Odysseus

Name, etymology, and epithets

The form Ὀδυσ(σ)εύς 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 (Ὀλισεύς), Olyseus (Ὀλυσεύς), Olysseus (Ὀλυσσεύς), Olyteus (Ὀλυτεύς), Olytteus (Ὀλυττεύς) and Ōlysseus (Ὠλυσσεύς). The form Oulixēs (Οὐλίξης) is attested in an early source in Magna Graecia (Ibycus, according to Diomedes Grammaticus), while the Greek grammarian Aelius Herodianus has Oulixeus (Οὐλιξεύς).

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. Homer relates it to various forms of the verb odussomai (ὀδύσσομαι) 'to be wroth against, to hate'. 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" (πολυάρητος) 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 (ὀδυσσάμενος odyssamenos) with many, both men and women, let the name of the child be Odysseus". Other ancient authors linked the name to the verbs oduromai (ὀδύρομαι) "to lament, bewail" and ollumi (ὄλλυμι) "to perish, to be lost". Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades (Λαερτιάδης), "son of Laërtes".

In Latin, he was known as Ulixēs or (considered less correct) 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." 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 Οὐλίξης. More recent treatments connect it with the Greek forms with l: Beekes lists Latin Ulixēs among these by-forms, alongside the vase inscriptions and Herodian's Οὐλιξεύς, 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 utuse, utuśe, utuze, utzte, uθste, uθuste and uθuze, 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.

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." 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 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 (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. 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

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 (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.

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. 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 (and reluctantly), 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 (Shakespeare's "beef-witted" 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.

Since a prophecy suggested that the Trojan War would not be won without Achilles, Odysseus and several other Achaean leaders are described in the Achilleid as having gone to Skyros to find him. Odysseus discovered Achilles by offering gifts, adornments and musical instruments as well as weapons, to the king's daughters, and then having his companions imitate the noises of an enemy's attack on the island (most notably, making a blast of a trumpet heard), which prompted Achilles to reveal himself by picking a weapon to fight back, and together they departed for the Trojan War.

Journey home to Ithaca

Odysseus is best known as the eponymous hero of the Odyssey. This epic describes his travels, which lasted for 10 years, as he tries to return home after the Trojan War and reassert his place as rightful king of Ithaca.

Homebound from Troy, he and his twelve ships begin with a raid launched against Ismarus in the land of the Cicones, allies of the Trojans. After taking the city by surprise, Odysseus and his men engage in looting and slaughtering the warriors. Their spoils consist of goods, livestock, and women. Only Maron, the priest of Apollo, and his family are spared by Odysseus. In gratitude, he is gifted a barrel of wine. In no rush to leave that same evening, Odysseus's men are attacked by the Cicones, who had gone to seek help from neighbors. After losing six of his men, Odysseus is forced to flee in haste.

Driven off course by storms during three days, they visit the lethargic Lotus-Eaters and are captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus while visiting his island. After Polyphemus eats several of his men, he and Odysseus have a discussion and Odysseus tells Polyphemus his name is Outis ("Nobody"). Odysseus takes the Maron's barrel of wine and the Cyclops drinks it, falling asleep. Odysseus and his men take a wooden stake, ignite it with the remaining wine, and blind him. While they escape, Polyphemus cries in pain, and the other Cyclopes ask him what is wrong. Polyphemus cries, "Nobody has blinded me!" and the other Cyclopes think he has gone mad. Odysseus and his crew escape, but Odysseus rashly reveals his real name, and Polyphemus prays to Poseidon, his father, to take revenge. They stay with Aeolus, the master of the winds, who gives Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds, except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home. However, the sailors foolishly open the bag while Odysseus sleeps, thinking that it contains gold. All of the winds fly out, and the resulting storm drives the ships back the way they had come, just as Ithaca comes into sight.

After pleading in vain with Aeolus to help them again, they re-embark and encounter the cannibalistic Laestrygonians. Odysseus's ship is the only one to escape. He sails on and visits the witch-goddess Circe. She turns half of his men into swine after feeding them cheese and wine. Hermes warns Odysseus about Circe and gives him a drug called moly, which resists Circe's magic. Circe, being attracted to Odysseus's resistance, falls in love with him and releases his men. Odysseus and his crew remain with her on the island for one year, while they feast and drink. Finally, Odysseus's men convince him to leave for Ithaca.

Other tales

According to some late sources, most of them purely genealogical, Odysseus had many other children besides Telemachus. Most such genealogies aimed to link Odysseus with the foundation of many Italic cities. This would seem to contradict the Odyssey, which says that Odysseus's family line can only produce a single child per generation by the order of Zeus, with Telemachus already existing as that sole heir. However, the Odyssey also notes the existence of Odysseus's sister, Ctimene.

The most famous of the other children are:

with Penelope: Poliporthes and Arcesilaus

with Circe: Telegonus, Ardeas, Latinus, also Auson and Cassiphone. Xenagoras writes that Odysseus with Circe had three sons, Romos (Ancient Greek: Ῥώμος), Anteias (Ancient Greek: Ἀντείας) and Ardeias (Ancient Greek: Ἀρδείας), who built three cities and called them after their own names: Rome, Antium, and Ardea, respectively.

with Calypso: Nausithous, Nausinous

with Callidice: Polypoetes

with Euippe: Euryalus

with daughter of Thoas: Leontophonus

He figures in the end of the story of King Telephus of Mysia.

The last poem in the Epic Cycle is called the Telegony, and is now lost. According to remaining fragments, it told the story of Odysseus's last voyage to the land of the Thesprotians. There he married the queen Callidice. Then he led the Thesprotians in a war with their neighbors the Brygoi (Brygi, Brygians) and defeated in battle the neighboring peoples who attacked him. When Callidice died, Odysseus returned home to Ithaca, leaving their son, Polypoetes, to rule Thesprotia. Contradicting the reading of Tiresias's prophecy in the Odyssey that Odysseus will have a gentle death in old age after making it home, the Telogony claims that he met his death at the hands of Telegonus, his son with Circe, after a misunderstanding. Telegonus attacked his father with a poisoned, stingray spine-tipped spear, given to him by Circe. Before dying, Odysseus recognized his son. Telegonus then brought back his father's corpse to Aeaea, together with Penelope and Odysseus's son by her, Telemachus. After burying Odysseus, Circe made the other three immortal. Circe married Telemachus, and Telegonus married Penelope by the advice of Athena. An alternative version to Odysseus' death by stingray spine was presented in the Ghost-Raisers, a lost fifth-century BC tragedy by Aeschylus inspired by the nekyia episode of the Odyssey. In the tragedy, the dead Tiresias predicted that one day a heron's droppings containing said barb would fall upon an aged Odysseus' bald head and rot his skin.

In post-classical tradition

Odysseus is one of the most recurrent characters in Western culture.

Middle Ages and Renaissance

Dante Alighieri, in the Canto XXVI of the Inferno segment of his Divine Comedy (1308–1320), encounters Odysseus ("Ulisse" in Italian) near the very bottom of Hell: with Diomedes, he walks wrapped in flame in the eighth ring (Counselors of Fraud) of the Eighth Circle (Sins of Malice), as punishment for his schemes and conspiracies that won the Trojan War. In a famous passage, Dante has Odysseus relate a different version of his voyage and death from the one told by Homer. He tells how he set out with his men from Circe's island for a journey of exploration to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules and into the Western sea to find what adventures awaited them. Men, says Ulisse, are not made to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.

After travelling west and south for five months, they see in the distance a great mountain rising from the sea (this is Purgatory, in Dante's cosmology) before a storm sinks them. Dante did not have access to the original Greek texts of the Homeric epics, so his knowledge of their subject-matter was based only on information from later sources, chiefly Virgil's Aeneid but also Ovid; hence the discrepancy between Dante and Homer.

He appears in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1602), set during the Trojan War.

Modern literature

In her poem Site of the Castle of Ulysses. (published in 1836), Letitia Elizabeth Landon gives her version of The Song of the Sirens with an explanation of its purpose, structure and meaning. This illustrates a painting by Charles Bentley engraved by R. Sands, and showing The Black Mountains of Cephalonia in the background. A further poetical illustration, also in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837, is to an engraving of a painting by Charles Bentley, Town and Harbour of Ithaca. and harks back to the island 'where Ulysses was king'.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Ulysses" (published in 1842) presents an aging king who has seen too much of the world to be happy sitting on a throne idling his days away. Leaving the task of civilizing his people to his son, he gathers together a band of old comrades "to sail beyond the sunset".

Nikos Kazantzakis's The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938), a 33,333-line epic poem, begins with Odysseus cleansing his body of the blood of Penelope's suitors. Odysseus soon leaves Ithaca in search of new adventures. Before his death he abducts Helen, incites revolutions in Crete and Egypt, communes with God, and meets representatives of such famous historical and literary figures as Lenin, Don Quixote and Jesus.

In 1986, Irish poet Eilean Ni Chuilleanain published "The Second Voyage", a poem in which she makes use of the story of Odysseus.

The poet and dramatist Stephen Phillips (1864–1915) wrote "Ulysses", a drama in a prologue and three acts.

Frederick Rolfe's The Weird of the Wanderer (1912) has the hero Nicholas Crabbe (based on the author) travelling back in time, discovering that he is the reincarnation of Odysseus, marrying Helen, being deified and ending up as one of the three Magi.

James Joyce's novel Ulysses (first published 1918–1920) uses modern literary devices to narrate a single day in the life of a Dublin businessman named Leopold Bloom. Bloom's day bears many elaborate parallels to Odysseus's ten years of wandering.

Television and film

The actors who have portrayed Odysseus in feature films include Kirk Douglas in the Italian Ulysses (1955), Torin Thatcher in Helen of Troy (1956), John Drew Barrymore in The Trojan Horse (1961), Piero Lulli in The Fury of Achilles (1962), George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Sean Bean in Troy (2004), Ralph Fiennes in The Return (2024), and Matt Damon in The Odyssey (2026).

In TV miniseries he has been played by Bekim Fehmiu in L'Odissea (1968), Armand Assante in The Odyssey (1997), Nigel Whitmey in Helen of Troy (2003), and by Joseph Mawle in Troy: Fall of a City (2018).

Ulysses 31 is a French-Japanese animated television series (1981) that updates the Greek mythology of Odysseus to the 31st century.

Music

The opera Ulysse ou le beau périple (1961) by Henri Tomasi.

The British group Cream recorded the song "Tales of Brave Ulysses" in 1967.

English composer David Bedford's 1976 album The Odyssey was a musical setting of the story.

Suzanne Vega's song "Calypso" from 1987 album Solitude Standing shows Odysseus from Calypso's point of view, and tells the tale of him coming to the island and his leaving.

The American progressive metal band Symphony X released a 24-minute adaptation of the tale on their 2002 album The Odyssey.

Odysseus is featured in a verse of the song "Journey of the Magi" on Frank Turner's 2009 album Poetry of the Deed.

Rolf Riehm composed an opera based on the myth, Sirenen – Bilder des Begehrens und des Vernichtens (Sirens – Images of Desire and Destruction) which premiered at the Oper Frankfurt in 2014.

Odysseus appears as the main character of Epic: The Musical, a sung-through adaptation of the Odyssey created by musician Jorge Rivera-Herrans. Rivera-Herrans provides the voice of Odysseus.

Comparative mythology and folkloristics

Over time, comparisons between Odysseus and other heroes of different mythologies and religions have been made. A similar story exists in Hindu mythology with Nala and Damayanti where Nala separates from Damayanti and is reunited with her. The story of stringing a bow is similar to the description in the Ramayana of Rama stringing the bow to win Sita's hand in marriage.

Virgil's Aeneid has evident similarities to the Odyssey. Virgil tells the story of Aeneas and his travels to what would become Rome. On his journey, he endures strife comparable to that of Odysseus. However, the motives for both of their journeys differ, as Aeneas was driven by this sense of duty granted to him by the gods that he must abide by. He keeps in mind the future of his people, fitting for the future Father of Rome.

In folkloristics, the story of Odysseus's journey back to his native Ithaca and wife Penelope corresponds to the tale type ATU 974, "The Homecoming Husband", of the international Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index for folktale classification.

Role as a figure of worship

Evidence suggests the existence of a cult dedicated to Odysseus on Ithaca. This evidence includes public games called the Odysseia (τά Ὀδύσσεια) and a designated public gathering place or a sanctuary, known as the Odysseion (τό Ὀδύσσειον).

In 2025, researchers identified what is believed to be the sanctuary of Odysseus at the site Agios Athanasios–School of Homer in northern Ithaca (known since the 19th century as the "School of Homer"). Two late Hellenistic inscriptions were discovered bearing "ΟΔΥCCEOC" (genitive) and "ΟΔΥCCEI" (dative). These align with a 1930s inscription from the Polis Bay cave reading "ΕΥΧΗΝ ΟΔΥCCΕΙ" ("Thanks Odysseus"). Additional finds, such as a miniature bronze bust of Odysseus, 34 clay votive fragments, loom weights, jewelry, and over 100 coins, highlight the site's religious and social role during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods (3rd century BCE – 2nd century CE). The lower terrace, featuring architectural remains, carved dedication niches, and roof tiles inscribed with references to Apollo Agyieus and the symbol "ΔΗ" (which may indicate "public"), confirms the site's function in formal religious rituals. This indicates that the sanctuary catered to both local devotees and visiting pilgrims.

Strabo writes that on Meninx (Ancient Greek: Μῆνιγξ) island, modern Djerba at Tunisia, there was an altar to Odysseus.

Pliny the Elder writes that in Italy there were some small islands (modern Torricella, Praca, Brace and other rocks) which were called Ithacesiae because of a watchtower that Odysseus built there.

According to ancient Greek tradition, Odysseus founded a city in Iberia which was called Odysseia (Ὀδύσσεια) or Odysseis (Ὀδυσσεῖς) which had a sanctuary of goddess Athena. Ancient authors identified it with Olisipo (modern Lisbon), but modern researchers believe that even its existence is uncertain.

Hellanicus of Lesbos wrote that Rome was founded by Aeneas and Odysseus who came together there. Other ancient historians, including Damastes of Sigeum, agreed with him.

According to tradition, Odysseus founded Bouneima in Epirus, near Trampya, a city associated with his return, after receiving an oracle instructing him to go to people "who know nothing of the sea". After arriving there, he sacrificed a bull and established the settlement. Ancient sources also state that Odysseus was honored in Trampya.