Odysseus - Before the Trojan War, Odysseus reaches Ithaca, Other stories

A Greek hero, known in Latin as Ulixes, from which Ulysses is derived. The son of Laertes, King of Ithaca, he took part in the Trojan War, where he was respected for his intelligence. In later writers he is made cunning and devious. He took ten years to return from Troy, encountering many romantic adventures, described in Homer's Odyssey. Eventually he returned to Ithaca, slaughtered the suitors who were besieging his wife Penelope, and, to appease Poseidon, the main cause of his troubles, set out to find a country where the oar on his shoulder would be taken for a winnowing-fan. Dante and Tennyson credit him with one final journey of exploration into the Atlantic Ocean.

Odysseus is the main character in Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey and plays a key role in Homer's Iliad.

For a character of such prominence in the Iliad, one of Agamemnon's principal lieutenants, Odysseus' pedigree is relatively obscure. This interpretation is being reinforced by the fact that Odysseus hates the gods and he is hated by the gods.

Odysseus sometimes receives the epithet "Laertiades (Greek: Λαερτιάδης') 'son of Laertes'.

His name and stories were borrowed into Etruscan religion under the name Uthuze.

Before the Trojan War

Odysseus was one of the suitors for Helen, daughter of Tyndareus. But when Tyndareus, afraid of offending the many famous and powerful suitors, would not choose among them, Odysseus promised to solve the dilemma, in return for Tyndareus' support for Odysseus suit for Penelope, daughter of Icarius. Odysseus proposed that Tyndareus require all the suitors to swear an oath to defend whomever Helen chose as husband from among the oath-takers. The suitors, including Odysseus, swore and Helen chose Menelaus, the most powerful of them.

When Helen was abducted by Paris of Troy (which caused the Trojan War), the suitors were called upon to honour their oaths and help Menelaus retrieve Helen. Because an oracle had prophesied he would not return for a long time, Odysseus didn't want to go to war; Agamemnon, Menelaus' brother, sent Palamedes to convince Odysseus to join the expedition. Odysseus could not kill his son, thus revealing his sanity, and then left for the Trojan War.

With Odysseus now in the Argive army, Agamemnon now set his goals on enlisting Achilles (who was not a suitor for Helen), because it was foretold that Troy could not be taken without him. Odysseus was one of the ambassadors that went to Scyros to fetch him. So Odysseus asked if he could make presents to the women of the court. Thus was Odysseus able to identify Achilles. Odysseus told Achilles' mother, Thetis, to send for Peleus' Myrmidon arms and armor made by the god Hephaestus to protect him at Troy. Odysseus let Achilles keep the sword, spear, and shield. Another account of Odysseus' ruse to identify Achilleus states that after the jewels and weapons were displayed Odysseus had a war trumpet sound, which caused Achilles to instinctively grab the weapons brought by Odysseus.

According to some accounts, it was Odysseus who planned the scheme of bringing Iphigenia to be sacrificed under the pretext of marrying Achilles when the crew was without wind.

On the way to Troy, Philoctetes was bitten by a snake on Chryse. Some people suggest it was Odysseus who did this but the Iliad recounts that it was Agamemnon.

At some point just before the actual war started, Odysseus accompanied Menelaus and Palamedes in an envoy to try to bring back Helen peacefully. According to some accounts, after the discussion with Priam's court, the Trojans insulted and disrespected Menelaus and Odysseus except for Antenor who treated the Greeks with hospitality;

Odysseus was one of the main Achaean characters in the Trojan War.

When the Achaean ships reached the shores of Troy, no one would jump ashore, since there was an oracle that the first Achaean to jump on Trojan soil would die. Odysseus tossed his shield on the shore and jumped on his shield.

Odysseus never forgave Palamedes for unmasking his madness ruse, leading him to frame Palamedes as a traitor. At one point, Odysseus convinced a Trojan captive to write a letter that looked as if it was sent by Palamedes, in which a sum of gold was mentioned to have been sent as a reward for Palamedes' treachery. Odysseus then killed the prisoner and hid the gold in Palamedes tent. Other sources say Odysseus and Diomedes goaded Palamedes to descend a wall with the prospect of treasure being at the bottom.

Odysseus was one of the most influential Greek champions during the Trojan War. When Agamemnon (to test the morale of the Achaeans) announced his intention to depart Troy, Odysseus restored order to the Greek camp. Later on in the Iliad, after many of the heroes had left the battlefield due to injuries (including Odysseus and Agamemnon), Odysseus once again persuaded Agamemnon not to withdraw. Odysseus, along with two other envoys, was chosen in the failed embassy to try to persuade Achilles to return to combat.

When Hector proposed a single combat duel, Odysseus was one of the Danaans who volunteered to battle him (Aias was the volunteer who did fight Hector, though). Odysseus aided Diomedes during the successful night operations in order to kill Rhesus, because it had been foretold that if his horses drank from the Scamander river Troy could not be taken.

After Patroclus had been slain, it was Odysseus who counselled Achilles to let the Achaean men eat and rest, for Achilles, driven by rage, wanted to go back on the offensive - and kill Trojans - immediately. During the Funeral Games for Patroclus, Odysseus becomes involved in a wrestling match with Telamonian Ajax, as well as a foot race.

When Achilles was slain in battle, it was Odysseus and Telmonian Ajax who successfully retrieved the fallen warriors' body and armour in the thick of heavy fighting. During the funeral games for Achilles, once again Odysseus competed with Telamonian Ajax in funeral games. In either case, Odysseus was the winner and Ajax was defeated. Enraged and humiliated, Ajax killed himself by the sword Hector had given him after being driven mad by Athena to protect Odysseus from his vengeance.

Later on, it was learned that the war could not be won without the bow of Heracles, which were owned by the abandoned Philoctetes. Odysseus and Diomedes (or, according to some accounts, Odysseus and Neoptolemus) went out to retrieve them. In any event, upon their arrival Philoctetes (still suffering from the wound) was still very angry with the Danaans, especially Odysseus, for abandoning him. While his first instinct was to shoot Odysseus when they arrived to retrieve him, Philoctetes anger was eventually diffused due to Odysseus' persuasive powers and the influence of the gods. Odysseus returned with Philoctetes and his arrows to the Argive camp.

Again with Diomedes, Odysseus went to fetch Achilles' son, Neoptolemus, to come to the aid of the Achaeans, because an oracle stated that Troy could not be taken without him. Upon the success of the mission Odysseus gave Neoptolemus the armaments of his father.

Later on in the war, Odysseus captured Priam's son Helenus the prophet. Once again Odysseus and Diomedes went on a mission together to fulfill a prophecy. Some say that Diomedes crawled on Odysseus' shoulders to enter the city and would not let Odysseus up and into the city. When Diomedes returned from stealing the Palladium and met back up with Odysseus, who was infuriated at Diomedes for not letting him up, he thought to kill Diomedes and take credit for himself and stepped behind Diomedes in order to stab him with his sword. Diomedes caught the glint of the sword in the moonlight and spun around and disarmed the Ithacan king, and proceeded to drive Odysseus back to the Argive camp with the flat of his sword. Another account of the stealing of the Palladium states that both Odysseus and Diomedes entered the city together.

Some myths state that Odysseus in the guise of a beggar covered in rags and blood entered the Trojan city secretly and alone.

The Trojan Horse, the famous stratagem, was devised by Odysseus. It was built by Epeius and filled with Greek warriors led by Odysseus. Before hand, Odysseus made Menelaus to give him whatever he asked after they had taken Troy. When the Horse was brought inside Troy, Odysseus and Menelaus descended from it and went directly to Prince Deiphobos' house, where they engaged in a most ferocious battle(Although some accounts say it was Odysseus who fought him and Menelaus came to find the dead body. Menelaus was also about to kill Helen for leaving him but Odysseus took advantage of the promise earlier and made Menelaus swear not to kill her. For his crimes, including slaying the Theban warriors in their sleep, Odysseus was compelled by the gods to endure 10 years of hardship before he achieved a nostos, a homecoming. It was Odysseus who advised the Greeks to stone Ajax to death for his crime.

In Euripedes' "The Trojan Women", it is Odysseus who convinces the other Argives to kill Hector's young son, so he has no chance to avenge his city.

The Ciconians

After Odysseus and his men depart from Troy, they are greeted by friendly and calm waters. The ships near land and Eurylochus, convincing Odysseus that the gods were on their side, told him to go ashore and loot the nearby city. Odysseus and his men looted the city and robbed it of all its goods. Odysseus wisely told the men to board the ships quickly, but they refused, ate dinner and fell asleep on the beach. Odysseus and his men fled to the ships as fast as they could, but "six benches were left empty in every ship" (The Odyssey.

The Lotus-Eaters

When Odysseus and his men landed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters, Odysseus sent out a scouting party of three or so men who ate the lotus with the natives. Odysseus went after the scouting party and dragged them back to the ship against their will and set sail.

Polyphemus

A scouting party led by Odysseus (and his friend, Misenus), lands in the territory of the Cyclops and ventures upon a large cave. He then proceeds to eat a pair of the men each day, but Odysseus devises a cunning plan for escape.

To make Polyphemus unwary, Odysseus gives him a bowl of strong, unwatered wine. When Polyphemus asks for his name, Odysseus tells him that it is "Noman" (Outis, a shortened form of his name) or, in other accounts, "Nobody". Once the giant falls asleep, Odysseus and his men turn a pine into a giant spear, which they had previously prepared while Polyphemus was out of the cave shepherding his flocks, and blind Polyphemus.

In the morning, Polyphemus rolls back the boulder to let the sheep out to graze. Odysseus and his men escape, having tied themselves to the undersides of three sheep. Once Odysseus and his men are out, they load the sheep on board their ship and set sail.

As Odysseus and his men are sailing away he reveals his identity to Polyphemus in an act of hubris. When the ship appears to be getting away at last, Polyphemus raises his arms to his father, Poseidon, and asks him to not allow Odysseus to go back home to Ithaca, and if he does, he must arrive back alone, his crew dead and in a stranger's ship.

According to Virgil's Aeneid, Achaemenides was one of Odysseus' crew who stayed on Sicily with Polyphemus until Aeneas arrived and took him with him.

Aeolus

Odysseus stopped at Aiolia, home of Aeolus, the favoured mortal of the gods who received the power of controlling the winds. Aeolus gave Odysseus and his crew hospitality for a month in return for Odysseus telling interesting stories. Odysseus' crew members suspected that treasure was in the bag (due to Odysseus guarding the bag for the entire voyage home without a wink of sleep). A couple of the men decided to open it as soon as Odysseus fell asleep - just before their home was reached. They were blown by a violent storm back to Aiolia by Poseidon, where Aeolus refused to provide any more help because he thought Odysseus was cursed by the gods. Odysseus had to start his journey from Aiolia to Ithaca over again;

The Laestrygonians

They came to Telepylos, the stronghold of Lamos, king of the Laestrygonians. Here Odysseus sends out two soldiers and a herald, they meet an inhabitant and proceed to wait for her husband.

Circe

The next stop was the island of Circe (Aeaea), where Odysseus sent a scouting party ahead of the rest of the group. Only Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had stayed behind at the ships. Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted and told by Hermes to procure some of the herb moly to protect him from the same fate. She later fell in love with Odysseus and he was treated well in her abode. Later, quite reluctantly (reluctant since she did not want to part with Odysseus), she assisted him in his quest to reach his home after he and his crew spent one year with her on her island.

Journey to the Underworld

Odysseus wanted to speak with Tiresias, so he and his men journeyed to the River Acheron in Hades, where they performed sacrifices which allowed them to speak to the dead, including his mother, Elpenor, Tiresias, and Achilles. Odysseus sacrificed a ram and the dead spirits were attracted to the blood. (During the Trojan War Odysseus met a Trojan boy captured by Achilles, who was later freed to Troy, named Helios. He didn't remember the name until he heard how to get by Helios, the god.)

Tiresias tells Odysseus that after he returns to Ithaca, he must take a well-made oar and walk inland with it to parts where no one mixes sea salt with their food, until someone asks him why he carries a winnowing fan. He also told Odysseus that, after all that was done, that he would die an old man, "full of years and peace of mind", that his death would come from the sea and that his life would ebb away very gently. (Some read this as meaning that his death would come away from the sea.) He later meets Achilles, who tells Odysseus that he would rather be a slave on earth than the king of the dead. Then, Odysseus went to Circe's island again.

The Sirens

Circe warned Odysseus of the dangers of these singing creatures who lured men to their death. Odysseus, moved by curiosity, twisted the words and told the men that Circe had told him that he had to listen to the song. This episode shows Odysseus's curious nature and also that he was prepared to risk the lives of others to satisfy it.

Scylla and Charybdis

Odysseus was told by Circe that he would have a choice of two paths home.

The advice was to sail close to Scylla and lose six men but not to fight, lest he lose more men. Six men died, and Odysseus announced that the desperate cries of the wretched betrayed men were the worst thing he had ever known.

Helios' Cattle

Finally, Odysseus and his surviving crew approached an island, Thrinacia, sacred to Helios, where he kept sacred cattle. Odysseus had been warned by Tiresias and Circe not to touch these cattle. Odysseus told his men that they would not be landing on the island. Eurylochus then threatened mutiny and Odysseus unwisely gave in. Odysseus went inland to pray for help and fell asleep. Zeus destroyed the ship with a thunderbolt and all the men save Odysseus perished. Odysseus was swept past Scylla and Charybdis whom he luckily escaped and was washed up on Calypso's island.

Calypso and the Phaecians

Odysseus was washed ashore on Ogygia, where the nymph Calypso, daughter of Atlas lived. As a result, Odysseus was strongly attracted to her by night yet wept by the shore for his home and family by day. On behalf of Athena, Zeus intervened and sent Hermes to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go. Odysseus left on a small raft furnished with provisions of water, wine and food by Calypso, only to be hit by a storm launched by his old enemy Poseidon and washed up on the island of Scheria and found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, who entertained him well and escorted him to Ithaca. As Odysseus was at Troy and longed to return to his home, he wept at the song. Alcinous, realising this decided to press Odysseus for his true identity.

It is here that we get the actual story of Odysseus' trip from Troy to Scheria taking up books nine to twelve of the epic. After the recital, the Phaecians offer Odysseus passage home, with all of the hoardings he obtained on the way and the gifts the Phaecians themselves had bestowed upon him (showing xenia, the idea of guest friendship). However, Poseidon, upon seeing Odysseus return home, was furious and intended to cast a ring of mountains around Scheria so they could never sail again. Instead, he turned the ship which carried Odysseus home to stone.

Odysseus reaches Ithaca

In Ithaca, Penelope was fending off countless suitors while Odysseus' mother, Anticlea, had died of grief. Odysseus, upon landing, was disguised as an old man or a beggar by Athena, and took the name Eperitus. Odysseus was welcomed by his old swineherd, Eumaeus, who did not recognize him in disguise, but still treated him well. Aged and decrepit, he did his best to wag his tail, but Odysseus did not want to be found out, and had to feign ignorance, leading the dog to die.

Odysseus learned that Penelope was faithful to him, pretending to knit or weave a burial shroud for Odysseus' father Laertes and claiming she would choose one suitor when she finished.

Still in his disguise, Odysseus went to Penelope and told her that he had met Odysseus, and he said that whoever could string Odysseus' bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe-handles would be able to marry Penelope. Penelope then announced what Odysseus had said. Odysseus then took the bow, strung it, and completed the task.

Penelope, still not quite sure that the stranger was indeed her husband, tested him. Odysseus was astonished because the bed was built into the trunk of an olive tree, the main support for their house, and thus cannot be moved; he told her this, and since only Odysseus and Penelope knew this, Penelope accepted that he was her husband.

One of the suitors' (Antinous) fathers, Eupeithes, tried to overthrow Odysseus after the death of Antinous. Laertes killed him, and Athena thereafter required the suitors' families and Odysseus to make peace;

Odysseus had been told (by the shade of Tiresias) that he had one more journey to make after he had re-established his rule in Ithaca, and also that his death would come from the sea and would be peaceful and pleasant.