Odysseus

This article is about Odysseus. See also Odysseus crater, Ulysses (robot), Ulysses (poem), Ulysses (novel)

Odysseus and the Sirens.

Odysseùs Laërtiádēs (Greek: Ὀδυσσεὺς Λαερτιάδης', 'son of Laertes'), or simply Odysseus, is a character in Greek mythology. His name has several variants: Olysseus (Ὀλυσσεύς), Oulixeus (Οὐλιξεύς), Oulixes (Οὐλίξης), and he was known as Ulysses or Ulixes in Roman mythology. His name means "son of pain" according to Homer, or perhaps more likely, it comes from the Greek οδηγός: odēgós, "a guide; the one showing the way". It may also mean "pain" in the sense of the "the one inflicting and suffering pain" - ironically, nearly always he suffers pain (mental and/or physical) in return if he inflicts pain on some one and vice versa.

He is the central character of Homer's Odyssey, renowned for his guile and resourcefulness, and a major character in the Iliad. He is most famous for the ten years it took him to return home from the Trojan War. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus, and son of Laertes and Anticlea, though some sources, prominent among them Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides, give Sisyphus as his father.

For a character of such prominence in the Iliad, one of Agamemnon's principal lieutenants, Odysseus' pedigree is relatively obscure. Laertes' father (or stepfather) is Arceisius, a son of Cephalus (eponymous founder of Cephallenia), and grandson of Aeolus. Ithaca was one of several islands that formed Odysseus' kingdom, along the Ionian coastline of Greece. Odysseus' realm also appears to have including a small foothold on the mainland, near the mouth of the river Achelous. The exact extent of the Cephallenian realm, and the identities of the individual islands given by Homer, is unclear.

Contents

Before the Trojan War

Odysseus was one of the suitors for Helen, daughter of Tyndareus. But when Tyndareus, afraid of offending the many famous and powerful suitors, would not choose among them, Odysseus promised to solve the dilemma, in return for Tyndareus' support for Odysseus suit for Penelope, daughter of Icarius. Odysseus proposed that Tyndareus require all the suitors to swear an oath to defend whomever Helen chose as husband from among the oath-takers. The suitors, including Odysseus, swore and Helen chose Menelaus, the most powerful of them.

When Helen was abducted by Paris of Troy (which caused the Trojan War), the suitors were called upon to honor their oaths and help Menelaus retrieve Helen. Because an oracle had prophesied he would not return for a long time, Odysseus didn't want to go to war. He pretended to be insane, ploughing his fields and sowing salt instead of seeds. Agamemnon, Menelaus' brother, sent Palamedes to convince Odysseus to join the expedition. Palamedes was very intelligent, and placed Telemachus, Odysseus' infant son, in front of the plough. Odysseus could not kill his son, thus revealing his sanity, and then left for the Trojan War.

On the way, Odysseus discovered Achilles on the isle of Scyros, disguised as a girl by his mother, the sea nymph and prophetess Thetis. An oracle had predicted he would either live a long but boring life or a short one full of excitement, and she was fearful of the consequence if he went off with the expedition to Troy. Odysseus dressed as a peddlar and came to the town. He laid out some jewels and also a sword, spear, and shield. All but one of the girls were interested in the jewelry; the exception was interested in the weapons and picked up a sword. 'She' turned out to be Achilles. Thus was Odysseus able to identify Achilles. He became a good friend to him. Odysseus told Achilles' mother, Thetis, to send for Peleus' Myrmidon arms and armor made by the god Hephaestus to protect him at Troy. Odysseus let Achilles keep the sword, spear, and shield.

On the way to Troy, Philoctetes was bitten by a snake on Chryse. Agemmemnon advised that he be left behind because the wound was festering, smelled bad, and recovery seemed unlikely. Some people suggest it was Odysseus who did this but the Illiad recounts that it was Agammemnon. Ten years later, Helenus, under torture, revealed that Philoctetes' arrows (which he received from Heracles) would be necessary to win the war. Odysseus and Neoptolemus went to Lemnos to retrieve Philoctetes.

During the Trojan War

Main article: Iliad.

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Odysseus was one of the main Achaean characters in the Trojan War. The others were "godlike" Achilles, Agamemnon "lord of men", Menelaus, Nestor, Telamonian Ajax and Ajax the Lesser, Diomedes and Teucer the master archer.

When the Achaean ships reached the shores of Troy, no one would jump ashore, since there was an oracle that the first Achaean to jump on Trojan soil would die. Odysseus tossed his shield on the shore and jumped on his shield. He was followed by Protesilaus who jumped on Trojan soil, and later became the first to die.

Early in the Iliad, there is a scene in which Dardan Priam asks Helen about the identity of the various Achaean heroes. Odysseus is among them, and Helen answers that he is from Ithaca and very crafty and cunning.

At one point during the Trojan War, the Trojans - led by Hector and fighting with high morale due to the absence of Achilles on the Greek side -- had closed in on the Achaeans. That night, Agamemnon gives a speech in which he sets forth the substantial gifts he would give to Achilles if the latter returned to the fray. However, he adds that Achilles must in any case submit to his authority. Odysseus was sent with Telamonian Ajax and Phoenix to pass Agamemnon's message to Achilles. They did not succeed.

There is a scene in which Hector and the Trojans are chasing the Achaeans back to the latter's encampment by the hollow ships, and Odysseus decides to run instead of stay behind to be slaughtered. Diomedes sees this, and utters the line: "Where are you going in such a hurry, son of Laertes, O cool tactician..." - but his sarcasm is wasted.

After Patroclus had been slain, it was Odysseus who counselled Achilles to let the Achaean men eat and rest, for Achilles, driven by rage, wanted to go back on the offensive - and kill Trojans - immediately. Eventually, Achilles reluctantly consents.

During the Funeral Games for Patroclus, Odysseus becomes involved in a wrestling match with Telamonian Ajax, as well as a foot race. With the help of Athena, who favors him, and despite Apollo helping another of the competitors, he wins the race, and manages to draw the wrestling match, to the surprise of all.

Odysseus was one of the most influential Greek champions during the Trojan War. It was Odysseus who restored order to the Greek camp when Agamemnon unwittingly announced the departure of the Greeks early in the Iliad, to test the morale of the Greek soldiers. Odysseus also volunteered himself to battle Hector in a single combat duel the Trojan hero proposed. Odysseus aided Diomedes during the famous 'Night Operations', when the two heroes slaughtered a group of Trojan allies from Thebes while they were sleeping. Among the killed was Dolon and King Rhesus. As a warrior, Odysseus was surpassed only by Achilles, Hector, and Telamonian Ajax; and equaled only by Diomedes. He was injured during that portion of the Trojan War described by Homer. After Achilles' death, Odysseus competed with his great rival, Telamonian Ajax for Achilles' arms and armor. Though Ajax was slighly greater as a warrior, Odysseus won the armour because of his clever oratory and eloquence. Consequently, Ajax defeated for the first time, killed himself by the sword Hector had given him.

The Trojan Horse, the famous stratagem, was devised by Odysseus. It was built by Epeius and filled with Greek warriors led by Odysseus. When the Horse was brought inside Troy, Odysseus and Menelaus descended from it and went directly to Prince Deiphobos' house, where they engaged in a most ferocious battle. Ultimately, Deiphobos was killed and Menelaus got Helen back. For his crimes, including slaying the Theban warriors in their sleep, Odysseus was compelled by the gods to endure 10 years of hardship before he achieved a nostos, a homecoming. However, other Greeks committed great evils in Troy, such as the execution of King Priam. The most significant crime was the rape of Cassandra, carried out by Ajax, son of Oileus. This angered Athena, as Cassandra was a priestess of the goddess. It was Odysseus who advised the Greeks to stone Ajax to death for his crime. However the Greeks declined the life-saving advice. Athena was intensely infuriated, and as a result she sent a storm that destroyed much of the returning Greek fleet.

Journey home to Ithaca

Main article: Odyssey.

The Ciconians

After Odysseus and his men depart from Troy, they are greeted by friendly and calm waters. The ships near land and Eurylochus, convincing Odysseus that the gods were on their side, told him to go ashore and loot the nearby city. The crew had landed in Ismara. The city was not at all protected and all of the inhabitants fled without a fight into the nearby mountains. Odysseus and his men looted the city and robbed it of all its goods. Odysseus wisely told the men to board the ships quickly but they refused and fell asleep on the beach. The next morning, the Ciconians (also known as the Cicones) returned with their fierce kinsmen from the mountains. Odysseus and his men fled to the ships as fast as they could but they lost many men.

The Lotus-Eaters

When Odysseus and his men landed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters, Odysseus sent out a scouting party of three or so men who ate the lotus with the natives. This caused them to fall asleep and stop caring about ever going home. Odysseus went after the scouting party and dragged them back against their will to the ship and set sail.

Odysseus offering wine to the Cyclops

Polyphemus

A scouting party led by Odysseus (and his friend, Misenus), lands in the territory of the Cyclops and ventures upon a large cave. They enter the cave and proceed to feast on food they find there. Unknown to them, the cave is the dwelling of Polyphemus, a one-eyed giant who soon returns. Polyphemus refuses hospitality to his uninvited guests and traps them in the cave by blocking the entrance with a boulder that could not be moved by mortal men. He then proceeds to eat a pair of the men, but Odysseus devises a cunning plan for escape.

To make Polyphemus unwary, Odysseus gives him a bowl of strong, unwatered wine. When Polyphemus asks for his name, Odysseus tells him that it is "Nohbdy" (Nobody)(Outis). In appreciation for the wine, Polyphemus offers to return the favor--telling he will eat him last. Once the giant falls asleep, Odysseus and his men take a giant spear, which they had previously prepared while Polyphemus was out of the cave shepherding his flocks, and destroy Polyphemus' one eye, rather than kill him and trap themselves in the cave forever. Hearing Polyphemus' cries, other cyclops come to his cave and ask what is wrong, what man has put out his eye? But Odysseus' plot succeeded--Polyphemus replied that Nobody has put out his eye by cunning instead of by direct attack. The cyclops leave Polyphemus, thinking that his outbursts must be madness or the gods' doing.

In the morning, Odysseus ties his men and himself to the undersides of Polyphemus' sheep. When the Cyclops rolls back the boulder to let the sheep out to graze, the men are carried out. Now blind, Polyphemus cannot see the men, but feels the tops of his sheep to make sure the men are not riding them. Once Odysseus and his men are out, they load the sheep on board their ship and set sail.

As Odysseus and his men are sailing away, he tells Polyphemus his name in an act of hubris. Enraged, Polyphemus tries to hit the ship with boulders, but because he is blind, he misses. When the ship appears to be getting away at last, Polyphemus raises his arms to his father, Poseidon, and asks him to not allow Odysseus to go back home to Ithaca, and if he does, he must arrive back alone, his crew dead and in a stranger's ship.

This event is the setting for the only surviving complete satyr play, Cyclops by Euripides. This version contains a more humorous version of the story by including the cowardly satyrs.

According to Virgil's Aeneid , Achaemenides was one of Odysseus' crew who stayed on Sicily with Polyphemus until Aeneas arrived and took him with him. Here, Virgil is probably trying to interweave his tale as much as possible with Homer's already ancient, great work, especially as Achaemenides has nothing to do with the story at all and is in fact never mentioned again.

Aeolus

Odysseus stopped at Aiolia, home of Aeolus, the favored mortal of the gods who received the power of controlling the winds. Aeolus gave Odysseus and his crew hospitality for a month in return for Odysseus telling interesting stories. Aeolus also provided for a west wind to carry them home. Unfortunately he also provided a gift of a bag containing each of the four winds, which Odysseus' crew members, suspecting that treasure was in the bag, because of Odysseus guarding the bag for the entire voyage home without a wink of sleep. A couple of the men decided to open it as soon as Odysseus fell asleep and just before their home was reached. They were blown by a violent storm back to Aiolia by Poseidon, where Aeolus refused to provide any more help because he thought Odysseus was cursed by the gods. Now, Odysseus has to start his journey from Aiolia to Ithaca over again; he is heartbroken, but he tries to hide his feelings from his crew.

The Laestrygonians

They came to Telepylos, the stronghold of Lamos, king of the Laestrygonians. The Laestyygonians were cannibals, eating the poor seafarers who came to their island. These people attacked the fleet with boulders, sinking all but one of the ships and killing hundreds of Odysseus' men.

Circe

Circe, a painting by Edward Burne-Jones

The next stop was the island of Circe (Aeaea), where Odysseus sent a scouting party ahead of the rest of the group. She invited the scouting party to a feast, the food laced with one of her magical potions, and she then changed all the men into pigs with a wand after they gorged themselves on it. Only Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had stayed behind at the ships. Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted and told by Hermes to procure some of the herb moly to protect him from the same fate. When her magic failed he was able to force her to return his men to human form by making her swear the Oath of the Immortals. She later fell in love with Odysseus and assisted him in his quest to reach his home after he and his crew spent one year with her on her island. On Circe's island, Elpenor, the youngest of Odysseus' crew, got drunk and fell off Circe's roof. The fall killed him (x.607ff). Some versions of the story differ in that Elpenor died not by a fall from Circe's roof but after leaving Circe's island. He went up the mast to scout ahead, meanwhile a very powerful west wind blew him off the mast and he died on the ship's deck. The crew regarded this as very suspicious since, when Elpenor fell a white bird flew up and guided them to the world of the dead. They believed that Athena killed Elpenor so that his soul would guide them.

Journey to the Underworld

Odysseus wanted to speak with Tiresias, so he and his men journeyed to the River Acheron in Hades, where they performed sacrifices which allowed them to speak to the dead, including his mother, Elpenor, Tiresias, and Achilles. They all gave him valuable advice on how to pass the rest of his journey. Odysseus sacrificed a ram and the dead spirits were attracted to the blood. He held them at bay and demanded to speak with Tiresias, who told him how to pass by Helios' cattle and the whirlpool Charybdis. During the Trojan War Odysseus met a Trojan boy captured by Achilles who was later freed to Troy, named Helios. He didn't remember the name until he heard how to get by Helios, the god.

Tiresias tells Odysseus that after he returns to Ithaca, he must take a well-made oar and walk inland with it to parts where no one mixes sea salt with their food, until someone asks him why he carries a winnowing fan. At that place, he was to fix the oar in the ground and make a sacrifice to appease Poseidon. He also told Odysseus that after all that was done, that he would die an old man, "full of years and peace of mind," that his death would come from the sea and that his life would ebb away very gently. (Some read this as meaning that his death would come away from the sea.) Then, he went to Circe's island again

Skylla and Charybdis

Odysseus was told by Tiresias in the Underworld (see above) that he would have to pass a monster in the form of a whirlpool, called Charybdis. This blocked a gorge through which Odysseus needed to pass. When it was at its lowest ebb the ship might get through if it sailed on the left of the gorge. However, Skylla, another monster with six heads, lurked above this dangerous pass. If Odysseus was lucky, he could get past only losing six men. However, he did not dare tell his crew of the sacrifice, and announced that the desperate cries of the wretched betrayed men the worst thing he had ever known. This left the survivors feeling mutinous. People in the whole Achaen Army believe that Odysseus was so greatly favored by Athena that she gave all his men who were faithful great rewards, yet they didn't think keeping their life was all that great a reward until something bad happened.

Helios' Cattle

Finally, Odysseus and his surviving crew landed on an island, Thrinacia, sacred to Helios, where he kept sacred cattle. Though Odysseus warned his men not to (as Tiresias had told him), they killed and ate some of the cattle. The guardians of the island, Helios' daughters, Lampetia and Phaethusa, told their father. Helios destroyed the ship, and Odysseus saved all the men. Sadly all the men were destroyed by Helios. Sometimes, Apollo is cited in place of Helios in this part of the legend.

Calypso

Odysseus was washed ashore on Ogygia, where the nymph Calypso lived. She made him her lover for seven years and would not let him leave, promising him immortality if he stayed. On behalf of Athena, Zeus intervened and sent Hermes to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go. Odysseus left on a small raft furnished with provisions of water, wine and food by Calypso, only to be hit by a storm and washed up on the island of Scheria and found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, who entertained him well and escorted him to Ithaca. On the twentieth day of sailing he arrived at his home in Ithaca.

Odysseus reaches Ithaca

In Ithaca, Penelope was fending off countless suitors while Odysseus' mother, Anticlea, had died of grief. Odysseus, upon landing, was disguised as an old man or a beggar by Athena, and took the name Eperitus. Odysseus' faithful dog Argos was the first to recognize him in his rags. He had waited twenty years to see his master. Aged and decrepit, he did his best to wag his tail, but Odysseus did not want to be found out, and had to feign ignorance, leading the dog to die. Odysseus was then welcomed by his old swineherd, Eumaeus, who did not recognize him in disguise, but still treated him well. The first person to recognize him was his old wet nurse, Euryclea.

Odysseus learned that Penelope was faithful to him, pretending to knit or weave a burial shroud for Odysseus' father Laertes and claiming she would choose one suitor when she finished. Every night she undid part of the shroud, until one day, a maid of hers betrayed this secret to the suitors, and they demanded that she finally choose one of them to be her new husband. This occurred just before Odysseus' return, who was then able to watch the suitors drink and take advantage of his family's hospitality. Still in his disguise, Odysseus went to Penelope and told her that he had met Odysseus, and he said that whomever could string Odysseus' bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe-handles would be able to marry Penelope. This was to Odysseus' advantage, as only he could string his own bow (it is believed that Odysseus' bow was a composite bow, requiring great skill and leverage to string, rather than brute strength). Penelope then announced what Odysseus had said. The suitors each tried to string the bow, but in vain. Odysseus then took the bow, strung it, and completed the task. Athena then took off his disguise and, with the help of his son Telemachus, Athena, and Eumaeus, the swineherd, killed all of them except Medôn, who had been polite to Penelope, and Phemius, a local singer who had only been forced to help the suitors against Penelope. Penelope, still not quite sure that the stranger was indeed her husband, tested him. She ordered her maid to make up Odysseus' bed, and move it from their bedchamber. Odysseus was astonished because the bed was built into the trunk of an olive tree and thus cannot be moved; he tells her this, and since only Odysseus and Penelope knew this, Penelope accepted that he was her husband. She came running to him hoping that he would forgive her. He forgives her because he could understand why she did what she did.

One of the suitors' (Antinous) fathers, Eupeithes, tried to overthrow Odysseus after the death of his son. Laertes killed him, and Athena thereafter required the suitors' families and Odysseus to make peace; this ends the story of the Odyssey.

Odysseus had been told (by the shade of Tiresias) that he had one more journey to make after he had re-established his rule in Ithaca, and also that his death would come from the sea and would be peaceful and pleasant. The time frame of these events is left vague, however, perhaps because Homer intended to compose the continuation of the story and wanted room for improvisation.

Other stories

Odysseus is one of the most recurrent characters in Western literature. He has been used by innumerable writers, who often interpret his character and actions in very different ways.

Classical

According to some late sources, most of them purely genealogical, Odysseus had many other children besides Telemachus, the most famous being:

with Penelope: Poliporthes (born after Odysseus' return from Troy)
with Circe: Telegonus, Ardeas
with Calypso: Nausinous, Nausithous
with Callidice: Polypoetes

Most such genealogies aimed to link Odysseus with the foundation of many Italic cities in remote antiquity.

He figures in the end of the story of King Telephus of Mysia. There may have been a sequel to the Odyssey, named Telegonia, after Telegonus, his son with Circe.

In 5th century BC Athens, tales of the Trojan War were popular subjects for tragedies, and Odysseus figures centrally or indirectly in a number of the extant plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, (Ajax, Philoctetes) and Euripides, (Hecuba, Rhesus) and figured in still more that have not survived.

As Ulysses, he is mentioned regularly in Virgil's Aeneid, and the poem's hero, Aeneas, rescues one of Ulysses' crew members who was left behind on the island of the Cyclops. He in turn offers a first-person account of some of the same events Homer relates, in which Ulysses appears directly. Virgil's Ulysses typifies his view of the Greeks: he is cunning but impious, and ultimately malicious and hedonistic.

Ovid retells parts of Ulysses' journeys, focusing on his romantic involvements with Circe and Calypso, and recasts him as, in Harold Bloom's phrase, "one of the great wandering womanizers." Ovid also gives a detailed account of the contest between Ulysses and Ajax for the armor of Achilles.

Middle Ages and Rennaisance

Dante, in Canto Twenty-Six of the Inferno of his Divine Comedy, encounters Odysseus near the very bottom of Hell: with Diomedes, he walks wrapped in flame in the eighth ring (Counselors of Fraud) of the Eighth circle (Sins of Malice), as punishment for his schemes and conspiracies that won the Trojan War. In a famous passage, Dante has Odysseus relate a different version of his final voyage and death from the one foreshadowed by Homer. He tells how he set out with his men for one final journey of exploration to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules and into the western sea to find what adventures awaited them. After travelling east and south for five months, they saw in the distance a great mountain rising from the sea (this is Purgatory, in Dante's cosmology), before a storm sank them. Dante did not have access to the original Greek texts of the Homeric epics, so his knowledge of their subject-matter was based only on information from later sources, chiefly Virgil's Aeneid but also Ovid; hence the discrepancy between Dante and Homer.

He appears in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan War.

Television

In Class of the Titans, a new T.V. show for kids, one main character is descended from Odysseus, and he and his friends have run-ins with Calypso, Aeolus, Scylla and Polyphemus.

Modern

Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses presents an aging king who has seen too much of the world to be happy sitting on a throne idling his days away. Leaving the task of civilizing his people to his son, he gathers together a band of old comrades "to sail beyond the sunset".

Dan Simmons' novel, "Ilium", and its sequel, "Olympos". In these books, Odysseus is encountered both at Troy, and on the futuristic Earth.

James Joyce's novel Ulysses uses modern literary devices to narrate a single day in the life of a Dublin businessman named Leopold Bloom; which turns out to bear many elaborate parallels to Odysseus' twenty years of wandering.

Nikos Kazantzakis' , a 33,333 line epic poem, begins with Odysseus cleansing his body of the blood of Penelope's suitors. Odysseus soon leaves Ithaca in search of new adventures. Before his death he abducts Helen, incites revolutions in Crete and Egypt, communes with God, and meets representatives of various historical and literary figures such as Vladimir Lenin, Jesus, and Don Quixote.

Ulysses 31 is a Japanese-French anime series (1981) which updates the Greek and Roman mythologies of Ulysses (or Odysseus) to the thirty-first century. In the series, the gods are angered when Ulysses, commander of the giant spaceship Odyssey, kills the giant Cyclops to rescue a group of enslaved children including his son. Zeus sentences Ulysses to travel the universe with his crew frozen until he finds the Kingdom of Hades, at which point his crew will be revived and he will be able to return to Earth. In one episode, he travels back in time and meets the Odysseus of the Greek myth.

The Coen Brothers' film O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) is loosely based on the Odyssey. However, they also admit to never having read the epic. George Clooney plays Ulysses Everett McGill, leading a group of escapees from a chain gang through an adventure in search of the proceeds of an armoured truck heist. On their voyage, the gang encounter—amongst other characters—a trio of sirens and a one eyed bible salesman.

In S.M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time Trilogy, Odikweos (Mycenean spelling) is a 'historical' figure who is every bit as cunning as his legendary self and is one of the few Bronze Age inhabitants who discerns the time-traveller's real background. Odikweos first aids William Walker's rise to power in Achaea, and later helps bring Walker down after seeing his homeland turn into a police state.

Odysseus appears as a playable character in the video game Age of Mythology (2002). In addition, one of the levels in the game involves the player's rescue of Odysseus and his men from Circe.

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood retells the story from the point of view of Penelope.

Lindsay Clarke's "The War at Troy" features Odysseus, and its sequel, "The Return from Troy" retells the voyage of Odysseus in a manner which combines myth with modern psychological insight.

Odysseus may be part of the basis for the character of Desmond Hume on Lost. He is attempting to finish a "race around the world" and return to his girlfriend Penelope when he is stranded on the island.

Other cultures

Nala and Rama. A similar story exists in Indian mythology with Nala and Damayanti where Nala separates from Damayanti and reunites with her. The story of stringing a bow is similar to the description in Ramayana of Rama stringing the bow to win Sita's hand in marriage.

References

Classical references

Homer. Iliad
Homer. Odyssey
Sophocles. Philoctetes
Sophocles. Ajax
Euripides. Cyclops
Euripides. Hecuba
Anonymous. Rhesus
Apollodorus. Bibliotheke III, 8
Apollodorus. Epitome III, 7; V, 6-22; VII, 1-40
Ovid. Metamorphoses XIII, 1-398
Dante. The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto XXVI

References

Vasil S. Tole, Odyssey and Sirens:A Temptation towards the Mystery of the Iso-polyphonic Regions of Epirus, A Homeric theme with variations, Tirana, Albania, 2005, ISBN 99943-31-63-9

[Odysseus Unbound website]

External links

Archaelogical Discovery in Greece may be the tomb of Odysseus [link]

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