Question

“Stranger, you are no longer what you were just now! Your cloak is new; even your skin! You are one of the gods who rule the sweep of heaven! Be kind to us, we’ll make you fair oblation and gifts of hammered gold. Have mercy on us!” Which is a symbol in this excerpt?

Answer 1

The symbol in the excerpt is the new cloak.

Symbols in literature are used to signify ideas through them, which means that the author can use a symbol with the purpose of giving them symbolic meanings that in fact are completely different from the literal sense. For example, in our daily life, we can say that a white pigeon is a symbol of peace or that the color red is a symbol of love.

Since the excerpt is from the Odyssey, I can deduce that the new cloak represents Odysseus’s change from an exhausted traveler to the returning hero.