Odysseus

**Odysseus** was the king of Ithaca. He was the father of Telemachus and the husband of Penelope.

## Legends Summarized

### The Trojan War

In order to help the king Tyndareus with his dilemma of picking a suitor for his daughter, Odysseus visits the king and offers to help. He suggests that Tyndareus make the suitors swear an oath to keep the marriage stable, lest all other suitors will respond with war. In return, Odysseus requested that Tyndareus put in a good word for him with the Spartan king Icarius, since he was trying to woo the king's daughter Penelope.

Soon after, the word gets out about Helen's capture by Paris, and that all suitors are honor-bound to fight to get her back from Troy. Odysseus is not keen on fighting, stating that, since he's married and has an infant son, he has a lot to lose. He even attempted to feign madness to try and get out of fighting, which stopped immediately following Agamemnon's threat on the life of Telemachus.

With the Achaean ships mustered in Aulis, Agamemnon upsets the goddess Artemis who sets the winds against them temporarily. This is later solved when, either Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia is killed, or when Artemis saves her and replaces her on the altar with a deer. The winds then correct themselves and the Greeks sail to Troy, where the war begins soon after. Odysseus uses his talent in trickery several times during the first nine years of the war, in which nearly all of Troy is destroyed save for the inner walled city.

During their victories in Troy, the Achaeans would often take bride-prizes. In one instance, Agamemnon takes the daughter of a priest of Apollo as his bride: Chryseis, daughter of Chryses. This act of defaming a priest of Apollo caused Apollo to rain divine arrows over the Achaean army, killing many of them. Upon finding out that Agamemnon was the one responsible, Odysseus scolded him, disappointingly saying that Agamemnon couldn't help himself.

As the last major act of the war, Odysseus created the Trojan Horse, which would contain both him, Menelaus and several other Greek soldiers inside. The rest of the soldiers burned down their camp and left on their ships to feign a retreat, except for a young soldier named Sinon, who told the Trojans that the Horse was an offering to Athena and that is should be brought into the city for good fortune.

However, Helen became suspicious of the Horse, so she walked around the outside of it, saying the names of Achaean soldiers, knocking on the sides, and even impersonating the voices of some of their wives. All the while, Odysseus tried his hardest to keep the soldiers inside from blowing their cover in the simplest of ways. Eventually, the Horse is opened and the Greeks sack the inner city of Troy, destroying it for good.

Following the escape of the Greeks from Troy, as some point, Odysseus contemplates the entire war, noting that the entire conflict was his fault. Since he initially helped Tyndareus with the suitors and made them swear an oath to protect the marriage, that inadvertently caused the entire war, which would make Odysseus right, in a way.

## Physical Appearance

Odysseus was a human with dark hair and teal eyes.

## Appearances

* The Iliad
* The Odyssey
* The Trojan War

## External Links

Classics Summarized: The Iliad

Classics Summarized: The Odyssey

Legends Summarized: The Trojan War