In Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus (, ; , ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses (, ; ), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.
As the son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus, Acusilaus, and Telegonus,Epic Cycle. Fragments on Telegony, 2 as cited in Eustathias, 1796.35. Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (polytropos), and he is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (). He is most famous for his nostos, or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War.
Name, etymology, and epithets The form Odys(s)eus is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, there are the variants Oliseus (), Olyseus (), Olysseus (), Olyteus (), Olytteus () and Ōlysseus (). The form Oulixēs () is attested in an early source in Magna Graecia (Ibycus, according to Diomedes Grammaticus), while the Greek grammarian Aelius Herodianus has Oulixeus ().Entry "" , in: Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott: A Greek–English Lexicon, 1940.
The etymology of the name Odysseus is unknown. It has also been suggested that the name is of non-Greek origin, possibly not even Indo-European, with an unknown etymology. Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin.Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, Leiden 2009, p. 1048. Homer relates it to various forms of the verb () .Entry "" in Liddell and Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon. In Book 19 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus's early childhood is recounted, Euryclea asks the boy's grandfather Autolycus to name him. Euryclea seems to suggest a name like Polyaretos, "for he has much been prayed for" () but Autolycus, "apparently in a sardonic mood", decided to give the child another name commemorative of "his own experience in life": "Since I have been angered ( odyssamenos) with many, both men and women, let the name of the child be Odysseus".Odyssey 19.400–405 . Other ancient authors linked the name to the verbs () "to lament, bewail"Entry "" in Liddell and Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon. and () "to perish, to be lost".Entry "" in Liddell and Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon. Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades (), "son of Laërtes".
In Latin, he was known as or (considered less correct) . Some have supposed that "there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality." The origin of the Latin form has been explained in different ways. In the nineteenth century it was derived from Etruscan, following K. O. Müller, or alternatively from the Sicel . More recent treatments connect it with the Greek forms with l: Beekes lists Latin among these by-forms, alongside the vase inscriptions and Herodian's , and Maras derives it from a Greek form reconstructed as *Olixes, that is from the name as it circulated outside the Homeric tradition.
In Etruria the name and the stories of Odysseus were adopted under a number of variants, among them , , , , , and , which appear as captions beside representations of the hero on scarabs, mirrors and cinerary urns between the fifth and the second centuries BC. Maras traces the Etruscan borrowing, by contrast, to the form with d, that is to the name as it circulated within the Homeric epic tradition.
In the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer uses several epithets to describe Odysseus, starting with the opening, where he is described as "the man of many devices" (in the 1919 Murray translation). The Greek word used is polytropos, literally the man of many turns, and other translators have suggested alternate English translations, including "man of twists and turns" (Fagles 1996) and "a complicated man" (Wilson 2018).
Description In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Odysseus was illustrated as "tough, crafty, cheerful, of medium height, eloquent, and wise."Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 13 In Book III of Homer's Iliad, Priam describes him as "shorter in truth by a head than Atreus' son Agamemnon, / but broader, it would seem, in the chest and across the shoulders /... / Truly, to some deep-fleeced ram would I liken him / who makes his way through the great mass of the shining sheep-flocks." In the same book Antenor recalls that "Menelaus with his broad shoulders was the taller, but Odysseus was the more imposing of the two when they were both seated." In Book VI of the Odyssey, he is described as having "bushy locks" that "hang from his head thick as the petals of a hyacinth in bloom". In Book XVI he is said to have a "bronze tan" and in Book XVIII, it is said that Odysseus "bared his fine massive thighs. His broad shoulders, his chest and brawny arms were now revealed".
Genealogy Relatively little is given of Odysseus's fictional background other than that according to Pseudo-Apollodorus, his paternal grandfather or step-grandfather is Arcesius, son of Cephalus and grandson of Aeolus, while his maternal grandfather is the thief Autolycus, son of HermesApollodorus, Bibliotheca Library 1.9.16 and Chione; this genealogy places Odysseus as the great-grandson of the Olympian god Hermes. In the Odyssey, however, while Hermes passes on his skill of thievery to Autolycus, there is no indication of a genealogical connection between the two.Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. . p. 109.Homer, Odyssey 19.394–398.
According to the Iliad and Odyssey, his father is LaertesHomer does not list Laërtes as one of the Argonauts. and his mother Anticlea, although there was a non-Homeric traditionScholium on Sophocles' Aiax 190, noted in Karl Kerényi, The Heroes of the Greeks, 1959:77."Spread by the powerful kings, // And by the child of the infamous Sisyphid line" (κλέπτουσι μύθους οἱ μεγάλοι βασιλῆς // ἢ τᾶς ἀσώτου Σισυφιδᾶν γενεᾶς): Chorus in Ajax 189–190, translated by R. C. Trevelyan."Thousands of them, with Odysseus at their head." "The son of Sisyphus?" "The very same.": Achilles and Clytemnestra in Iphigenia at Aulis, . that Sisyphus was his true father."A so-called 'Homeric' drinking-cup shows pretty undisguisedly Sisyphos in the bed-chamber of his host's daughter, the arch-rogue sitting on the bed and the girl with her spindle." The Heroes of the Greeks 1959:77. The rumour went that Laërtes bought Odysseus from the conniving king."Sold by his father Sisyphus" (οὐδ᾽ οὑμπολητὸς Σισύφου Λαερτίῳ): Philoctetes in Philoctetes 417, translated by Thomas Francklin. Odysseus is said to have a younger sister, Ctimene, who went to Same to be married to Eurylochus and is mentioned by the swineherd Eumaeus, whom she grew up alongside, in book 15 of the Odyssey. Odysseus himself, under the guise of an old beggar, gives the swineherd in Ithaca a fictitious genealogy: "From broad Crete I declare that I am come by lineage, the son of a wealthy man. And many other sons too were born and bred in his halls, true sons of a lawful wife; but the mother that bore me was bought, a concubine. Yet Castor, son of Hylax, of whom I declare that I am sprung, honored me even as his true-born sons."Hom. Od. 14.199–200. Quoted from Homer. The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
Mythology Before the Trojan War The majority of sources for Odysseus's supposed pre-war exploits—principally the mythographers Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus—postdate Homer by many centuries. Two stories in particular are well known:
When Helen of Troy is abducted, Menelaus calls upon the other suitors to honour their oaths and help him to retrieve her, an attempt that leads to the Trojan War. Odysseus tries to avoid it by feigning lunacy, as an oracle had prophesied a long-delayed return home for him if he went. He hooks a donkey and an ox to his plow (as they have different stride lengths, hindering the efficiency of the plow) and (some modern sources add) starts sowing his fields with salt. Palamedes, at the behest of Menelaus's brother Agamemnon, seeks to disprove Odysseus's madness and places Telemachus, Odysseus's infant son, in front of the plow. Odysseus veers the plow away from his son, thus exposing his stratagem.Hyginus, Fabulae 95 . Cf. Apollodorus, Epitome 3.7 . Odysseus holds a grudge against Palamedes during the war for dragging him away from his home.
Odysseus and other envoys of Agamemnon travel to Scyros to recruit Achilles because of a prophecy that Troy could not be taken without him. By most accounts, Thetis, Achilles's mother, disguises him as a woman to hide him from the recruiters because an oracle had predicted that Achilles would either live a long uneventful life or achieve everlasting glory while dying young. Odysseus cleverly discovers which among the women before him is Achilles, when Achilles is the only one of them to show interest in examining the weapons hidden among an array of adornment gifts for the daughters of their host. Odysseus arranges further for the sounding of a battle horn, which prompts Achilles to clutch a weapon and show his trained disposition. With his disguise foiled, he is exposed and joins Agamemnon's call to arms among the Hellenes.Hyginus, Fabulae 96 .
During the Trojan War
The Iliad
Odysseus is represented as one of the most influential Greek champions during the Trojan War in Homer's account. Along with Nestor and Idomeneus he is one of the most trusted counsellors and advisors. He always champions the Achaean cause, especially when others question Agamemnon's command, as in one instance when Thersites speaks against him. When Agamemnon, to test the morale of the Achaeans, announces his intentions to depart Troy, Odysseus restores order to the Greek camp.Iliad 2. Later on, after many of the heroes leave the battlefield due to injuries (including Odysseus and Agamemnon), Odysseus once again persuades Agamemnon not to withdraw. Along with two other envoys, he is chosen in the failed embassy to try to persuade Achilles to return to combat.Iliad 9.
When Hector proposes a single combat duel, Odysseus is one of the Danaans who reluctantly volunteers to battle him. Telamonian Ajax ("The Greater"), however, is the volunteer who eventually fights Hector.Iliad 7. Odysseus aids Diomedes during the night operations to kill Rhesus, because it had been foretold that if his horses drank from the Scamander River, Troy could not be taken.Iliad 10.
After Patroclus is slain, it is Odysseus who counsels Achilles to let the Achaean men eat and rest rather than follow his rage-driven desire to go back on the offensive—and kill Trojans—immediately. Eventually (and reluctantly), he consents.Iliad 19. During the funeral games for Patroclus, Odysseus becomes involved in a wrestling match with Ajax "The Greater" and foot race with Ajax "The Lesser", son of Oileus and Nestor's son Antilochus. He draws the wrestling match, and with the help of the goddess Athena, he wins the race.Iliad 23.