Why do you think Odysseus allows Clytemnestra's daughter to be sacrificed?
Created: 02/27/24
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The Homeric text describes him as a man of many twists and turns, just as this author did. He was smart and wily, and as a man of his time and status, would not value the life of a distant female relation by marriage when that would not advance his ambitions or help him to return as soon as possible to his own family. He may not have liked it, but was willing and capable of dissembling to Clytemnestra to serve his own purpose.
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Although I seem to remember Odysseus had his doubts about the gods, I think he was smart enough to know that others didn't, so something had to be done. And, as others have said, the life of a girl wouldn't have seemed that important to warriors, not even that of a princess.
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I think Odysseus was wily, and even though he may not have believed the gods required this sacrifice, he knew that the whole war campaign rested on troop morale and belief in their mission. If sacrificing Iphigenia was a means to an end, he'd go along with it. I don't think Odysseus was a moral hero. He was a crafty "hero." He is responsible for winning the long war with his craft vis a vis the Trojan Horse.
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Odysseus was wily, crafty, clever, cagey, crooked, scheming, shifty, shrewd, sly, sneaky, underhanded, cunning, deceitful, deceptive, foxy, greasy, guileful, insidious, slick, slipper, smooth, tricky, BUT not honest and ethical. He was a man of his culture and one who was all for himself and keeping himself alive and on the frontage of the "news."
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Odysseus likely viewed the daughter’s sacrifice as an unemotional business deal / a naturally casualty of war time decisions. It was likely of little importance to him as compare to the unification and galvanization of the men going to war who believed the sacrifice important.
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