The Odysseus

One of the great pan-Hellenic heroes of Greek mythology, Odysseus (Roman name: Ulysses) was renowned for his valour, wisdom, and leadership. His cunning and oratory prowess contributed to the Greeks' triumph in the Trojan War, and during his protracted journey back to Ithaka after the war, he played the lead in numerous fantastical adventures (or Ithaca).

In Greek mythology, Odysseus, the King of Ithaca and head of the Kephallenians, was the son of Laertes and Antikleia (or Anticlea). He was married to Penelope and had a son named Telemachos (or Telemachus). The hero also had the good fortune to routinely benefit from the goddess Athena's unique assistance and protection. Odysseus is described as "patient-minded" by Hesiod, and Homer frequently compares him to "God," as well as "Zeus' equal in his mind's resource" and a genuinely excellent speaker whose words "flocked down like snowflakes in winter."The Homeric epithet "sacker of cities" refers to the hero's bravery and battle skills, showing that he was more than just a thinker. Also, according to Homer, the name Odysseus means "victim of enmity," undoubtedly alluding to Poseidon's animosity towards the protagonist.

The Iliad, in which our hero plays a major role, contains Homer's narrative of the Trojan War, which is the earliest comprehensive source of information on Odysseus. Odysseus took part in a number of significant incidents, and his insight, sage advice, and wit were instrumental in the Greeks' eventual victory in the war.

The King of Ithaca was reluctant to leave his wife and family, so he pretended to be insane when he was summoned by Palamedes (a Menelaos ambassador), and as a result, Odysseus came dangerously close to avoiding the fight altogether. He achieved this by salting the furrows of a field he had ploughed with an ox and an ass yoked together. Palamedes was not going to be duped, so by positioning Telemachos in the plough's route, Odysseus was forced to turn and prove he wasn't quite so crazy after all.

Achilles was hesitant to accompany the Greek expedition to Troy, but Odysseus managed to convince him otherwise. Achilles was raised by the royal family of Lykomedes on the island of Skyros after being hidden away by his mother Thetis (who knew what would happen to him if he joined the War). The wise Pylian king Nestor, however, foresaw that the Greeks would only have a chance of taking Troy with the aid of the legendary hero Achilles.

As a result, the cunning Odysseus was dispatched to convince the best fighter in Greece to abandon his wife and son in order to fight alongside King Agamemnon's soldiers. The King of Ithaca, who was masquerading as a wealthy salesman, enticed Achilles to give up his persona as one of Skyros' daughters and expose his true identity by displaying a variety of magnificent weapons in which the great warrior was unable to conceal his curiosity. The Myrmidons of Thessaly, Achilles' powerful personal army, also travelled with him.

Iphigeneia, the daughter of Agamemnon, was persuaded to join the Greek forces at Aulis by the selection of Odysseus once more as an emissary. Agamemnon accidentally killed an Artemis-sacred deer while hunting, and the seer Kalchas predicted that only the sacrifice of the king's daughter could placate the goddess and ensure the Greeks' safe passage to Troy. Then, on his way to Mycenae, Odysseus made a promise to Iphigeneia's mother Klytaimestra that the young woman could wed Achilles. The idea of having such a distinguished son-in-law made the queen happy, and she gladly accepted. However, when they got to Aulis, the sacrifice had already been planned, and the poor child was placed right up on an altar. Thankfully, Artemis spared the girl, changed her into a deer, and whisked Iphigeneia away to become a priestess at Tauris in one of the goddess' temples just as Agamemnon let fall his sword.

After receiving favourable winds, the Greeks arrived at Troy. Up until the end of the battle, Odysseus did not do much, save from a brief episode in which he and Diomedes attacked the young Dolon in a woodland. There was some contention about who should receive Achilles' splendid armour after the hero's death. Both Odysseus and Telamonian Ajax put forward arguments, but the issue was ultimately determined by voting, with Athena interfering to ensure that Odysseus received the weapons and armour created by Hephaistos.

The conflict continued despite the death of their talismanic warrior, but at this point the Greeks started to think more strategically about how to breach Troy's fortifications. The Greeks could only win, according to the seer Kalchas, if they managed to guarantee three things. They included the need to utilise the legendary weapons of Hercules, which were then in the hands of Philoktetes (or Philoctetes), the involvement of Achilles' son Neoptolemos in the conflict, and lastly the need for the Greeks to take control of the Palladion. The latter was a revered wooden statue of Athena that was discovered by Troas, the founder of Troy, and was said to have fallen from heaven. The Trojans believed that this statue offered them strength and protection, and that the Greeks could greatly benefit from its theft by using it against them in battle.

The only person who could complete all three of these challenging tasks was Odysseus. He first returned to Syros and convinced Neoptolemos to accompany him. Then he travelled to Lemnos to retrieve Philoktetes and the Herculean weapons. It turned out to be worth all of Odysseus's persuasion efforts, even though the latter was more than a little miffed at having been abandoned on the island in the first place, as Philoktetes managed to kill Paris with his lethal arrows almost as soon as he entered the combat at Troy.

The removal of the holy Palladion from the city's centre was the final duty that remained. Odysseus disguised himself as a beggar and sneaked into the city to locate the statue's exact location. However Helen, who was now forcibly remarried to another of Priam's sons and eager to leave and go back to Greece, did recognise the infiltrator. She was the one who directed Odysseus to the Palladion's location. With this information in hand, Odysseus returned to the Greek camp and asked Diomedes for assistance. The following night, the two once again broke into the city and took the statue.

Despite the Palladion's theft, the war continued, and it soon became apparent that the Greeks needed a more ambitious plan if they were to ever prevail. Odysseus' clever concept for the wooden horse was inspired by Athena in a divine way. He had a large horse built by carpenters that could conceal many Greek soldiers. How to get the Trojans to ride the horse inside the city gates was the trick. First, Odysseus ordered the Greeks to disperse from their camp and sail away from the scene, mooring off the island of Tenedos. One man, Sinon, was left behind and only the horse remained standing by itself on the plain. He claimed to be a target of the Greeks' hunt for an enemy and probable sacrifice. After gaining their trust, he told the credulous Trojans a wild tale about Athena punishing the Greeks for stealing her statue and advising them the only way to win back her favour was to construct a huge wooden horse in her honour and return home. The Trojans dutifully brought the horse into the city to stand outside the temple of Athena after falling head over heels for the tale. The Trojans then began dancing the night away in jubilation of finally winning the war, with the exception of Laokoon and Aeneas.

When the celebration was over and the Trojans were passed out from intoxication, Sinon fired a signal to the Greek ships that were waiting, and they immediately sailed back to the shores of Troy. When the city gates were opened by Odysseus and his fellow Greek troops, the Greek army routed the Trojans, desecrated temples, and ruthlessly massacred everyone in their path.

The gods punished the Greeks for their impolite behaviour at Troy by ensuring that many of their ships met with misfortune on the way back to their homeland. Odysseus was one of the few survivors, but only after an extraordinarily drawn-out journey filled with detours and mishaps, which is described in Homer's Odyssey.

The hero's trip home took ten years and he made numerous port stops, though not all of them were kindly. The god Apollo handed the hero twelve wine flasks on the first visit on the island of Kikones, among other things. Odysseus and his armada then ended up on the coasts of the Lotus Eaters after being battered by a storm. The hero swiftly continued on with his journey after rejecting their offer of hospitality because eating the plant makes one forget one's home country.

The island of the Cyclopes, the one-eyed giants who lived peacefully tending their sheep, was the next destination. Yet, as fate would have it, Odysseus ran upon the man-eating Cyclops Polyphemos, a son of the sea deity Poseidon. The travelling Greeks caught the giant's attention, and he imprisoned them in his cave before quickly devouring two of them as an appetiser. As Odysseus realised how serious the situation was, he promptly devised a crafty escape strategy. The hero had his men transform Polyphemos' olive-wood staff into a spike, which they then used to blind the Cyclops while he slept after tempting Polyphemos with wine until the Cyclops was inebriated. Polyphemos attempted to capture the wandering Greeks by touching his sheep as they left the cave for their grazing despite being unable to see them and understandably furious at his treatment. After selecting a ram for the purpose, Odysseus told his men to fasten themselves to the sheep's stomachs, and they were able to escape and continue their journey. But the Cyclops cursed Odysseus, telling him that he would lose his troops, have a difficult time getting home, and face catastrophe when he did. Polyphemos made sure that there would be many storms and 10 long years before Odysseus arrived in Ithaca by enlisting the assistance of his father Poseidon.

There were more adventures. One of them included a stop in Aiolos (or Aeolus), the home of the winds, where the god of the winds gave Odysseus a flask containing all the winds but the one that would take him home. Unfortunately, some of Odysseus' crew members let curiosity get the better of them and opened the bottle when they were within sight of Ithaca. Odysseus' storm-tossed ships were swept all the way back to Aiolia as a result of the opposing winds breaking free.

Resuming the journey, the unpleasant stopovers continued in Laistrygonia, where the enormous residents, led by Antiphates, attacked and massacred many members of the group by throwing enormous rocks at them.

The few survivors eventually made it to the island of Aiaia (or Aeaea), which belonged to the witch Circe (or Kirke), where they encountered greater difficulties. A group of the travellers were transformed into pigs by the goddess, and Odysseus was only able to reverse the situation with a gift from Hermes. The plant moly, which the messenger god provided to the protagonist, rendered him immune to Circe's spells. Nonetheless, the two grew close and fell in love, which led Odysseus to decide to stay for an extra year. Odysseus eventually made up his mind to proceed home, and Circe urged him to do so by visiting the Hades and asking the Theban seer Teiresias for guidance. Teiresias would be able to provide him with travel instructions.

The hero encountered his mother Antikleia on the way there; she had passed away from grief for her son's continued absence. Among the fallen heroes he encountered were Hercules, Achilles, and Agamemnon. Circe sent Odysseus back to the land of the living with one more piece of advise. This was a warning to be wary of the Sirens, mythical birds with the heads of women that preyed on unsuspecting bystanders with their seductive singing. In order to hear the divine song without being seduced by it, the hero directed his crew to cover their ears with wax as the ship passed the Siren's island while he himself was fastened to the mast.

After escaping the Sirens, the hero and his small crew had to navigate the treacherous seas between the two rocks home to the monsters Skylla and Charybdis (who had twelve feet and six heads and devoured seamen for sport) (who swallowed the seas three times and spat them out three times to create fearsome whirlpools). Although the ship survived to continue its journey home, six additional crew members perished at this location.

The Greeks ran out of food, and the terrible weather made what was supposed to be a quick stop at Thrinikia (or Thrinacie) into a month-long stay. Several of the famished crew, under the leadership of Eurylochus, slaughtered some of the animals in order to feed themselves, despite Teiresias' prior warning not to touch the herds of Helios. Odysseus was the only survivor of the tragedy, and he washed ashore on the shores of Ogygia after nine days at sea. Outraged, Helios ordered the ship to capsize after it left Thrinikia.

The hero was held captive here for five years by the nymph Calypso, who he also enjoyed, and they had a son together named Nausithous. To his credit, Odysseus chose to try once more to return to his native country despite the temptation of immortality and endless youth. Calypso assisted the hero in creating a raft that he used to return to Ithaca after experiencing divine inspiration. Nevertheless, Poseidon once more meddled spitefully, unleashing a terrifying storm that destroyed the raft. Afterwards, Odysseus washed ashore on the Phaeacian island of Scheria, beaten and nude, and was immediately taken into the compassionate custody of Nausikaa, the daughter of King Alkinoos (or Alcinous). The hero was given one of the magical Phaiacian ships, which required no captain to steer, after being restored to full health and vigour. Odysseus finally returned to Ithaca with this ship. Yet, as Polyphemos had stated, there were problems in the royal palace.

Odysseus had been absent for ten years; the only person who still had any faith in the long-missed monarch was his wife Penelope. The hero received an update from Athena on everything that happened while he was away. Several men pursued Penelope, who were said to be long dead, and all 108 of the would-be monarchs lived inside the palace itself. Yet, Penelope continually put off making a decision about getting married again in the vain hope that her husband was still alive.

The suitors therefore intended to murder her son Telemachos as soon as possible in order to heighten the tension. Odysseus decided to visit the palace in person to examine the situation on the counsel of Athena, using his renowned cunning. Due to a characteristic scar on his leg, only Odysseus' old maid Eurykleia and his devoted old dog Argos were able to identify the hero. Tragically, Argos passed away as soon as he was reunited with his old master. After coming clean to his son Telemachos (who had just returned from Pylos), Odysseus devised a plan to clear the palace of all the hangers-on and recover his proper power. The hero was mistreated by the palace suitors while still wearing his beggar disguise and was the target of many harsh jokes, but soon enough, retaliation would be exacted.

Penelope issued a challenge to the potential husbands, promising to wed the man who could string the enormous bow once owned by the previous king and shoot an arrow through twelve axeheads. Of course, none of the unfortunate suitors had the strength to even string the bow, much less use it to fire a shot. Then, to a chorus of sceptical jeers, the beggar rose and miraculously strung the bow with ease and shot an arrow dead-straight through the axeheads. Odysseus threw off his disguise, revealing his actual identity and terrifying the potential suitors. Yet the invaders were unable to flee because Telemachos had, as anticipated, locked every door and taken down the wall-mounted weapons. Then, with his terrible bow, Odysseus calmly dispatched the suitors one by one to restore his long-lost realm.

The royal couple, together again after ten long years of separation, lived happily ever after, or not quite. And in a tragic twist of events, Telegonos, the son of Circe and Odysseus, killed an aged Odysseus when he arrived on Ithaca and unintentionally killed his own father during the war.