What is the Importance of Disguise in The Odyssey?

Sigmund Freud once said, "Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces." Illusions are basically what our minds make up as a disguise, to take us away from the reality of what is really happening. They are what make us happy, but when they are faced with reality they are always defeated. The Odyssey, by Homer, is a book that employs, in its characters, a strong sense of illusion and disguise. The characters of the Odyssey create disguises as illusions to the truth of what is really happening. Although it may be true that the disguises make them happier, it appears to be also true that the disguises take from so much of their lives that after a point they become completely unrecognizable to themselves. They have hidden themselves in this camouflage for so long that it gets difficult for them to differ from who they really are and who they pretend to be.

Odysseus, master of illusions and disguise amongst humans, uses his wit and cunning to get out of the painful reality that he has been living for so long. Odysseus was one of the most honored and highly esteemed soldiers on the Greek army during the Trojan War. When the war ended he goes through many trials and it takes him twenty years to return home to his son and wife. When Odysseus puts on disguises he is he is completely subdued in the fake reality that he created for himself. When Odysseus returns home, to Ithaca, he is determined to not reveal himself. He disguises himself as an old beggar and, at first, does not tell anyone who he really is. It seems as though when he finally sees the son that he has been without for an endless amount of time that he would at least reveal himself to Telemakhos, but he does the opposite. When Odysseus first sees his son he does not say anything to him, but when he does one of the first things he said was, "If my heart were as young as yours, if I were/son to Odysseus, or the man himself/I'd rather have my head cut off from my shoulders...if I brought no hurt upon that crew!" (292). The first thing he could think of saying to the son that he had missed for twenty years was about bringing wrath upon the suitors. It takes him the power of a god, Athena, to get to finally reveal himself to his son. In fact, Odysseus is so into his disguises that when one of his old nurses finds out that he is Odysseus he literally threatens to kill her if she tells. He says, "Will you destroy me,/nurse, who gave me milk at your own breast?/...Be quiet; keep it from the others, else/I warn you, and I mean it, too,/if by my hand god brings the suitors down/ I'll kill you, nurse or not, when the time comes," (368). He is so absorbed in keeping his disguise that he strangles and threatens an elderly woman who nursed him while he was growing up. Odysseus has lived for so long in disguise that now that he has retuned him it is hard for him to rip off his mask and reveal himself even to the closest people to him.

While Odysseus is one of the major characters that are able to confuse themselves between whom they really are and who they pretend to be, there are still some many others. At this stage in the book Telemakhos, Odysseus' son, learns to put a mask on himself. He has promised to Odysseus that he would silently wait for him to give the signal, which would mean that the time of wrath for the suitors has come, and that he would not tell a soul that that stranger was really his father. Telemakhos is very good at it, too. When he first finds out that the stranger is his father Telemakhos shows the greatest amount of emotion that he has shown thus far, in the book. "Then, throwing/his arms around this marvel of a father/Telemakhos began to weep. Salt tears/rose from the wells of longing in both men,/ and cries burst from both..." (296). They both show the emotions that they have kept inside for so long. It is surprising that the next time that they even talk directly, like father and son, is when Odysseus is revealing himself to Penelope (433). It is especially surprising that Telemakhos could handle not talking to the father that he had never seen all his life. Telemakhos is the one that has proved through the book to show his feelings directly but now he is able to hide, from the world, what he really feels. He is able to cover himself with a camouflage that blocks the world from really seeing him, but all they see is who he wants them to see. However, he is not the only one that hides there feelings from the rest of the world.

Penelope, Odysseus' wife, wears a mask that tells the rest of the world that she is fine but, in reality, she is really depressed. Odysseus, her husband, left her for the Trojan War 20 years before and she has not seen any sign of him for that same amount of time. Whenever she comes into the public she acts as if she does not care about what is going on in her life but whenever she is alone and away from the rest of the world she cries until she can't anymore. When she is getting the Odysseus' bow and arrow for the 'test of the bow' she cries because of the pain that she has lived with for so long. "Now Penelope/ sank down, holding the weapon on her knees,/and drew her husband's great bow out, and sobbed/and bit her lip and let the salt tears flow." (392). She was unable to handle the pain and courage that it would take to do what she was about to do. But, surprisingly enough, when she turned around to face the rest of the world, the suitors in this case, her tears were gone and she was able to directly speak to them (393). This mask that Penelope lives with was not created by her. She does not want the pain that she deals with. The disguise was forced on her and she was compelled to find a way to live without the love of your life for 20 years. For her, the disguise is a new way of life. It is such a way of life that it became how she lived every day. She became sucked into her disguise and, in doing so, lost who she had been before there was a need for a disguise.

In the Odyssey the characters of the book use illusion and disguise as if it is a part of their lives. They use it to become happy. It is always nice to be something that you can't be or do something that you normally wouldn't be able to do. Odysseus and Athena use this skill to get away from the truth. Odysseus wants to return home to his family and Athena also wishes that he would do so. But what they must realize is that no matter what the truth will always exist.