ODYSSEUS (also ODYSEUS, OLYS [S]EUS, Lat. VLIXES, where of ULYSSES is a mis-writing), one of the best-known Greek heroes.
(1). In Homer, he is son of Laertes, king of Ithaca, and Anticleia his queen ; he succeeds his father as king, is husband of Penelope (q.v.) and father of Telemachus. During the Trojan War (Iliad) he is prominent as a brave and skilful fighter, but still more as a giver of shrewd counsel and for his daring and cunning enterprises, alone or with Diomedes. After the war he starts to go home, but is driven off his course by unfavourable winds (Odyssey), successively visiting numerous unknown regions, (see CIRCE, CYCLOPES, LAESTRYGONES, LOTUS-EATERS, SCYLLA), till, losing all his ships and men, he arrives alone on the island of Calypso (q.v.). After eight years he is let go, and is wrecked on the coast of the Phaeacians, who receive him hospitably and send him home in one of their ships. All these places are out of the known world, although later writers in antiquity identified them with various regions known to them and have been followed by some moderns. Arrived home, he finds his wife Penelope beset with a number of suitors who are devouring his substance. With the help of Athena, Odysseus and Telemachus, aided by two faithful thralls, kill them all.
(2). After Homer, the character of Odysseus degenerates from a cunning to a wholly unscrupulous and dishonourable man. He tries to shirk service at Troy by pretending to be mad ; but Pala medes discovers the trick. In revenge, Odysseus brings about his ruin and death (see PALAMEDES). He and Diomedes steal the Palladium (q.v.) and in some accounts he tries to murder Diome des, to get all the credit for himself. After the death of Achilles, Odysseus and Ajax contend for his armour, which is adjudged to the former (see AjAx 1.). He is at length accidentally killed by Telegonus, his son by Circe or Calypso ; this story is worked up i from hints in the Odyssey. A common legend makes Odysseus son of Sisyphus (q.v.), thus bringing the two notorious rogues together.
There is no need whatever to suppose Odysseus other than a real man, renowned for his skill and resource, about whom in the course of centuries numerous fictions have gathered. The plot of the Odyssey is a well-known mdrchen, however, and not a saga; see M. P. Nilsson, History of Greek Religion, p.38. His name is not Greek, and probably belongs to a prehellenic speech.