Odysseus
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- This article is about the mythological character. See also Odysseus crater, Ulysses (robot), Ulysses (poem), Ulysses (novel)
Odyssèus Laërtiádēs (Greek: Template:Polytonic', 'son of Laertes'), or simply Odysseus, is a character in Greek mythology, other variants: Olysseus (Template:Polytonic), Oulixeus (Template:Polytonic), Oulixes (Template:Polytonic) known as Ulysses or Ulixes in Roman mythology. His name means "son of pain" according to Homer, or more likely, from Greek οδηγός: odēgós, "a guide; the one showing the way"; it may also mean "pain" in the sense "the one inflicting and suffering pain" - ironically nearly always he suffers pain in return if he inflicts pain on some one and vice versa - mental and/or physical.
Known for his guile and resourcefulness, he is the hero of Homer's Odyssey, and a major character in the Iliad. He is most famous for the ten years it took him to return home from the Trojan War. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus. He was the son of Laertes and Anticlea, although some sources, prominent among them Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides, state that Sisyphus was his father.
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Before the Trojan War
Odysseus was one of the original suitors of 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 to marry Penelope, daughter of Icarius. Odysseus proposed that Tyndareus require all the suitors to swear an oath to defend whomever Helen chose as husband. The suitors including Odysseus swore, and Helen chose Menelaus, the most powerful of all the suitors.
When Helen was abducted by Paris of Troy (which later led to the Trojan War), all the suitors were called upon to honor their oaths and help Menelaus to retrieve Helen. Odysseus did not want to go to war, rather he wanted to live a peaceful life with his wife and son. He pretended to be insane, ploughing his fields and sowing salt instead of seeds. Agamemnon, Menelaus' brother, however, sent Palamedes to retrieve Odysseus. Palamedes was very intelligent and placed Telemachus, Odysseus' infant son, in front of the plough. Odysseus could not kill his son and revealed his sanity, then left for the Trojan War.
Odysseus discovered Achilles on the isle of Skyros, disguised as a girl by his mother, the goddess Thetis, as an oracle had predicted that he would either live a long but boring life or a short but one full of excitement. Odysseus dressed as a peddlar and came to the town, and when all the girls had taken pieces of jewelry, Achilles was the only one which picked up a sword. Thus was Odysseus able to identify Achilles, and convinced him to come out of hiding and fight.
On the way to Troy, Philoctetes was bitten by a snake on Chryse. Odysseus advised that he be left behind because the wound was festering and smelled bad. Ten years later, Helenus, under torture, revealed that Philoctetes' arrows (which he received from Heracles) would be necessary to win the war. Odysseus and Neoptolemus went to Lemnos to retrieve Philoctetes.
During the Trojan War
Image:Trojan Horse fragment.jpg
Odysseus was one of the main Achaean characters in the Trojan War. The others were "godlike" Achilles, Agamemnon "lord of men", Menelaus, Nestor, Ajax the Great and Ajax the Lesser, Diomedes and Teucer the master archer.
When the Achaean ships reached the shores of Troy, none 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. He was followed by Protesilaus who jumped on Trojan soil and he was the first to die.
Early in the Iliad, there is a scene where Dardan Priam is asking Helen of the identity of various Achaean heroes. Odysseus is among them, and Helen answers that he is from Ithaca and very crafty and cunning.
At one point during the Trojan War, the Trojans - led by Hector and fighting with high morale due to the absence of Achilles - had closed in on the Achaeans. That night, Agamemnon gives a speech where he sets forth the not inconsiderable gifts he would give to Achilles if the latter returned to the fray. However, he makes an addendum that Achilles must submit to his authority. Odysseus was sent with Telamonian Ajax and Phoenix to pass Agamemnon's message to Achilles. They do not succeed.
There is a scene where Hector and the Trojans are chasing the Achaeans back to the latter's encampment by the hollow ships, and Odysseus decides to run instead of stay and get slaughtered. Diomedes sees this, and utters the line: "Where are you going in such a hurry, son of Laertes, O cool tactician..." - but his sarcasm is wasted.
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. Eventually, Achilles reluctantly consents.
During the Funeral Games for Patroclus, Odysseus is involved in a wrestling match against Telamonian Ajax, as well as a foot race. With the help of Athena, who favors him, and despite Apollo helping another of the competitors, he wins the race. He also draws the wrestling match.
Odysseus was one of the most influential Greek champions during the Trojan War. It was Odysseus who restored order to the Greek camp when Agamemnon unwittingly announced the departure of the Greeks earlier on in the Iliad, to test the morale of the Greek soldiers. Odysseus also volunteered himself to battle Hector in the duel the Trojan hero proposed. Odysseus aided Diomedes during the famous 'Night Operations', when the two heroes slaughtered many of the Trojans while they were sleeping. Among the killed was Dolon and King Rhesus. Odysseus as a warrior was behind only Achilles, Hector, Telamonian Ajax (also spelt as 'Aias') and Diomedes. He was injured during the part of the Trojan War described by Homer. After Achilles' death, Odysseus competed with his great rival, Telamonian Ajax for Achilles' armour. Though Ajax was the greater warrior, Odysseus won the armour because of his orating abilities and eloquence. Consequently Ajax, for the first time defeated, killed himself by the sword Hector had given him. The Trojan Horse, the famous stratagem, was devised by Odysseus. It was built by Epeius and filled with Greek warriors led by Odysseus. When the horse was brought inside Troy, Odysseus and Menelaus descended from it and travelled straight toward Prince Deiphobos' house, where they engaged in their most ferocious battle yet. Ultimately Deiphobos was killed and Menelaus won Helen back. However other Greeks committed great evils in Troy, such as the execution of King Priam and Hector's son, Astyanax. The most significant crime however, was the rape of Cassandra, carried out by Ajax, son of Oileus. This angered Athena, as Cassandra was a priestess of the goddess. It was Odysseus who advised the Greeks to stone Ajax to death for his crime. However the Greeks declined the life- saving advice. Athene was intensely infuriated, and as a result she sent a storm that destroyed most of the Greek fleet.
Journey home to Ithaca
- Main article: Odyssey.
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. The crew had landed in Ismara. The city was not at all protected and all of the inhabitants fled without a fight into the nearby mountains. 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 and fell asleep on the beach. The next morning, the Ciconians (also known as the Cicones) returned with their fierce kinsmen from the mountains. Odysseus and his men fled to the ships as fast as they could but they lost many men.
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. This caused them to fall asleep and stop caring about ever going home. Odysseus went after the scouting party and dragged them back against their will to the ship and set sail.
Polyphemus
A scouting party led by Odysseus (and his friend, Misenus), lands in the territory of the Cyclopes and ventures upon a large cave. They enter the cave and proceed to feast on food they find there. Unknown to them, the cave is the dwelling of Polyphemus, a one-eyed giant who soon returns. Polyphemus refuses hospitality to his uninvited guests and traps them in the cave by blocking the entrance with a boulder that could not be moved by mortal men. He then proceeds to eat a pair of the men, 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 "Nobody" (Outis). In appreciation for the wine, Polyphemus offers to return the favor--telling he will eat him last. Once the giant falls asleep, Odysseus and his men take a giant spear, which they had previously prepared while Polyphemus was out of the cave shepherding his flocks, and destroy Polyphemus' one eye, rather than kill him and trap themselves in the cave forever. Hearing Polyphemus' cries, other cyclopes come to his cave and ask what is wrong, what man has put out his eye? But Odysseus' plot succeeded--Polyphemus replied that Nobody has put out his eye by cunning instead of by direct attack. The cyclopes leave Polyphemus, thinking that his outbursts must be madness or the gods' doing.
In the morning, Odysseus tied his men and himself to the undersides of Polyphemus' sheep. When the Cyclops rolled back the boulder to let the sheep out to graze, the men were carried out. Now blind, Polyphemus could not see the men, but felt the tops of his sheep to make sure the men were not riding them. Once Odysseus and his men were out, they loaded the sheep on board their ship and set sail.
As Odysseus and his men were sailing away, he called out in pride and anger to Polyphemus, "If anybody ever asks you who put out your ugly eye, you tell him it was Odysseus, the conqueror of Troy, whose father is Laertes, and whose home is in Ithaca!" Odysseus did not realize that Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, and that by telling him his name he was inviting severe repercussions. His crew tried to stop him, but he didn't listen, and they are nearly done in by boulders haphazardly tossed at the ship by the blinded Cyclops. When the ship appears to be getting away at last, Polyphemus prays to his father to bring grief to Odysseus on his trip home to Ithaca.
This event is the setting for the only surviving complete satyr play, Cyclops by Euripides. This version contains a more humorous version of the story by including the cowardly satyrs.
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 favored 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. Aeolus also provided for a west wind to carry them home. Unfortunately he also provided a gift of a bag containing each of the four winds, which Odysseus' crew members, suspecting that treasure was in the bag, because of 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 and 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. Now, Odysseus has to start his journey from Aiolia to Ithaca over again; he is heartbroken, but he tries to hide his feelings from his crew.
The Laestrygonians
They came to Telepylos, the stronghold of Lamos, king of the Laestrygonians. The Laestyygonians were cannibals, eating the poor seafarers who came to their island. These people attacked the fleet with boulders, sinking all but one of the ships and killing hundreds of Odysseus' men.
Circe
Image:Circe - Edward Burne-Jones - Project Gutenberg eText 13725.jpg
The next stop was the island of Circe (Aeaea), where Odysseus sent a scouting party ahead of the rest of the group. She invited the scouting party to a feast, the food laced with one of her magical potions, and she then changed all the men into pigs with a wand after they gorged themselves on it. 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. When her magic failed he was able to force her to return his men to human form by making her swear the Oath of the Immortals. She later fell in love with Odysseus and assisted him in his quest to reach his home after he and his crew spent one year with her on her island. According to some sources, Circe and Odysseus had three children: Telegonus, Argius and Latinus.
On Circe's island, Elpenor, the youngest of Odysseus' crew, got drunk and fell off Circe's roof. The fall killed him (x.607ff). Some versions of the story differ in that Elpenor died not by a fall from Circe's roof but after leaving Circe's island. He went up the mast to scout ahead, meanwhile Odysseus stumbled on the ship's deck, knocking against the mast causing Elpenor to fall to his death in the sea. The crew regarded this as very suspicious since, when Elpenor fell a white bird flew up and guided them to the world of the dead. They believed that Odysseus killed Elpenor so that his soul would guide them.
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. They all gave him valuable advice on how to pass the rest of his journey. Odysseus sacrificed a ram and the dead spirits were attracted to the blood. He held them at bay and demanded to speak with Tiresias, who told him how to pass by Helios' cattle.
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 shovel. At that place, he was to fix the oar in the ground and make a sacrifice to appease Poseidon. 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.) Then, he went to Circe's island again
Helios' Cattle
Finally, Odysseus and his surviving crew landed on an island, Thrinacia, sacred to Helios, where he kept sacred cattle. Though Odysseus warned his men not to (as Tiresias had told him), they killed and ate some of the cattle. The guardians of the island, Helios' daughters, Lampetia and Phaethusa, told their father. Helios destroyed the ship, and all the men save Odysseus. Sometimes, Apollo is cited in place of Helios in this part of the legend.
Image:Odysseus And Nausicaä - Project Gutenberg eText 13725.jpg
Calypso
Odysseus was washed ashore on Ogygia, where the nymph Calypso lived. She made him her lover for seven years and would not let him leave, promising him immortality if he stayed. 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 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. On the twentieth day of sailing he arrived at his home in Ithaca.
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' faithful dog Argos was the first to recognize him in his rags. He had waited twenty years to see his master. 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 was then welcomed by his old swineherd, Eumaeus, who did not recognize him in disguise, but still treated him well. The first person to recognize him was his old wet nurse, Euryclea.
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. Every night she undid part of the shroud, until one day, a maid of hers betrayed this secret to the suitors, and they demanded that she finally choose one of them to be her new husband. This occurred just before Odysseus' return, who was then able to watch the suitors drink and take advantage of his family's hospitality. Still in his disguise, Odysseus went to Penelope and told her that he had met Odysseus, and he said that whomever could string Odysseus' bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe-handles would be able to marry Penelope. This was to Odysseus' advantage, as only he could string his own bow (it is believed that Odysseus' bow was a composite bow, requiring great skill and leverage to string, rather than brute strength). Penelope then announced what Odysseus had said. The suitors each tried to string the bow, but in vain. Odysseus then took the bow, strung it, and completed the task. Athena then took off his disguise and, with the help of his son Telemachus, Athena, and Eumaeus, the swineherd, killed all of them except Medôn, who had been polite to Penelope, and Phemius, a local singer who had only been forced to help the suitors against Penelope. Penelope, still not quite sure that the stranger was indeed her husband, tested him. She ordered her maid to make up Odysseus' bed, and move it from their bedchamber. Odysseus was astonished because the bed was built into the trunk of an olive tree and thus cannot be moved; he tells her this, and since only Odysseus and Penelope knew this, Penelope accepted that he was her husband. She came running to him hoping that he would forgive her. He forgives her because he could understand why she did what she did.
One of the suitors' (Antinous) fathers, Eupeithes, tried to overthrow Odysseus after the death of his son. Laertes killed him, and Athena thereafter required the suitors' families and Odysseus to make peace; this ends the story of the Odyssey.
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. The time frame of these events is left vague, however, perhaps because Homer intended to compose the continuation of the story and wanted room for improvisation.
According to a rarely heard (or derivative) version of this story, Odysseus was sent into exile by Neoptolemus for killing the suitors. It is during his wanderings that Odysseus entered Thesprotia in Epirus, and encountered its ruler Callidice, queen of the Thesprotians. Callidice urged Odysseus to remain as king and her husband. The pair had a son named Polypoetes. Eventually, after serving out his exile, Odysseus returned to Ithaca and designated Polypoetes to be his heir.
Other stories
Odysseus is one of the most recurrent characters in Western literature. He has been used by innumerable writers, who often interpret his character and actions in very different ways.
Classical
According to some late sources, most of them purely genealogical, Odysseus had many other children besides Telemachus, the most famous being:
- with Penelope: Poliporthes (born after Odysseus' return from Troy)
- with Circe: Telegonus, Ardeas
- with Calypso: Nausinous, Nausithous
- with Callidice: Polypoetes
Most such genealogies aimed to link Odysseus with the foundation of many Italic cities in remote antiquity.
He figures in the end of the story of King Telephus of Mysia. There may have been a sequel to the Odyssey, named Telegonia, after Telegonus, his son with Circe.
In fifth-century BC Athens, tales of the Trojan War were popular subjects for tragedies, and Odysseus figures centrally or indirectly in a number of the extant plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, (Ajax, Philoctetes) and Euripides, (Hecuba, Rhesus) and figured in still more that have not survived.
As Ulysses, he is mentioned regularly in Virgil's Aeneid, and the poem's hero, Aeneas, rescues one of Ulysses' crew members who was left behind on the island of the Cyclops. He in turn offers a first-person account of some of the same events Homer relates, in which Ulysses appears directly. Virgil's Ulysses typifies his view of the Greeks: he is cunning but impious, and ultimately malicious and hedonistic.
Ovid retells parts of Ulysses' journeys, focusing on his romantic involvements with Circe and Calypso, and recasts him as, in Harold Bloom's phrase, "one of the great wandering womanizers." Ovid also gives a detailed account of the contest between Ulysses and Ajax the Great for the armor of Achilles.
Middle Ages and Rennaisance
Dante, in Canto Twenty-Six of the Inferno of his Divine Comedy, encounters Odysseus 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 final voyage and death from the one foreshadowed by Homer. He tells how he set out with his men for one final journey of exploration to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules and into the western sea to find what adventures awaited them. After travelling east and south for five months, they saw in the distance a great mountain rising from the sea (this is Purgatory, in Dante's cosmology), before a storm sank 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, set during the Trojan War.
Modern
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses 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".
James Joyce's novel Ulysses uses modern literary devices to narrate a single day in the life of a Dublin businessman named Leopold Bloom; which turns out to bear many elaborate parallels to Odysseus' twenty years of wandering.
Nikos Kazantzakis' The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, 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 various historical and literary figures such as Vladimir Lenin, Jesus, and Don Quixote.
Ulysses 31 is a Japanese-French anime series (1981) which updates the Greek and Roman mythologies of Ulysses (or Odysseus) to the thirty-first century. In the series, the gods are angered when Ulysses, commander of the giant spaceship Odyssey, kills the giant Cyclops to rescue a group of enslaved children including his son. Zeus sentences Ulysses to travel the universe with his crew frozen until he finds the Kingdom of Hades, at which point his crew will be revived and he will be able to return to Earth. In one episode, he travels back in time and meets the Ulysses of the Greek myth.
The Coen Brothers' film O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) is loosely based on the Odyssey. However, they also admit to never having read the epic. George Clooney plays Ulysses Everett McGill, leading a group of escapees from a chain gang through an adventure in search of the proceeds of an armoured truck heist. On their voyage, the gang encounter amongst other characters, a trio of sirens and a one eyed bible salesman.
In S.M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time Trilogy, Odikweos (Mycenean spelling) is a 'historical' figure who is every bit as cunning as his legendary self and is one of the few Bronze Age inhabitants who discerns the time-traveller's real background. Odikweos first aids William Walker's rise to power in Achaea, and later helps bring Walker down after seeing his homeland turn into a police state.
Odysseus appears as a playable character in the video game Age of Mythology (2002). In addition, one of the levels in the game involves the player's rescue of Odysseus and his men from Circe.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood retells the story from the point of view of Penelope.
Other cultures
- Nala and Rama. A similar story exists in Indian mythology with Nala and Damayanti where Nala separates from Damayanti and reunites with her. The story of stringing a bow is similar to the description in Ramayana of Rama stringing the bow to win Sita's hand in marriage.
References
Classical references
- Homer. Iliad
- Homer. Odyssey
- Sophocles. Philoctetes
- Sophocles. Ajax
- Euripides. Cyclops
- Euripides. Hecuba
- Anonymous. Rhesus
- Apollodorus. Bibliotheke III, 8
- Apollodorus. Epitome III, 7; V, 6-22; VII, 1-40
- Ovid. Metamorphoses XIII, 1-398
- Dante. The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto XXVI
References
- Vasil S. Tole, Odyssey and Sirens:A Temptation towards the Mystery of the Iso-polyphonic Regions of Epirus, A Homeric theme with variations, Tirana, Albania, 2005, ISBN 99943-31-63-9
See also
External links
- Archaelogical Discovery in Greece may be the tomb of Odysseus [1]
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