Odysseus

Odiseo and EuricleaChristian Gottlob Heyne.

Odysseus or Ulysses (in classical Greek: Ὀδυσσεύς; in modern Greek: Οδυσσέας; Ulixes in Latin) was one of the legendary heroes from Greek mythology. He appears as a character in the Iliad and is the protagonist and gives its name to the Odyssey , both works attributed to Homer. He also appeared in several of the lost poems of the so-called Trojan cycle and later in many other works. He was king of Ithaca, one of the modern Ionian islands, located off the western coast of Greece. Son of Laertes and Anticlea, in the Odyssey, or Sisyphus and Anticlea, he was the husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus and older brother of Ctymene, who suffered waiting for him for twenty years: ten of them had spent fighting in the Trojan War and the other ten trying to return to Ithaca dealing with a series of problems and obstacles that he had to face.

Odysseus is characterized in the Homeric poems for his brilliance, cunning and the versatility of his character. Following the rules of the formulary style, his name frequently appears accompanied by the epithets & # 34; the astute & # 34; (Greek πολύμητις) or "of many tricks" (Greek πολύτροπος, also translated as "of many paths, of manifold wit").

Genealogy

The most frequent (this is the case in Homer) is to consider Odysseus as the son of Laertes and Anticlea, and grandson of Arcisio on the paternal side, and of Autolycus on the maternal side. According to this version, Odysseus was born in Ithaca, more specifically on Mount Nérito, where the rain surprised his mother on the way. Probably this legend has been forged to explain his name, relating it to the expression κατα την οδον υσευ ο Ζευς ('Zeus rained on the road'). Those who believe that the father was not Sisyphus, who would have slept with Anticleia before she was given in marriage to Laertes, try to explain the name of the hero from a supposed relationship with the verb οδυσσομαι ('to be hateful'), which would refer to the fact that Sisyphus was hated by many. Those who consider Sisyphus to be the father of Odysseus —as well as the Greek tragedy— place his birth in the Boeotian city of Alalcomenas. Odysseus had a younger sister named Cymene.

Youth

Odysseus tied to the mast of your boat trying to overcome the attraction of the sirens. Picture of Leon Belly Mermaids (Museo de l'Hotel Sandelin, Saint Omer, France).

A tradition assures that Odysseus was a disciple, like so many other Greek heroes, of the centaur Chiron. a scar on one knee, by which he would be recognized on his return to Ithaca after the Trojan War; he goes to Messinia to claim compensation for the theft of some sheep; in Lacedaemon he receives from Iphytus, in exchange for a sword and a spear, the bow of Eurytus, with which he will kill the suitors; in Ephyra he tries, in vain, to get Ilo to give him poison for his arrows, which he gets in Tafos from Anchialus. Upon reaching manhood, Laertes gives him the kingdom with all his wealth and Odysseus is in charge of rebuilding his house. Rich in land and cattle, he became famous for his hospitality and for his respect for the gods, especially Zeus and Athena, the latter would protect him continuously. He came, attracted by the beauty of Helena, as one more suitor to the palace of Tindáreo but, realizing the slim chances he had of getting her, he decided to request Penelope, daughter of Icario and niece of Tindáreo. To ensure his help in this purpose, he advised him to force all Helena's suitors to swear that they would respect her choice and that they would defend the chosen one against any wrong, thus avoiding later disputes that could be disastrous for the king himself. This, in compensation, obtained for Odysseus the hand of Penelope. In some versions, however, it is claimed that Odysseus got Penelope by winning a foot race.

When Telemachus was still a child, the result of the union of this couple, Helena is kidnapped by Paris. It is intended that the former suitors fulfill their oath, undertaking a campaign under a single command, in order to obtain reparation for such outrage. To avoid leaving, Odysseus pretends to be crazy when he receives a visit from Menelaus and Palamedes, who were recruiting the expedition members. This, however, reveals the falsehood of such a ruse, for which the hero will never forgive him. Before leaving, he advises Penelope that if he dies, she should marry again when Telemachus reaches manhood. Odysseus is actively involved in the preparations for the expedition. He will get Achilles' participation in the company, as he will later do with Neoptolemus, his son. Some version ensures that Odysseus accompanied Menelaus to Troy before the start of hostilities, in order to request the peaceful return of Helen. Also in this period he performs the functions of ambassador of the Atrids before Cinyras.

Trojan War

The two ships that Odysseus is leading are stranded in the center of the Greek camp before Troy. Homer tells us how Odysseus is in charge of returning Chryseis to his father, the priest Chryses; how he stops the rout of the Greek army, which does not understand a stratagem of Agamemnon; how he reduces to silence, with blows, the insolent Thersites. With Agamemnon he is in charge of arranging the single combat between Paris and Menelaus, and with Hector he measures the scene of it. When the fight resumes, Odysseus kills Democoon, avenging his friend Leuco from him; in revenge for the death of Tlepolemus, he kills Alastor, Chromio, Alcandro, Halio, Nomeón and Prítanis; subsequently, he kills Pitides; later we find Odysseus offering to fight in single combat with Hector, although he is not favored by the draw. Odysseus, along with Phoenix and Ajax, is chosen to go before Achilles in an embassy in order to convince him to return to combat. Faced with the failure of this enterprise and, after a nocturnal council, Odysseus and Diomedes are commissioned for a spy mission in enemy territory, in the course of which they kill Dolon. After also killing Reso, they seize his horses before they drank from the Xanthus River. In the course of the fight that takes place the next day, Odysseus kills Molion, Hippodamos, Deiopites, Toón, Ennomo, Quersidamas, Cárope and, finally, Soco, who had wounded him previously. Helped by Ajax and Menelaus, he manages to withdraw from combat and, still wounded, attends the assembly. It will be Odysseus who advises Achilles to calm down, impatient to avenge the death of Patroclus, indicating the convenience of the army resting and regaining strength with food.

In the funeral games in honor of Patroclus, Odysseus is evenly matched in the fight with Ajax, both obtaining the same prize, when Achilles suspends the fight, fearing for the lives of the heroes. In the race, with the help of Athena, who makes Ajax the Less fall, Odysseus manages to win, obtaining a silver krater as a prize.

From accounts after the Iliad, we know that Odysseus is wounded during the fight that takes place around the corpse of Achilles, and that it is he who obtains the dead hero's weapons from Ajax. In these stories, Odysseus plays a leading role. He is the one who captures the seer Hélenus, extracting from him the secret that Troy will not be conquered without the help of Heracles' arrows. Knowing that such weapons were in the possession of Philoctetes, who on his advice had been abandoned on the island of Lemnos after being bitten by a snake, he obtained his collaboration by traveling there in the company of Diomedes or Neoptolemus. Together with Diomedes, he enters Troy disguised as a beggar and manages to steal the Palladium, an image of Athena that ensured the impregnability of the city as long as she was inside it. Finally, Odysseus is credited with the idea of building the wooden horse inside which thirty chosen warriors hid, while the others pretended to end the siege, which would lead to the fall of Troy. At the time of the distribution of the booty, Odysseus was given Hecuba.

The return

Odysseus spent twenty years outside Ithaca: the ten that the Trojan War lasted and another ten years that elapsed from the end of the war until his arrival in Ithaca.

After leaving Troy, he began his return journey anchoring in the country of the Cicones, where they sacked the city and took women and goods as booty. He then was in the country of lotus eaters. Then he went to the island of the Cyclops, where he incurred the wrath of Poseidon after blinding the son of this god, Polyphemus, who ate some of his companions. He then came to the island of Aeolus, to the country of the Lestrygonians, and to the island of Circe. He made an evocation of the dead in the country of the Cimmerians, where he came to talk with the souls of his mother Anticlea, Heracles, Agamemnon and Achilles, among others, and with the blind soothsayer Tiresias, who indicated the dangerous route he should take. to return to Ithaca. He sailed past the island of the sirens and through the dangerous strait between Scylla and Charybdis. On the island of Trinacia, his companions, despite Teiresias's warning, ate the cows that belonged to the god Helios, and for this reason Zeus caused a storm that ended the lives of all of them, so Odysseus came alone to the island of Calipso, where he was with her for several years.

Terracota found in Milo 450 B.C., today at the Louvre, which shows Odysseus disguised as a beggar presenting himself to his wife Penelope.

In the Odyssey there is no chronological order. He begins narrating from the moment he is in Ogygia, prisoner of the nymph Calypso who wanted him to be her husband.

Athena asks Zeus for the release of the long-suffering hero. He agrees to the request and asks Hermes to send a message to Calypso, telling him that Odysseus's destiny was not to lie far from his home, but that he should return to his family. It is then that he arrives in the country of the Phaeacians and is led by the princess Nausícaa in the presence of his father Alcínoo, who finally puts a ship at his disposal to go to Ithaca.

Already in Ithaca, he finds that his palace was invaded by a large group of suitors who were trying to marry his wife Penelope and, meanwhile, consuming the palace's assets. Odysseus goes to the palace disguised as a beggar and with the help of his son Telemachus, the old swineherd Eumaeus and the herdsman Philetio kills all the suitors, who are sons of the best families in Ithaca.

When the parents of the dead suitors seek revenge on Odysseus and Telemachus and old Laertes spears Eupites, father of Antinous, to death, Pallas Athena intervenes to end the fight and, on the advice of Zeus, has "forget the slaughter of children and brothers, love one another, as before and let there be peace and wealth in great abundance". Order that Odysseus, & # 34; very happy in his spirit & # 34;, fulfilled with pleasure.

Events after what is narrated in the Odyssey

After what is narrated in the Odyssey, in the last of the poems of the Trojan cycle, the Telegony recounts Odysseus' journey to the country of the Thesprotus where he ends up married to Queen Callidice. But when Callídice died, he returned to Ithaca, where Penelope had given birth to Poliportes. Later Telegono, son of Circe and Odysseus, arrived in Ithaca in search of his father and mistakenly killed Odysseus, his father, but, after recognizing him, he regretted what had happened and took the corpse to Penelope along with Circe. Finally Telegono marries Penelope, his stepmother and Telemachus with the goddess Circe, mother of his stepbrother.

In other later versions it is said that Penelope would have been seduced by one of the suitors, and Odysseus would have returned Penelope to her father or even killed her. In other versions, Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, was called as an arbitrator and banished Odysseus for murder, while on the other hand he sentenced the relatives of the suitors to pay Odysseus an annual compensation for the damages caused. Odysseus gave his son the benefit of the indemnity and left for Italy or Aetolia, where he would die at an advanced age. Athenaeus relates that, upon reaching old age, (Odysseus) "drank voraciously huge pieces of meat and sweet wine".

According to a legend, Odysseus would be the founder of Lisbon. The old name of the Portuguese capital, Olissipo has been interpreted by some historians as a reference to Ulysses as the supposed founder.

Later influence

The Iliad and the Odyssey have powerfully influenced Western culture. Some passages of the story have been incorporated into popular folklore, and numerous authors have incorporated Ulysses/Odysseus into literary, theater, comic, film, and television works.

• In the Ayax, of Sophocles, it is narrated how, at the death of Achilles, Odysseus inherits his weapons. In the dispute for such precious trophy prevails over Ayax Thelamon, the chief warrior of the Greeks while Achilles was out of battle. This not only symbolizes the importance of the character, but the change of the hero paradigm and therefore of values. The main hero is no longer the bravest and most endeavored warrior, who stands out most in the battle, but the most intelligent, who is able to achieve greater results with less sacrifices.

• The comedy of Pedro Calderón de la Barca The greatest charm, Love or The greatest spell, Love focuses on Ulysses and its crew on the island of the magician Circe.

• In The Divine Comedy Odysseus and Diomedes share a blatant punishment in the eighth sack where they are punished for having professed astute and fraudulent advice without repairing in any fairness. And, above all, because it did not remain in Ithaca, but it was made again to the sea, franking even the pillars of Hercules, until a huge wave plunges them. It is one more test of the little appreciation of the Middle Ages by Ulysses. Only in the Renaissance will the Odyssey in the original Greek text and a rediscovery of Ulysses will begin. A sample of it is found in the fact that Lusiah de Luís de Camões is attributed to Ulises the foundation of Lisbon.

• James Joyce gave the Latin name of Odysseus to his Ulysses, where he portrayed throughout a full day of twenty-four hours the life of the Dublin of 1904, but the connection with the epic of Homero in this difficult Irish novel is still today inextricable and subject only to conjectures, since apparently there is no argumental connection or approach between the two works, beyond the coincidence of names and points.

• The Italian Giovanni Pascoli includes in one of his works a long poem titled L'ultimo viaggioYou see Ulysses back into the sea until he dies.

• On the other hand, the Greek Constantine Cavafis writes an important poem, in Ithaca, in which, directing the reader, he explains that he does not expect anything from Ithaca to return: the journey itself will be the most important.

• Already in 1905, Georges Méliès made the one that is probably the first of many films about Odysseus: L'Île de Calypso: Ulysse et le géant Polyphème.
• In 1938 the cretense Nikos Kazantzakis publica The Odyssey: a modern sequel inspired by the homerical account composed of 33.333 verses, which began to write in 1924. The work narrates the events following the return of Odysseus to Ithaca.

• In 1954 Ulysses, an Italian-American superproduction led by Mario Camerini, with the interpretation of Kirk Douglas as Ulysses, Anthony Quinn and Silvana Mangano. Considered one of the best adaptations of the work and one of the first superproductions of European cinema.

• The novel of 1961 Time of silence by Luis Martín-Santos retakes the vials of a modern Odysseus contained in a narrative style very inspired by the Ulises of James Joyce.

• In 1981 the Franco-Japanese series of cartoons for television was held Ulysses 31which combined characters and arguments inspired by the Odyssey with elements of space science fiction travel.

• In 1969 the Spanish singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat composed the Penelope song, which, introducing some modern elements, is inspired by the wait of the wife of Odysseus after announcing her departure, and how she is unable to recognize him after his return.

• O Brother, Where Art Thou? It is a comedy-adventure film made by the Coen brothers. Launched in 2000, the action is in Mississippi in 1937, during the Great Depression. The film is a free adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, as mentioned in the start credits.

• In 2002 the Spanish singer and poet Javier Krahe published the song "As Ulysses" belonging to his album Cabals and Scars. It tells the story of Ulysses, with the rigor of the original texts, except for the end, and with modern and colloquial nuances of Krahe.

• In 2004 Odysseus appeared in Wolfgang Petersen, Troy. The film based on the Iliad of Homer relates the Trojan War and also includes material of the Eneida, of the Odyssey and Virgilio. The paper was played by the British Sean Bean.