ODYSSEUS
Name: Odysseus or Ulysses
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the
hero of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's
Iliad. King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of
Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his guile and resourcefulness (known
by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning) (see mētis, or "cunning intelligence"), and
is most famous for the ten eventful years it took him to return home after the
Trojan War.
Relatively little is known of Odysseus' background except that his paternal
grandfather (or step-grandfather) is Arcesius, son of Cephalus and grandson of
Aeolus, whilst his maternal grandfather is the thief Autolycus, son of Hermes
and Chione. According to the Odyssey, his father is Laertes, one of the
Argonauts and his mother is Anticleia, although there was a tradition that
Sisyphus was his true father. Ithaca, an island along the Ionian northwestern
coastline of Greece, is one of several islands that would have comprised the
realm of Odysseus' family, but the true extent of the Cephallenian realm and the
actual identities of the islands named in Homer's works are unknown.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey portrayed Odysseus as a hero. However, the Romans, who
believed themselves to be scions of Prince Aeneas of Troy, considered him a
villainous falsifier. In Virgil's Aeneid he is constantly referred to as "cruel
Odysseus" (Latin "dirus Ulixes") or "deceitful Odysseus" ("pellacis", "fandi
fictor"). Turnus, in Aeneid ix, reproaches the Trojan Ascanius with images of
rugged, forthright Latin virtues, declaring, in John Dryden's words, "You shall
not find the sons of Atreus here, Nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear."
While the Greeks admired his sly, multi-faceted, "many-turning" personality,
these qualities did not recommend themselves to the Latin. In Euripides' tragedy
Iphigenia at Aulis, Odysseus, having convinced Agamemnon to consent to the
sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the goddess Artemis, he then
facilitates the sacrifice by telling her mother, Clytemnestra, that the girl is
to be wed to Achilles. His attempt to avoid his sacred oath to defend Menelaus
and Helen offended Roman notions of duty; the many stratagems and tricks he
employed to get his way offended Roman notions of honor.
Name: Odysseus or Ulysses
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the
hero of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's
Iliad. King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of
Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his guile and resourcefulness (known
by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning) (see mētis, or "cunning intelligence"), and
is most famous for the ten eventful years it took him to return home after the
Trojan War.
Relatively little is known of Odysseus' background except that his paternal
grandfather (or step-grandfather) is Arcesius, son of Cephalus and grandson of
Aeolus, whilst his maternal grandfather is the thief Autolycus, son of Hermes
and Chione. According to the Odyssey, his father is Laertes, one of the
Argonauts and his mother is Anticleia, although there was a tradition that
Sisyphus was his true father. Ithaca, an island along the Ionian northwestern
coastline of Greece, is one of several islands that would have comprised the
realm of Odysseus' family, but the true extent of the Cephallenian realm and the
actual identities of the islands named in Homer's works are unknown.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey portrayed Odysseus as a hero. However, the Romans, who
believed themselves to be scions of Prince Aeneas of Troy, considered him a
villainous falsifier. In Virgil's Aeneid he is constantly referred to as "cruel
Odysseus" (Latin "dirus Ulixes") or "deceitful Odysseus" ("pellacis", "fandi
fictor"). Turnus, in Aeneid ix, reproaches the Trojan Ascanius with images of
rugged, forthright Latin virtues, declaring, in John Dryden's words, "You shall
not find the sons of Atreus here, Nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear."
While the Greeks admired his sly, multi-faceted, "many-turning" personality,
these qualities did not recommend themselves to the Latin. In Euripides' tragedy
Iphigenia at Aulis, Odysseus, having convinced Agamemnon to consent to the
sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the goddess Artemis, he then
facilitates the sacrifice by telling her mother, Clytemnestra, that the girl is
to be wed to Achilles. His attempt to avoid his sacred oath to defend Menelaus
and Helen offended Roman notions of duty; the many stratagems and tricks he
employed to get his way offended Roman notions of honor.