Books 9-12 are the story of a journey in which the protagonist does not always remain the same. He changes because of the places he's been, the people he's met, and the things he's done. These four books are almost entirely spoken by Odysseus and so we get a first-hand account of them. At the beginning of his wanderings, Ulysses leaves Troy with his Ithacan fleet and in a short time they arrive in Ismarus, the city of the Cicones. Odysseus simply states that he "plundered this place" and that they took "extensive plunder" there. Here we see the hero of the Iliad doing what a hero does. At the end of this book, Odysseus declares his identity to Polyphemus, in which he describes himself as a "city-plunderer". This is because he has only recently begun his travels and has only recently sacked Troy and Ismarus. However, when Odysseus tells the Phaeacians who he is, he attributes his 'kleos' (eternal fame in the mouths of men) to his "stratagems". In book 8, Odysseus asked the bard Demodochus to sing "the stratagem of the wooden horse", which he considers his most memorable and greatest feat: not the sacking of the city but the inventiveness of his idea. This is because, in Scherie and towards the end of his journey, Odysseus has just finished his adventures and now considers his "metis" (cunning) to be his greatest quality, and also has not fought anyone for a long time. It is also in Ismarus that we see Odysseus' first conflict with his men, as he is unable to convince them to leave ("my fools"). Thus we also see Homer's first superficial contradiction towards Ulysses as a Greek hero. When defining a Greek hero we would expect certain qualities to be evident. A hero would be... middle of paper... the man he was when he began the journey and realizes it himself, claiming that his "stratagems" are his best claim to fame. Now he has finally made the leap away from bié (although when he gets to Ithaca he has to fight a battle and return to his old habits). He has become the man who tells his story to the Phaeacians. In telling it we can see what Ulysses considers the most important things in the story he made. The story of the Cicones and the sacking of their city flows quickly, while particular attention is given to the stratagems inside Polyphemus' cave. We wouldn't expect such a preference in a warlord, but we would in the one who became Ulysses. Work Cited: Homer (Translated by Robert Fagles. Preface by Bernard Knox). 2006. The Odyssey. New York: Viking Penguin, div. by Penguin Books, Ltd.