24-325). Unlike Agamemnon, who’s “reverse psychology” backfires on him, causing the men to go into a frenzy for home. Agamemnon does not realize the hardships these men have gone though; after nine years, of course they will be tired and anxious to go home. “And now nine years of mighty Zeus have gone by, and the timbers of our ships have rotted away . . . and far away our own wives and our young children are sitting within our halls and wait for us . . .” (1.2.134-137). Because he does not understand this, he strikes a nerve in all the men’s hearts, rather than the ego. “So he spoke, and stirred up the passion in the breast of all those who were within that multitude and listened to his counsel.” (1.2.142-143). Odysseus simply knows how to talk to certain people; he realizes that talking to a king is very different than talking to someone below him. “Whenever he encountered some king, or man of influence, he would stand besides him and with soft words try to restrain him . . .” (1.2.188-189). Again, Agamemnon does not comprehend that speaking to one person one way may not work on someone else. Agamemnon obviously knows how to talk down to people, as we saw with his fight with Achilles. Later, he angers Odysseus by his comments when Agamemnon randomly told Odysseus about how all he did was hang back during battles.Odysseus always makes sure to choose his words wisely, so not to offend anyone. Whereas Agamemnon just lets his mouth fly with whatever comes to his head, disregarding whether or not what he is saying will benefit him. When Agamemnon receives dreams from the gods, instead of using them to encourage, he manages to twist it around to make it work against him. People obviously take messages from the gods very seriously. Odysseus uses that to make the idea of war more appealing. Assuring the people with proof means to re iterate the prophecies, for example,...
