Odysseus (Ulysses)
Epic
The Odyssey, attributed to Homer (c. 8th century BCE). Twenty-four books, approximately 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter. The Odyssey is the second Homeric epic (following the Iliad) and the foundational work of Western literary narrative.
Divine Ancestry
Great-grandson of Hermes (through his maternal grandfather Autolycus). Son of Laertes (king of Ithaca) and Anticleia. Favored by Athena, goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, who serves as his divine patron throughout the epic.
The Quest
After the fall of Troy (following ten years of siege), Odysseus attempts to sail home to Ithaca, but his journey is prolonged to ten additional years by divine hostility (Poseidon's wrath for blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus), his own curiosity and hubris, and a series of fantastical encounters: the Lotus-Eaters, the Cyclops, the witch-goddess Circe, the descent to Hades (nekyia), the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the cattle of Helios, and seven years captive on the island of the nymph Calypso. Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca disguised as a beggar, plots with his son Telemachus, strings the great bow that no suitor can bend, and slaughters the suitors who have been consuming his wealth and courting his wife Penelope.
Key Weapon
His great bow (which only he can string); but his true 'weapon' is metis -- cunning intelligence, resourcefulness, and the mastery of language and deception. He is polytropos (the man of many turns) and polymechanos (the man of many devices).
Companion
Athena, who guides and protects him throughout (their relationship is one of intellectual kinship -- she admires his cunning as a reflection of her own wisdom). Among mortals: the loyal swineherd Eumaeus and his son Telemachus. Also the crew who accompany him (most of whom perish due to their own folly).
Antagonist
Poseidon, god of the sea, who persecutes Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus. Among mortals: the suitors (especially Antinous and Eurymachus) who have overrun his household. The Cyclops Polyphemus, Circe, and Scylla are episodic antagonists.
The Lesson
The paramount value of nostos (homecoming) -- the desire to return to one's proper place, identity, and relationships after prolonged wandering and suffering. Odysseus embodies the Greek ideal of the complete man: brave but also intelligent, capable of endurance (polytlas, 'much-enduring'), master of disguise and storytelling, devoted to his wife and homeland despite all temptations. The Odyssey also teaches the limits of curiosity and hubris (his taunting of Polyphemus brings Poseidon's curse).
Fate
Odysseus is reunited with Penelope, reestablishes his rule over Ithaca, and is reconciled with the families of the slain suitors through Athena's intervention. Later traditions (Tiresias's prophecy in Odyssey 11) foretell a further journey inland carrying an oar until he reaches people who do not know the sea, where he must make sacrifice to Poseidon. Death comes to him 'from the sea' in comfortable old age. Dante reimagines him as an unquenchable seeker who sails beyond the Pillars of Hercules to his death (Inferno 26).