Odysseus of Ithaca, the legendary hero of Homer’s Odyssey, is known for his wit, endurance, and unwavering determination. As king of the barren island of Ithaca, Odysseus stands out not only for his immense physical strength alone but for his cleverness, resilience, and ability to navigate both the physical and moral challenges that come his way. His tale, marked by endless encounters with gods, monsters, and temptations, highlights his strengths and qualities of perseverance and loyalty; and he tells the story of the tension between Gods, fate and free will.
Odysseus was crowned king of Ithaca — a barren island only barely known with its rocky mountains and goats — at age thirteen after his father Laertes was no longer fit to rule the kingdom. According to Homer, his lineage was one of only sons; meaning no one from Odysseus’s heritage could have more than one son. Odysseus himself had just one sister, Ctimene, who was younger than him. His lineage connected him to divinity on both sides: his paternal grandfather was a son of Zeus, while his maternal grandfather, Autolycus, was the son of Hermes, placing Odysseus on the cusp between mortal and divine.
It was Autolycus who gave him the name Odysseus, which was rooted in the word odussomai, meaning “to be wroth against, to hate”, and also has links to the Greek words oduromai meaning “to lament, bewail” and ollumi “to perish, to be lost”. When Odysseus was born, his caretaker Euryclea asked Autolychus to name him. He did so in his typically sardonic manner, foreseeing that the boy would grow to be a troublemaker, a reflection of his own mischievous nature.
Odysseus’s physical appearance varies across different sources but Homer describes him in striking detail – unlike many other heroes that Homer wrote about. He was shorter than the other generals at the Trojan War, estimated to be around 170cm, had either blond or red-brown curly hair, a thick beard, and eyebrows along with an eye-catchingly wide set of shoulders and particularly strong thighs.
However, it was not Odysseus’s strength that earned him the greatest fame; it was his cunning mind. The king was known for his wits and cunningness more than anything, which was the main reason he was a crucial part of the Trojan War, yet during most of the war his strength was overlooked. Back in the Trojan War days, a bow and arrows were seen as a “weak man’s weapon” and didn't bring a good reputation to the holders. Odysseus however, had one of the most famous bows of his time, a weapon he left behind when he set out for Troy.
Somewhere in the story he says had he brought it, he could have been the war’s greatest archer and have taken out a good majority of the army singlehandedly. The infamous bow had a roughly 200kg draw strength required to string, a feat only Odysseus could manage, making him one of the strongest men in his generation – and in the modern world as well– bested only by Achilles, Aristos Achaion, the greatest of Achaeans.
For his time, Odysseus was out of the ordinary for a number of reasons; his strengths with the bow, his cunning mind and the fact that he was favored by an Olympian – but one thing that really set him aside from any other ancient Greek hero, to me, was his love and devotion to his wife. Penelope of Sparta, later of Ithaca, was actually a cousin to Helen, the most beautiful woman to have ever lived according to the Greeks. Her father was the Spartan king Icarius -not to be confused with Icarus- and water nymph Periboea. She, as her husband, was not quite similar to women her age. Unlike the typical women of her time, who married at ages 13 or 14, Penelope was 17 when she first met Odysseus, and their courtship lasted several years before their eventual marriage.
Before she met Odysseus, there were rumors all around the Greek kingdoms that the cousin of beautiful Helen was horrendously ugly, despite her royal lineage. Because when facing suitors for her hand, Penelope would purposefully either cover her face with thick veils and refuse to take it off or wear makeup in practiced skill to make her appear anything other than attractive. And eventually, it made men lose interest in her as the Princess of Sparta and she took a breath of relief.
You see, just like her husband-to-be, Penelope was the smartest woman of her time and wished not to marry someone who was unfit for her. And when it was time for Helen to be wed, hundreds of men and boys, noblemen and merchants alike came as suitors for Helen to her father’s palace, but seemingly none were there for Penelope. As Helen sat in the throne room with her face veiled along with her two cousins, Penelope and Clytemnestra, everyone was trying to figure out which of the three women was Helen. All but one.
Odysseus had already figured out Helen out of the three, as well as Clytemnestra, which left the third woman as Penelope. Odysseus had heard the rumors about her and saw a trick that Penelope was pulling with a polished diamond ring to see her cousin's suitors as they go to propose to her. Captivated by her intelligence and sly tricks, Odysseus sought the counsel of Athena, his patron goddess, for advice on winning Penelope’s hand. Athena, being the goddess of wisdom and war strategies, first didn't look too thrilled that her champion came to her for love advice, out of everything but Odysseus persisted he needed her to be his. And so they started plotting.
Odysseus was majorly known for solving the issue with Helen's suitors. During the courting of Helen, each king who had a chance of winning her hand was worried that every other king – tens of them – would start a war against them for Helen. And so Odysseus stepped forward in the crowd after having discussed with Athena and proposed an idea: A pact would be made that included every single suitor, regardless of status. Each of them would swear to defend Helen’s marriage, regardless of who won her hand. So the suitors, each believing they could win her hand, went ahead and signed the pact before Helen chose Menelaus to be her husband. And Odysseus won the favor of Icarıus, Penelope’s father.
After the courting was done, Odysseus went and found Penelope in one of the palace’s gardens and they started talking, perfectly matching each other in every aspect. When Odysseus asked for her hand in marriage, Penelope asked him for a gift; a wedding bed that would never die. It was a riddle to be solved, a maze to be unpuzzled, and after thinking about it for a few days Odysseus came to Penelope to tell her that he had it figured out – he would make them a wedding bed that would have one of the bedposts an actual living olive tree.
So he went back to Ithaca and on the highest hill overseeing the sea and planted an olive tree. Then he crafted with his own hands their wedding bed, built first his chambers and then a whole palace around the bed. Only after that did he go back to Sparta for Penelope, and they got married before leaving to rule their kingdom or barren Ithaca together.
For the first few years of their marriage, they ruled Ithaca peacefully and didn't have any kids. And then, following Odysseus’s line of only sons, they had Telemachus. His name means “one who fights from afar” in honor of Odysseus being a skilled archer.
Everything was maintained by the king and queen perfectly; the trades, the wants and needs of the people, and the royal family itself was serene and most probably happier than almost every other regal family out there – that was until the news and signs of a war brewing in the horizon started appearing.
The prophecies about the war were clear from the start: the war couldn't be won without Achilles and Odysseus on the Greek side. Everyone knew of Odysseus and his wits from way back, from the challenge that Goddess Athena set for the whole of the Greeks that only Odysseus managed to beat with his skill and the tricks he pulled at Helen’s courting. And because of that very stunt, Odysseus knew that thousands of men from every kingdom would be joining this war and many kings would come seeking him out for it. Yet despite everything, the last thing he ever wanted to do was leave his wife and newborn son to go to war.
Penelope and Odysseus spent countless sleepless days and nights brainstorming about how he could get out of this – they could barricade the island, and fight off anyone who came to look for him. They could disappear to a lesser-known Greek city with Telemachus and change their name, or leave for completely foreign unmapped lands never to be seen again. They even thought about cutting off Odysseus’s legs as a last-ditch attempt after days of frenzied thinking so they wouldn't want him on the battlefield, and then it hit them. It wasn't his strength or his skill at fighting that they wanted.
It was his mind.
And so their plan came to light – if Odysseus had lost his mind then he wouldn't be of any use to anyone, no one would want a mad king in their camps or tents, nor in their war councils. For weeks, rumors spread that the great king had lost his sanity, just as his father had before him. Odysseus behaved like a fool in public, definitely not leaving behind his own entertainment while doing so as Penelope perfectly executed her role of woeful wife. And it worked, it worked perfectly for just enough time that when most of the kings had started to gather their armies to sail to Troy, a ship approached Ithaca’s shores not to claim Odysseus for war but to give their condolences to Queen Penelope and see their used-to-be-genius friend off one last time.
The recruitment party in most myths includes Menelaus, Old Nestor, Agamemnon,, sometimes Diomedes and most importantly Palamedes. While the first four aforementioned heroes are widely known, the name Palamedes may not ring a lot of bells in people’s minds. Well, maybe to the overall myth he wasn't too crucial but for Odysseus, his name is one that will never be forgotten.
This group came to Ithaca one morning and saw Odysseus feigning madness so well that they were all convinced that the once-great hero had lost everything that made him one. Everyone except Palamedes that is.
The men overstayed their welcome at the palace, staying for over a full week; eating big dinners, having welcoming feasts, and going on hunting trips. For the entirety of their stay, the Mad King of Ithaca kept up his facade. He would go out in the winter to plough the soil, putting an ox and a pig to the plough and then manning it naked all morning while Penelope hugged their infant son and watched her dear husband with tearful eyes and well-executed wails. Odysseus would eat off of Agamemnon’s plate and spill wine all over himself and make distasteful jokes until he was in the safety of a private room where he could play with his son and talk to his family in peace.
The morning of the men’s return, Palamedes stayed behind while everyone else went on a final hunting trip on Ithaca’s rocky steeps, and Odysseus started ploughing the cold, hardened soil as usual. Palamedes made small talk with Penelope, who was starting to sense that something was going to go astray and yet couldn't do anything lest she give away their game. So just when the kings returned from their hunt and were about to bid farewell, Palamedes grabbed infant Telemachus from Penelope’s arms and threw him on the ground, just a few steps away from where the sharp metal of the plough was about to run through. Everyone watched in horror as the king didn't stop and kept on going, Penelope screaming for her child as someone restrained her from taking her boy back into her arms.
And then, Odysseus stopped.
With his clever game unraveled, Odysseus didn't let his defeat show and smiled charmingly and greeted the kings as equals, knowing his fate was sealed. And of course, later during the war, Odysseus and his good friend Diomedes plotted against Palamedes and had him stoned to death, as he deserved.
And so the cleverness that had so often served him now forced him to leave behind his family, but it was also the same sharp intellect that would eventually carry him home after the war, enduring both gods and monsters along the way.
The Trojan War was long and grueling, but it was during these ten years of battle that Odysseus's brilliance truly shone. His cunning led to the construction of the infamous Trojan Horse, the trick that ultimately ended the war and sealed his reputation as one of the most ingenious men in all of Greece. Yet the war was not the end of his journey.
Odysseus stands as a testament to the complexity of the human spirit. He was not a hero who relied on brute force or divine favor alone, but rather one who thrived through intellect, perseverance, and heart. As much as his tale is one of epic battles and mythical encounters, it is also the story of a man who, against all odds, returned home to the life he loved, proving that sometimes the most heroic journey is the one that leads back to where we belong.
Therefore, Odysseus' legacy endures forever. In addition to being the hero of Ithaca, he serves as a reminder of human tenacity, showing us that even the most insurmountable difficulties can be conquered with a strong heart and a keen mind, regardless of how long the journey or how difficult the challenges may be. Odysseus's experiences show us that, despite the role of fate and the gods, our future is ultimately determined by our decisions, our guile, and our love.