Which excerpt from the odyssey best demonstrates the importance of perseverance in greek society? long ships with good stout planks athwart—would fighters rig them to ride the barren sea, except for hunger? “i learned to keep my head in hardship—years of war and years at sea. let this new trial come.” the young men, afterward, hunted wild goats with him, and hare, and deer, but he had grown old in his master's absence. no man of woman born could work these wonders by his own craft, unless a god came into it with ease to turn him young or old at will.