Odysseus

Mortal Ithacan king, master strategist of the Greek-side Trojan War, and the wandering ten-year returnee whose homecoming structures the Odyssey. The Homeric tradition treats him as paradigm of metis — the cunning practical-intelligence that wins through obstacle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus by her and (during the Odyssean wandering) Telegonus by the goddess Circe. Killed by the unrecognized Telegonus on Ithaca per the post-Homeric Telegony epic — the stingray-spine-spear killing-by-son closing the heroic-tradition's arc with a recognition-too-late tragic coda. The variant Sisyphus-paternity tradition (preserved in Apollodorus and used by tragedy) shifts the cunning-genealogy from Hermes-via-Autolycus to Sisyphus-the-trickster but does not change his mortal classification under either tradition.

Parentage

• parent: Laertes
• parent: Anticlea

Children

• Telemachus

Powers

• Pass unrecognized in disguise to deceive
• Outwit enemies through cunning intelligence
• String the great bow no other man could bend
• Devised the stratagem of the Wooden Horse

Epithets

• πολύτροπος grc · polytropos · epicof many turns, much-wandering, versatileHomer, Odyssey 1.1 (primary)
• πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς grc · polymetis Odysseus · epicOdysseus of many counselsHomer, Iliad 1.311; Odyssey passim (his most frequent name-epithet) (primary)
• πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς grc · polytlas dios Odysseus · epicmuch-enduring noble OdysseusHomer, Odyssey 5.171; passim (primary)

Relations

• spouse: Penelope
• father of: Latinus (Italic king, son of Odysseus by Circe per the Hesiodic Theogony 1011-1016; not registered as Circe-line cascade) · GreekHes. Theog. 1011-1016 (primary)
• father of: Agrius (son of Odysseus by Circe per the Hesiodic Theogony 1011-1016; not registered as Circe-line cascade) · GreekHes. Theog. 1011-1016 (primary)
• spouse: Penelope · GreekHom. Od. passim; Apollod. 3.10.9 (primary)
• father of: Telemachus · GreekHom. Od. passim (primary)
• lover: Circe (witch-goddess of Aiaia, daughter of Helios and the Oceanid Perseis; not registered under strict rule that disallows nymph/Titan-class parents) · GreekSpent one year on Aiaia as Circe's lover; Telegonus was conceived in this period (the Odyssey itself does not name the child; the Telegony epic supplies the name).Hom. Od. 10.348-470 (primary)
• father of: Telegonus (son of Odysseus by Circe; not registered as Circe-line cascade) · GreekBore by Circe during the Odyssean wandering. Eventually his unrecognized killer.Telegony fr.; Apollod. Epit. 7.36-37 (primary)
• killed by: Telegonus (son of Odysseus by Circe; not registered as Circe-line cascade) · GreekTelegony fr.; Apollod. Epit. 7.36-37 (primary)

Sources

• existence: Homer Iliad and Odyssey passim; Apollodorus 1.9.16, 3.10.9, Epitome 3.6-7.40; Telegony fragments (via Proclus Chrestomathia); Sophocles Ajax, Philoctetes; Euripides Hecuba, Trojan Women, Cyclops; Pindar Nemean 7.20-30; Hyginus Fabulae 95, 127 (primary)