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GCSE Classics · key term
An appeal for protection or mercy, often expressed in the Odyssey by clasping another person’s knees.
Used by OCR
Paper 3
An appeal for protection, help or mercy to someone with power over the person appealing, often accompanied in Homeric epic by clasping their knees.
Contrast the pleas in Book 22: Leodes claims innocence but is killed; Telemachus supports sparing Phemius and Medon. Do not assume that supplication automatically guarantees mercy.
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