matchless

The genius of Homer is matchless. His masterpiece, and this is saying a lot, is the man of twists. There is no character (not even Hamlet) who commands the attention of Odysseus. His flaw is the absence of piety. This is the opinion of Virgil who constructs his "homeric hero" in the Aeneid; however, all skill of the Roman poet does not make Aeneas interesting. Dante presents two stories of Odysseus in the Comedia. Dante prefers the Trojans for complex political reasons. There is the trickerster in Hell. Later, there is a story unique in Dante (a story not previously told in any other work). It is the only instance in which the order of heaven, purgatory and hell is broken. It is a second Odyssey that breaks the boundary between the living and the death. In Shakespeare's Trolius and Cressida, he is given a great speech in which he explains the order of the universe. He is a clown, boaster, a cold killer, a defender of his kingdom, clever and cautious yet is arrogant to think himself immune to the power of the gods. He is the subject of every poet. He is said by some to have reached Portugal and found that nation. By others he is said to be a Jewish advertizing salesman living in Dublin. Borges has said that all of Dante is empty of humanity except when Odyssues appears. He is matchless in arrogance and in caution. He swears to honor the gods (esp. Athena), yet insults them at every turn. He swears he loves peace, but he destroys Troy and almost turns Ithaca into a kingdom of heaping corpses. He returns nearly naked, a king who is fearful of finding no allies. Despite all this he is the mastermind, the leader, blessed with every talent. He has a dutiful son, a brave father, and has for a wife the clever and virtuous Penelope. In Homer's Fairy Tale full of gods, giants, seductive witches, there is at the center, the most fascinating character in all of literature and the most real character ever invented.