37 Facts About Odysseus

1.

Odysseus plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.

2.

Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades, "son of Laertes".

3.

Hence, Odysseus was the great-grandson of the Olympian god Hermes.

4.

Odysseus is said to have a younger sister, Ctimene, who went to Same to be married and is mentioned by the swineherd Eumaeus, whom she grew up alongside, in book 15 of the Odyssey.

5.

Odysseus tries to avoid it by feigning lunacy, as an oracle had prophesied a long-delayed return home for him if he went.

6.

Odysseus veers the plow away from his son, thus exposing his stratagem.

7.

Odysseus holds a grudge against Palamedes during the war for dragging him away from his home.

8.

Odysseus cleverly discovers which among the women before him is Achilles when the youth is the only one of them to show interest in examining the weapons hidden among an array of adornment gifts for the daughters of their host.

9.

Odysseus arranges further for the sounding of a battle horn, which prompts Achilles to clutch a weapon and show his trained disposition.

10.

Later on, after many of the heroes leave the battlefield due to injuries, Odysseus persuades Agamemnon not to withdraw.

11.

When Hector proposes a single combat duel, Odysseus is one of the Danaans who reluctantly volunteered to battle him.

12.

Odysseus has traditionally been viewed as Achilles' antithesis in the Iliad: while Achilles' anger is all-consuming and of a self-destructive nature, Odysseus is frequently viewed as a man of the mean, a voice of reason, renowned for his self-restraint and diplomatic skills.

13.

Odysseus is in some respects antithetical to Telamonian Ajax : while the latter has only brawn to recommend him, Odysseus is not only ingenious, but an eloquent speaker, a skill perhaps best demonstrated in the embassy to Achilles in book 9 of the Iliad.

14.

Odysseus then kills the prisoner and hides the gold in Palamedes' tent.

15.

Some late Roman sources indicate that Odysseus schemed to kill his partner on the way back, but Diomedes thwarts this attempt.

16.

Odysseus is probably best known as the eponymous hero of the Odyssey.

17.

Odysseus takes a barrel of wine and the Cyclops drinks it, falling asleep.

18.

However, the sailors foolishly open the bag while Odysseus sleeps, thinking that it contains gold.

19.

Odysseus turns half of his men into swine after feeding them cheese and wine.

20.

Circe, being attracted to Odysseus' resistance, falls in love with him and releases his men.

21.

Helios tells Zeus what happened and demands Odysseus' men be punished or else he will take the sun and shine it in the Underworld.

22.

Odysseus finds his way to the hut of one of his own former slaves, the swineherd Eumaeus, and meets up with Telemachus returning from Sparta.

23.

Odysseus' identity is discovered by the housekeeper, Eurycleia, as she is washing his feet and discovers an old scar Odysseus received during a boar hunt.

24.

Odysseus swears her to secrecy, threatening to kill her if she tells anyone.

25.

Odysseus tells the serving women who slept with the suitors to clean up the mess of corpses and then has those women hanged in terror.

26.

Odysseus tells Telemachus that he will replenish his stocks by raiding nearby islands.

27.

Odysseus protests that this cannot be done since he made the bed himself and knows that one of its legs is a living olive tree.

28.

Pausanias adds that according to the people of Pheneus, when Odysseus found his mares he decided to keep horses in the land of Pheneus, just as he reared his cows.

29.

Odysseus in turn offers a first-person account of some of the same events Homer relates, in which Ulysses appears directly.

30.

Odysseus is one of the most recurrent characters in Western culture.

31.

Odysseus tells how he set out with his men from Circe's island for a journey of exploration to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules and into the Western sea to find what adventures awaited them.

32.

Nikos Kazantzakis's The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, a 33,333-line epic poem, begins with Odysseus cleansing his body of the blood of Penelope's suitors.

33.

Frederick Rolfe's The Weird of the Wanderer has the hero Nicholas Crabbe travelling back in time, discovering that he is the reincarnation of Odysseus, marrying Helen, being deified and ending up as one of the three Magi.

34.

Odysseus is the hero of The Luck of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green, whose title refers to the theft of the Palladium.

35.

Odysseus is featured in a verse of the song 'Journey of the Magi' on Frank Turner's 2009 album Poetry of the Deed.

36.

Odysseus keeps in mind the future of his people, fitting for the future Father of Rome.

37.

Hellanicus of Lesbos wrote that Rome was founded by Aeneas and Odysseus who came together there.