45 UTC
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To have the element of surprise, so they don't recognize him and kill him first. He doesn't disguise himself, Athena does it for him, and he conceals his identity at her urging as well. Please read below: Therewith she went down into the cave to look for the safest hiding places, while Ulysses brought up all the treasure of gold, bronze, and good clothing which the Phaecians had given him. They stowed everything carefully away, and Minerva set a stone against the door of the cave. Then the two sat down by the root of the great olive, and consulted how to compass the destruction of the wicked suitors. "Ulysses," said Minerva, "noble son of Laertes, think how you can lay hands on these disreputable people who have been lording it in your house these three years, courting your wife and making wedding presents to her, while she does nothing but lament your absence, giving hope and sending your encouraging messages to every one of them, but meaning the very opposite of all she says' And Ulysses answered, "In good truth, goddess, it seems I should have come to much the same bad end in my own house as Agamemnon did, if you had not given me such timely information. Advise me how I shall best avenge myself. Stand by my side and put your courage into my heart as on the day when we loosed Troy's fair diadem from her brow. Help me now as you did then, and I will fight three hundred men, if you, goddess, will be with me." "Trust me for that," said she, "I will not lose sight of you when once we set about it, and I would imagine that some of those who are devouring your substance will then bespatter the pavement with their blood and brains. I will begin by disguising you so that no human being shall know you; I will cover your body with wrinkles; you shall lose all your yellow hair; I will clothe you in a garment that shall fill all who see it with loathing; I will blear your fine eyes for you, and make you an unseemly object in the sight of the suitors, of your wife, and of the son whom you left behind you. Then go at once to the swineherd who is in charge of your pigs; he has been always well affected towards you, and is devoted to Penelope and your son; you will find him feeding his pigs near the rock that is called Raven by the fountain Arethusa, where they are fattening on beechmast and spring water after their manner. Stay with him and find out how things are going, while I proceed to Sparta and see your son, who is with& nbsp; Menelaus at Lacedaemon, where he has gone to try and find out whether you are still alive." "But why," said Ulysses, "did you not tell him, for you knew all about it? Did you want him too to go sailing about amid all kinds of hardship while others are eating up his estate?" Minerva answered, "Never mind about him, I sent him that he might be well spoken of for having gone. He is in no sort of difficulty, but is staying quite comfortably with Menelaus, and is surrounded with abundance of every kind. The suitors have put out to sea and are lying in wait for him, for they mean to kill him before he can get home. I do not much think they will succeed, but rather that some of those who are now eating up your estate will first find a grave themselves." As she spoke Minerva touched him with her wand and covered him with wrinkles, took away all his yellow hair, and withered the flesh over his whole body; she bleared his eyes, which were naturally very fine ones; she changed his clothes and threw an old rag of a wrap about him, and a tunic, tattered, filthy, and begrimed with smoke; she also gave him an undressed deer skin as an outer garment, and furnished him with a staff and a wallet all in holes, with a twisted thong for him to sling it over his shoulder. When the pair had thus laid their plans they parted, and the goddess went straight to Lacedaemon to fetch Telemachus.
Flying Car
2009-05-11 21:47:09 UTC
I think some one wanted to kill him or somthing.
Victor
2009-05-11 21:48:05 UTC
because he didnt want no one to know it was him specially his wife


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