Laertes and Anticlea were the parents of Odysseus and his sister Ctimene. Anticlea died of grief during Odysseus's long absence, and he met her shade in the underworld.
Odysseus and Penelope's marriage endured twenty years of separation. Their son Telemachus grew up without his father and later aided Odysseus in slaying the suitors, while Poliporthes was born after the hero's return.
⚠ Homer's Odyssey names only Telemachus as their child. The Telegony adds Poliporthes as a son born after Odysseus's return, while Hesiod fr. 221 MW attributes Ptoliporthes to Telemachus instead.
Sisyphus seduced Anticlea before her marriage to Laertes, and Odysseus was born from this union as their biological son.
⚠ The dominant tradition (Homer, Odyssey) names Laertes as Odysseus's father. The Sisyphean paternity is a rival account found in later sources including pseudo-Apollodorus and various scholia.
During his year on Aeaea, Odysseus became Circe's lover. Their son Telegonus later sailed to Ithaca seeking his father and accidentally killed Odysseus, fulfilling Tiresias's prophecy.
Calypso detained Odysseus on the island of Ogygia for seven years as her lover, offering him immortality if he would stay. Zeus sent Hermes to command his release.
Odysseus quelled the Greek army's mutiny on Agamemnon's behalf and led the embassy to Achilles in Iliad 9. He served as Agamemnon's chief strategist throughout the Trojan War.
Ajax and Odysseus fought together at Troy and jointly recovered Achilles's body. Their alliance fractured when Odysseus won the Judgment of Arms, driving Ajax to madness and suicide.
Athena served as Odysseus's divine patron throughout the Odyssey, guiding his return to Ithaca, disguising him as a beggar, and fighting alongside him against the suitors.
Odysseus and Diomedes were close allies at Troy, partnering in the night raid on the Trojan camp that killed Rhesus and stole the Palladium from Troy's citadel.
Eumaeus sheltered the disguised Odysseus at his hut upon the hero's return to Ithaca. In Odyssey 21, Odysseus revealed his identity to the swineherd, and Eumaeus fought alongside his master in the slaughter of the suitors.
In the Odyssey, Hermes gave Odysseus the magical herb moly to protect him from Circe's enchantments, continuing the divine patronage Odysseus inherited through Hermes' grandson Autolycus.
Telemachus fought alongside Odysseus in the slaughter of the suitors, barring the armory doors, fetching weapons for his father, and standing his ground with spear in hand as the great hall of Ithaca ran with blood.
In the Odyssey, when Odysseus visits the underworld, Ajax's shade refuses to speak to him, still bitter over the Judgment of Arms. It is the only time a shade in Hades turns away in silence.
In Sophocles's Philoctetes, Odysseus orchestrated Philoctetes's abandonment on Lemnos, then returned ten years later to retrieve his bow by deception. Philoctetes's bitter resentment of Odysseus nearly cost the Greeks their victory at Troy.
Odysseus blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus to escape his cave, then taunted him by revealing his true name. Polyphemus prayed to his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus's homecoming.
Poseidon relentlessly persecuted Odysseus across the seas for blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus.
Telegonus unknowingly killed his father Odysseus with a spear tipped with a stingray's venomous spine when the aged hero came to defend his flocks from the unknown raider on Ithaca.
Odysseus killed Antinous with an arrow through the throat during the contest of the bow in the great hall of Ithaca. Antinous was the first suitor to fall, struck while drinking from his cup.
Odysseus, revealed at last in his own hall, strung the great bow and began the slaughter of the Suitors of Penelope. Telemachus fought beside his father with spear and sword, and together they killed every suitor who had consumed the house of Odysseus.
Odysseus was king of Ithaca, the rocky island kingdom in the Ionian Sea. His twenty-year absence during the Trojan War and his subsequent wanderings left the island without its ruler and prey to the suitors.
Odysseus steered his ship past the twin dangers of Scylla and Charybdis in the Odyssey. Scylla snatched six of his men from the deck, while Odysseus chose her cliff over the deadly whirlpool of Charybdis on Circe's counsel.
Odysseus uncovered Achilles disguised among the women of Skyros by laying weapons alongside gifts — when a trumpet sounded, Achilles seized the spear while the women fled, betraying himself to the cleverest Greek.
Aeolus gave Odysseus a bag containing all unfavorable winds to speed his voyage home. Within sight of Ithaca, Odysseus's crew opened the bag, unleashing storms that blew them back across the sea.
Antinous threw a footstool at the disguised Odysseus when the hero entered his own hall as a beggar. This abuse of a guest under his own roof deepened the grievance that led to the suitors' slaughter.
Odysseus argued before the Greek council that Astyanax must die to prevent Hector's son from growing up to avenge his father and rebuilding Troy's power.
⚠ The Little Iliad (Proclus summary) attributes the killing to Neoptolemus; Euripides' Troades has the Greeks collectively decide to throw the child from the walls on Odysseus's counsel.
Autolycus named his grandson Odysseus and later hosted him on Mount Parnassus, where Odysseus received the boar-tusk wound scar by which Eurycleia would recognize him in the Odyssey.
Odysseus kept the Bow of Eurytus at home in Ithaca rather than taking it to Troy. He used it to slay the suitors in Homer's Odyssey (21-22), the only man able to string the great weapon.
On Aeaea, Circe transformed Odysseus's men into swine. Protected by Hermes's herb moly, Odysseus forced her to restore them and remained as her lover for a year before resuming his voyage.
Eurycleia, the old nurse of the household, recognized the disguised Odysseus by his boar-scar while washing his feet. She kept the secret at Odysseus's command and later aided Telemachus in identifying the disloyal servants.
After Troy's fall, Hecuba was given as a slave to Odysseus. In Euripides' Hecuba, she persuades Agamemnon to allow her revenge on Polymestor while under Odysseus's authority.
Helen recognized Odysseus when he infiltrated Troy in disguise but did not betray him. Earlier, Odysseus had devised the Oath of Tyndareus that bound all Helen's suitors to defend her marriage.
After defecting from Troy, Helenus revealed to Odysseus the conditions required for the city's fall, including the need to steal the Palladium and bring Neoptolemus and Philoctetes to the battlefield.
Odysseus's crew slaughtered the sacred cattle of Helios on Thrinacia despite warnings. Helios demanded Zeus punish them, and Zeus destroyed their ship with a thunderbolt, killing all but Odysseus.
Penelope held off the suitors for years through stratagems and tested Odysseus's identity with the secret of their marriage bed before accepting his return after twenty years apart.
Odysseus heard the Sirens' deadly song while bound to his ship's mast on Circe's advice, becoming the only mortal to survive their call in the Odyssey.
Odysseus devised the cure for Telephus's wound, interpreting the oracle to mean that Achilles's spear itself — not Achilles — was the \"wounder,\" and scraping rust from its blade onto the wound.
In Sophocles's Ajax, Odysseus intervened to support Teucer's demand that Ajax receive proper burial, persuading Agamemnon to relent despite Ajax's earlier hostility toward him.
Odysseus journeyed to the edge of the underworld to consult the blind prophet Tiresias, who foretold the trials of his homecoming and the manner of his eventual death.
Odysseus devised the stratagem of the Trojan Horse after ten years of fruitless siege. He conceived the plan to build a hollow wooden horse, hide warriors inside, and feign a Greek withdrawal from Troy.
Odysseus served as the Greeks' chief strategist throughout the Trojan War. He devised the Wooden Horse that ended the siege, stole the Palladium with Diomedes, and retrieved Philoctetes from Lemnos.
Odysseus devised the Oath of Tyndareus, binding Helen's suitors to defend her chosen husband. In exchange, Tyndareus helped Odysseus win the hand of Penelope from her father Icarius.
Odysseus performed the nekuia at the edge of the Underworld, summoning the shades of the dead with blood offerings to consult Tiresias and encountering the spirits of heroes, his mother Anticlea, and the great sinners.
We use cookies to understand how you use our site and improve your experience. Learn more