Odysseus is the only Greek chiftain (king) to hold back in going with Menelaus to get Menelaus's wife back. A) How does Odysseus try to avoid going to war?

Odysseus tries to avoid going to war by feigning madness. When the Greek emissaries come to summon him to join the effort to retrieve Helen, he pretends to be insane by plowing his fields with salt instead of seed. To further prove his madness, he begins to sow the fields with the salt, which would obviously result in nothing growing. However, the cleverness of Odysseus does not go unnoticed. Palamedes, one of the emissaries, throws Odysseus's infant son, Telemachus, in front of the plowing oxen. Odysseus immediately stops his act of madness to save his son, revealing that he was, in fact, sane and therefore obliged to join the other Greek leaders in the war against Troy. This incident demonstrates Odysseus's resourcefulness, even in his attempts to avoid the conflict.