Odysseus

Odysseus (/oʊˈdɪsiəs, oʊˈdɪsjuːs/; Greek: Ὀδυσσεύς [odysˈsews]), also known by the Latin name Ulysses (US /juːˈlɪsiːz/, UK /ˈjuːlɪsiːz/; Latin: Ulyssēs, Ulixēs), 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 and other works in that same epic cycle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his brilliance, guile, and versatility (polytropos), and is hence known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (mētis, or "cunning intelligence"). He is most famous for the Odyssey, ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War. 2Name, etymology and epithets The name has several variants: in Greek the character was called Olysseus (Ὀλυσσεύς), Oulixeus (Οὐλιξεύς), Oulixes (Οὐλίξης), and he was known as Ulyssēs in Latin or Ulixēs in Roman mythology. Hence, "there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality." The etymology of the name is unknown. Ancient authors linked the name to the Greek verbs odussomai (Greek: ὀδύσσομαι) 'to be wroth against, to hate', or to oduromai (ὀδύρομαι) 'to lament, bewail'. Homer in references and puns, relates it to various forms of this verb. It has also been suggested that the name is of non-Greek origin, probably not even Indo-European, with an unknown etymology; R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Book 19 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus's early childhood is recounted, Euryclea asks Autolycus to name hi