Odysseus
Odysseus was a very well known Greek ruler of the island kingdom of Ithica. He was better known as Ulysses, in Latin. He was the son of Laertes and one of the most prominent Greek leaders in the Trojan war. He was the hero of Homer’s Odyssey. He was an eloquent speaker and he was popular for his cleverness and cunning ways. Odysseus was one suitor of Helen of Troy and when Menelaus won Helen’s hand in marriage, Odysseus advised him to get the other suitors to swear to defend his marriage rights. When Menelaus called on the suitors to help him bring Helen back from Troy, Odysseus pretended to go berserk and began plowing his fields and sowing salt instead of grain. It is written that Palamedes placed Odysseus’ infant son in front of the plow and Odysseus showed he was still sane when he turned away to avoid hurting the infant.
Odysseus was still a very brave leader when he fought in the Trojan War. It is said that he refused to leave the field when the Greek troops were being routed by the Trojans. He also led a daring raid with Diomedes and he was the one who came up with the idea of the Trojan Horse. The Trojan Horse was the way the Greeks were able to get into and capture the city of Troy. After Achilles died, Odysseus and Ajax fought to get Achille’s armor. The Greeks awarded the armor to Odysseus because of his heroism and elloquence. This caused Ajax to go mad and kill himself. It took Odysseus 10 years to return Ithaca from Troy. He was beset by many perils and misfortunes. He had to free his men from the pleasure-giving drugs of the Lotus-eaters. He rescued them from the cannibalism of the Cyclopes and the enchantments of Circe. He bravely got them through the terrors of the Underworld. While he was in the land of the underworld (land of the dead) Hades allowed Thiresias (Odysseus’ mother), Ajax, and others, to give Odysseus advice about his next journey. The rest of the journey was even more treacherous but it would have been even worse had he not received the advice from the dead. He was given advice about the cattle of the sun (which apollo herds), also about Scylla and Charybdis, and the Sirens.
With the new advice Odysseus received, he got his men past the perils of the Sirens and of Scylla and Charbdis. The men violated the divine commandments and slaughtered and ate cattle which belonged to the sun god and Odysseus could not save the men this time. As a punishment for them slaughtering the cows of the sun god, Odysseus ship was destroyed by a thunderbolt and only Odysseus survived. He came upon the shore of the island of the nymph Calypso. She made him her lover and would not let him go for 7 years. Zeus finally intervened and Odysseus was allowed to sail away on a small boat. He encountered another storm and was again shipwrecked on the island of the Phaeacians. He was well received there and entertained and after a while he was escorted to his home on the island of Ithaca.
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