Odysseus
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, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility, 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 Ὀδυσεύς Odyseus 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, while the Greek grammarian Aelius Herodianus has Oulixeus. In Latin, he was known as Ulixēs or Ulyssēs. 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." However, the change between d and l is common also in some Indo-European and Greek names, and the Latin form is supposed to be derived from the Etruscan Uthuze, which perhaps accounts for some of the phonetic innovations.The etymology of the name is unknown. Ancient authors linked the name to the Greek verbs odussomai "to be wroth against, to hate", to oduromai "to lament, bewail", or even to ollumi "to perish, to be lost". Homer relates it to various forms of this verb in references and puns. 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 with many, both men and women, let the name of the child be Odysseus". Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades, "son of Laërtes".
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. In Etruscan religion, the name of Odysseus were adopted under the name Uthuze, which has been interpreted as a parallel borrowing from a preceding Minoan form of the name ; this theory is also supposed to explain the insecurity of the phonologies, since the affricate, unknown to the Greek of that time, gave rise to different counterparts.
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". 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" and "a complicated man".
Description
In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Odysseus was illustrated as "tough, crafty, cheerful, of medium height, eloquent, and wise." 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." and 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 Homer's 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 of Homer's Odyssey he is said to have a "bronze tan" and in Book XVIII of Homer's Odyssey, 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 Hermes 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.According to the Iliad and Odyssey, his father is Laertes and his mother Anticlea, although there was a non-Homeric tradition that Sisyphus was his true father. The rumour went that Laërtes bought Odysseus from the conniving king. 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."
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 and 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. 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.
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. Later on, after many of the heroes leave the battlefield due to injuries, 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.File:Rhesos MNA Naples.jpg|thumb|left|Odysseus and Diomedes stealing the horses of Thracian king Rhesus they have just killed. Apulian red-figure situla, from Ruvo
When Hector proposes a single combat duel, Odysseus is one of the Danaans who reluctantly volunteered to battle him. Telamonian Ajax, however, is the volunteer who eventually fights Hector. 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.
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, he consents. 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.
Odysseus has traditionally been viewed as Achilles's antithesis in the Iliad: while Achilles's anger is all-consuming and of a self-destructive nature, Odysseus is frequently viewed as a man of the mean, a voice of reason, renowned for his self-restraint and diplomatic skills. He is also in some respects antithetical to Telamonian Ajax : while the latter has only brawn to recommend him, Odysseus is not only ingenious, but an eloquent speaker, a skill perhaps best demonstrated in the embassy to Achilles in book 9 of the Iliad. The two are not only foils in the abstract but often opposed in practice since they have many duels and run-ins.