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Odysseus outwits the Sirens

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                        A tale from the Odyssey             Here is another example of how cunning Odysseus employs his crafty side to gain precious wisdom.Let the winds and the wheel of time take you to the deck of sailboat of Odysseus.The atmosphere was tense as they were to pass by Sirenum scopule or Anthemoessa,near Scylla and Charybdis , the home of Sirens.              These Sirens were human-eating beasts with head of beautiful women and bodies of birds.They can be killed only  by bronze dagger dipped in their victim's blood .They were blessed with luring sweet voices. When someone passed by their island Sirenum scopule,they came out and sang the most sweet song which no one could resist.The listener himself moved  towards them in memorization and the Sirens then devoured the poor being.They sang of what the man yearned the most,of their knowledge of the world and the song was promising to reveal the future.               Odysseus was eager to gain the valuable wis

Odysseus's cunning in a wrestling match

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                                          A tale from the Iliad This episode from the Iliad deals with how the master of wiles, Odysseus ,uses his cunning presence of mind to fight a wrestling match . With a backdrop of Patroclus's funeral games organised by mighty Achilles ,on the shores of Troy ; Ajax the son of Telamon and crafty  Odysseus rise to fight a  wrestling match.          Their backbones cracked as they tugged their mighty arms.Many a bloody weal sprang on their shoulders and sides,but they kept on striving with might and main to win the first prize-a tripod.          Odysseus could not throw Ajax ,nor Ajax him;Odysseus was too strong for him.But when Achaens began to tire of watching them Ajax said to Odysseus,"You shall either lift me ,or I you,and let Zeus settle it between us."He lifted him from the ground as he spoke,but Odysseus did not forget his cunning .He hit Ajax in the hollow at the back of his knee so that he could not keep back his f