Odysseus

Odysseus, the legendary king of Ithaca, is the central figure of Homer’s *Odyssey* and a major character in the *Iliad* and other epic works. He is also known by his Latin name, Ulysses. His fame rests on his intellectual brilliance, cunning, and versatility—qualities captured by the Greek term *polytropos* and the epithet “Odysseus the Cunning.” His most celebrated achievement is his *nostos*, or homecoming, a ten-year journey following the decade-long Trojan War.

The name Odysseus appears in various forms, including Oliseus, Olyseus, and Olysseus in vase inscriptions, and Oulixēs in an early source from Magna Graecia. The Greek grammarian Aelius Herodianus recorded the form Oulixeus. The etymology of the name is unknown; it may be of non-Greek, possibly Pre-Greek origin, as suggested by linguist Robert S. P. Beekes. In Homer’s *Odyssey*, the hero’s grandfather Autolycus names him after his own experience of being angered (*odyssamenos*) with many people. Other ancient writers linked the name to verbs meaning “to lament” or “to be lost.” Odysseus is often called Laertiades, meaning “son of Laërtes.”

In Latin, he was known as Ulixes or, less correctly, Ulysses. Some scholars propose that two separate figures—one named Odysseus and another Ulixes—were later combined. The Latin form may derive from Etruscan or from a Greek form like *Olixes*, which circulated outside the Homeric tradition. In Etruria, the hero’s name appeared in variants such as Utuse, Uthuze, and Uthste on scarabs, mirrors, and cinerary urns between the fifth and second centuries BC. Maras argues the Etruscan borrowing came from the form with a *d*, as used in the Homeric epic.

Homer describes Odysseus with epithets like “the man of many devices” (Murray translation) and *polytropos*, which has been rendered as “man of twists and turns” (Fagles) and “a complicated man” (Wilson). In Dares the Phrygian’s account, Odysseus is “tough, crafty, cheerful, of medium height, eloquent, and wise.” In the *Iliad*, Priam compares him to a deep-fleeced ram, noting he is shorter than Agamemnon but broader in chest and shoulders. Antenor recalls that Menelaus was taller, but Odysseus was more imposing when seated. In the *Odyssey*, he has “bushy locks” like hyacinth petals, a “bronze tan,” and is described with “fine massive thighs,” broad shoulders, a chest, and brawny arms.

According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Odysseus’s paternal grandfather is Arcesius, son of Cephalus and grandson of Aeolus, and his maternal grandfather is the thief Autolycus, son of Hermes and Chione. This makes Odysseus a great-grandson of Hermes, though Homer does not explicitly link Hermes to Autolycus by genealogy. In the *Iliad* and *Odyssey*, his parents are Laertes and Anticlea, though a non-Homeric tradition claims Sisyphus was his true father, with Laertes having bought him. Odysseus had a younger sister, Ctimene, who married Eurylochus and is mentioned by the swineherd Eumaeus. Under the guise of an old beggar, Odysseus gives Eumaeus a fictitious genealogy, claiming to be from Crete, the son of a wealthy man by a concubine, but honored equally with his true-born sons.