The use of the house to show dual personality in the Odyssey and MedeaThe house was a prevalent concept in ancient Greece. Not only was there a goddess of the hearth and home, Hestia, but hospitality towards others was strongly emphasized. Home was considered a place to escape from the chaos of the outside world. Homer and Euripides in the Odyssey and Medea, respectively, use the motif of the house to show the difference between an individual's public way and his personal, more natural way. This difference is caused by the different levels of comfort that individuals have in different contexts. Specifically, the two works portray difference through the characters' experiences, the distrust developed towards others and the maintenance of double identity. There are occasions in both works where characters make the mistake of using their personal mannerisms in inappropriate contexts. In the Odyssey, Odysseus mistakenly assumes that the Cyclopes, Polyphemus, would welcome him. There we lit a fire and made sacrifices, and helping ourselves to the cheeses we ate and sat waiting for him inside, until he returned home from his herding. Ulysses's attempt to make himself at home in Polyphemus' cave turns out to be disastrous. Homer highlights from this situation Odysseus' lack of caution and judgment as Odysseus' crew had already advised him to leave the cave. In consuming Polyphemus' cattle and cheese, Odysseus demonstrates a high level of comfort with Polyphemus that is not actually evident to the two individuals meeting for the first time. As a result, Odysseus and his crew portray themselves as intruders rather than visitors. Similarly, in Medea, Medea places an unusual level of trust in Jason... middle of paper... Euripides, although the writers of Ancient Times, comments on a characteristic that is still present in the modern world. They assert that individuals maintain a dual identity as a result of different levels of trust and comfort in others in different contexts. Our experiences gave us an initial distrust or apprehension of others, which is why we developed a public identity separate from our private identity. These separate identities, however, benefit us as they are used to advance our interests. Specifically, in the Odyssey and Medea, the two authors state that our comfort level outside the home is very low. Home represents a natural state of existence where all thoughts, actions and words are intuitive. In contrast, the outside world maintains a state of chaos and uncertainty. There must be some difference in how we address these two states.