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Definition: Odysseus |
OdysseusNoun1. (Greek Mythology) a famous mythical Greek hero; his return to Ithaca after the siege of Troy was described in Homer's Odyssey. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
"Odysseus" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "hate". |
Date "Odysseus" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1855. (references) |
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
ODYSSEUS | English | Programme of training, exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders | Politics & International Affaires |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
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Odysseus offering wine to the cyclope. |
Odysseus is a character in Greek mythology, known as Ulysses in Roman mythology. He is the hero of the Odyssey, and a major player in the Iliad, son of Laertes (or, much later, Sisyphus) and Anticlea.
As a child, Odysseus was nursed by Euryclea. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus, favorite of Athena, and wiliest of the Greeks involved in the Trojan War. Odysseus earns this title by, among other things, masterminding the Trojan Horse. According to some sources, Odysseus had four children besides Telemachus, the most famous: with Circe, Telegonus, Argius, and Latinus; with Calypso or Circe, Nausinous; with ??? he was father of Ardeas and Auson.
Odysseus was one of the original suitors of Helen. He agreed to help Tyndareus, her father, settle the dispute for her hand in marriage, in return for which Tyndareus supported Odysseus in his quest to marry Penelope. Odysseus and all the other suitors pledged to defend Helen's marriage to the winning suitor, Menelaus.
Odysseus did not want to make good on his pledge to defend Menelaus' marriage. He pretended to be insane, plowing his fields and sowing salt instead of seeds. Agamemnon (Menelaus' brother), however, sent Palamedes to retrieve Odysseus. Palamedes was very intelligent and placed Telemachus, Odysseus' son, in front of the plow. Odysseus could not kill his son and revealed his sanity, then left for the Trojan War.
On the way to Troy, Philoctetes was bitten by a snake on Chryse. Odysseus advised that he be left behind because the wound was festering and smelled bad. Ten years later, Helenus, under torture, revealed that Philoctetes' arrows (which he received from Heracles) would be necessary to win the war. Odysseus and Neoptolemus went to Lemnos to retrieve Philoctetes.
In the Trojan War, Odysseus and Diomedes stole the Palladium (and King Rhesus' horses) in a nocturnal raid.
Later, Odysseus, Phoenix and Ajax went to Scyros to persuade Achilles to join the battle.
With the aid of Athena, Ajax rescued the body of Achilles from the hands of the Trojans. In the competition between him and Odysseus for the armor of Achilles, Agamemnon, at the instigation of Athena, awarded the prize to Odysseus. This so enraged Ajax that it caused his death (Odyssey, xi. 541). According to a later and more detailed story, his disappointment drove him mad; he rushed out of his tent and fell upon the flocks of sheep in the camp under the impression that they were the Trojan enemy; on coming to his senses, in shame he killed himself with the sword which he had received as a present from Hector.
Odysseus never forgave Palamedes for sending him to the Trojan War(1194-1184 BCEE). When Palamedes advised the Trojans to return him, Odysseus accused him of being a traitor and forged false evidence and found a fake witness to testify against him. Palamedes was stoned to death.
The Greek siege of Troy had lasted for ten years. The Greeks devised a new ruse - a giant hollow wooden horse. (The Trojans were famous horse-breeders, and archaeology confirms this.) It was built by Epeius and filled with Greek warriors led by Odysseus. The rest of the Greek army appeared to leave and the Tojans accepted the horse as a peace offering. A Greek spy, Sinon, convinced the Trojans the horse was a gift despite the warnings of Laocoon and Cassandra. The Trojans celebrated hugely and when the Greeks emerged from the horse the city was in a drunken stupor. The Greek warriors opened the city gates to allow the rest of the army access and the city was ruthlessly pillaged - all the men were killed and all the women taken into slavery. This was called the Trojan Horse.
Odysseus had one of the best helmsmen in ancient Greece, Baius. Poseidon delayed Odysseus' voyage for two reasons: his role in the defeat of Troy; and his actions against Poseidon's son, Polyphemus, described below.
Members of Odysseus' Crew
Odysseus stopped at Aiolia, home of Aeolus, the god of the winds. He gave them hospitality for a month and provided for a west wind to carry them home. Unfortunately he also provided a gift of a bag containing each of the four winds, which Odysseus' crew members opened just before their home was reached. They were blown back to Aiolia, where Aeolus refused to provide any further help.
When Odysseus and his men landed on the island of the Lotus-Eaters, they began doing as the natives did, eating the lotus flowers. This caused them to sleep and stop caring about ever going home. Finally, Odysseus managed to rescue himself from the apathy and set sail. The lotus-eaters have been localized on the shore of Libya, near the modern Tripoli.
A scouting party led by Odysseus (and his friend, Misenus), lands on the Island of the Cyclopes (Sicily) and ventures upon a large cave. They enter into the cave and proceed to feast on some food they find there. Unknown to them, this cave is the home of Polyphemus who soon comes upon the trespassers and traps them in his cave. He proceeds to eat several crew members, but Odysseus devised a cunning plan for escape.
To make Polyphemus unwary, Odysseus gave him a barrel of very strong, unwatered wine. When Polyphemus asked for Odysseus' name, he told him that it was "Noman". Once the giant fell asleep, Odysseus and his men took a hardened spear and destroyed Polyphemus' only eye. In the morning, Odysseus tied his men and himself to the undersides of Polyphemus' sheep. When the Cyclops let the sheep out to graze, the men were carried out. Since Polyphemus was blind, he didn't see the men, but felt the tops of his sheep to make sure the men weren't riding them.
Once the sheep (and men) were safely out, Polyphemus realized that the men weren't in his cave. He yelled out to his fellow Cyclopes that "Noman" hurt him, so they ignored him. As Odysseus and his men were sailing away, he told Polyphemus that "Noman didn't hurt you, Odysseus did!" Odysseus didn't realize that Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, and that telling him his name would have severe repercussions.
Achaemenides was one of Odysseus' crew who stayed on Sicily with Polyphemus until Aeneas arrived and took him with him.
The next stop was the island of Circe (Aeaea), where Odysseus sent a scouting party ahead of the rest of the group. She invited the scouting party to a feast, the food laced with one of her magical potions, and she then changed all the men into pigs with a wand after they gorged themselves on it. Only Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had stayed behind at the ships. Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted and told by Hermes to procure some of the herb moly to protect him from the same fate. When her magic failed he was able to force her to return his men to human form. She later fell in love with Odysseus and assisted him in his quest to reach his home after he and his crew spent a year with her on her island. Circe and Odysseus had three children: Telegonus, Argius, and Latinus.
On Circe's island, one member of Odysseus' crew, his good friend Elpenor, got drunk and fell of Circe's roof, dying.
Odysseus wanted to speak with Achilles, so he and his men journeyed to the underworld, where Hades allowed him to speak with his mother, Elpenor, Tiresias and Achilles. They all gave him valuable advice on how to pass the rest of his journey. Alternatively, Odysseus sacrificed a ram and the dead spirits were attracted to the blood. He hold them at bay and demanded to speak with Tiresias who told him how to pass by Helios' cattle.
Finally, Odysseus and his surviving crew landed on an island, Thrinacia, sacred to Helios, where he kept sacred cattle. Though Odysseus warned his men not to (as Tiresias had told him), they killed and ate some of the cattle. The guardians of the island, Helios' daughters, Lampetia and Phaethusa, told their father. Helios destroyed the ship and all the men save Odysseus. Sometimes, Apollo replaced Helios. (The island is probably the same as Thrinakria or triangular island, an archaic name for Sicily.)
When Odysseus had to sail between Scylla and Charybdis at the Strait of Messina, he chose to lose some of his crew to the monster Scylla rather than his whole ship to Charybdis, a whirlpool.
Odysseus escaped the Sirens by having all his sailors plug their ears with wax and tie him to the mast. He was curious as to what the Sirens sounded like. When he heard their beautiful music, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they ignored him. When they had passed out of earshot, Odysseus stopped thrashing about and calmed down, and was released.
Antiphates was King of the Laestrogynes. At Telepylos, the threw boulders at every ship of Odysseus' crew; only one ship survived. The Laestrogynes ate the crewmen who survived the shipwreck. Polyphemus and his tribe were apparently cannibals. They must have lived in western Sicily where the cannibal Laestrygones lived, as confirmed by antique geographers and historians.
Odysseus washed ashore on Ogygia, where the nymph Calypso lived. She made him her lover for seven years and wouldn't let him leave, promising him immortality if he stayed. On behalf of Athena, Zeus intervened and sent Hermes to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go. Odysseus left on a small raft, only to be hit by a storm and washed up on the island of Scheria and was found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, who entertained him well and escorted him to Ithaca. Ogygia was Malta, where Odysseus arrived by paddling, after having been shipwrecked at the Strait of Messina. Calypso's grotto still exists on the coast of Malta, near Ras en Nisefa, and the four springs outside Calypso's cave are still running. One year after his arrival, as Hyginus tells, the wise Calypso instructed him to keep the heavenly Great Bear - the true north - at his left hand. On the twentieth day of sailing he arrived to southern Crete (Phaeacia), and from there he got a "ride" to his home in Ithaca.
In Ithaca, Penelope was fending off countless suitors while Odysseus' mother, Anticlea, had died of grief. Odysseus disguised himself as an old man or a beggar. The first one to recognize him was his old wet-nurse, Euryclea. Odysseus saw that Penelope was faithful to him, pretending to knit a burial shroud (for they claimed he must be dead) and claiming she would choose one suitor when she finished. Every night she undid part of the shroud. Odysseus watched the suitors drink and take advantage of his family's hospitality, then took off his disguise and, with Telemachus, Laertes and a local prophet named Halitherses, killed them all save Medon, who had been polite to Penelope, and Phemius, a local singer who had been forced to help the suitors against Penelope. Alternatively, he (or Penelope at the prompting of Athena) challenged the suitors to an archery contest and killed them after winning. (This event can be dated to April 16, 1178 BCEE, by a total solar eclipse during midday meal. Total eclipses are visible from the same place once in 410 years in average, claim the astronomers. See more details under Penelope.) As another alternate version, Odysseus tested his wife's loyalty by claiming she had moved their bed (which had a tree as a bedpost). She denied doing so and Odysseus knew she was loyal. According to a rarely heard version of this story, Odysseus was sent into exile by Neoptolemus for killing the suitors. In another version, Odysseus was welcomed by his old swineherd, Eumaeus, who didn't recognize him in disguise, but still treated him well. Eumaeus then helped him kill the suitors.
One of the suitors' (Antinous) father, Eupeithes, tried to overthrow Odysseus after the death of his son. Laertes killed him.Before The Trojan War
Odysseus In The Trojan War
Odysseus' Return To Ithaca
Aeolus
The Lotophagi
Polyphemus
Circe
Journey to the Underworld
Helios' Cattle
Scylla and Charybdis
The Sirens
Antiphates
Calypso
Odysseus Reaches Ithaca
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Odysseus."
Crosswords: Odysseus |
| English words defined with "Odysseus": calypso, Circe ♦ Ithaca, Ithaki ♦ Laertes ♦ odyssey ♦ Penelope ♦ Ulysses. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Odysseus": Outis ♦ Siren ♦ Ulysses' Bow. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Odysseus" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Dutch (Ulysses), German (Ulysses), Swedish (Odysseus, ulysses). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Odysseus Perseus Theseus a lot of sus-es. (Hercules; writing credit: Ron Clements; Barry Johnson) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Die Irrfahrten des Odysseus (1985) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Odysseus attacking Circe, Etruscan mirror - New York / F. Eudell.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Homer | Then dark death seized Argus, as soon as he had seen Odysseus in the twentieth year. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | SIREN, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointing performance. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Odysseus" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 96.43% of the time. "Odysseus" is used about 28 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 96.43% | 27 | 66,962 |
| Noun (plural) | 3.57% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 28 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| "Odysseus" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "hate". | |||
| The following table summarizes names related to "Odysseus." | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Related Name |
| Odessa | Female | N/A | Odysseus |
| Ulysses | Male | English | Odysseus |
| Odysseus | Male | Greek Mythology | N/A |
| Ulysses | Male | Roman Mythology | Odysseus |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
odysseus | 309 | ithaca odysseus | 3 |
home odysseus | 131 | odysseus travel | 3 |
marketing odysseus | 58 | circe odysseus | 2 |
odysseus picture | 34 | odysseus ship | 2 |
journey odysseus | 10 | odysseus philoctetes | 2 |
homer odysseus | 9 | greek odysseus | 2 |
odysseus and penelope | 9 | mother odysseus | 2 |
odysseus odyssey | 7 | odysseus wife | 2 |
adventure of odysseus | 6 | homer odysseus picture | 2 |
greek mythology odysseus | 6 | athena odysseus | 2 |
odysseus and the cyclops | 6 | odysseus penelope wife | 2 |
map odysseus | 5 | odysseus ulysses | 2 |
odysseus elytis | 5 | character odysseus | 2 |
odysseus siren | 4 | odysseus world | 2 |
hero odysseus | 4 | in odysseus trojan war | 2 |
map odysseus travel | 3 | gilgamesh odysseus | 2 |
ancient greece odysseus | 3 | greek hero odysseus | 2 |
odysseus summary | 3 | odysseus pic | 2 |
epic hero odysseus | 3 | ajax odysseus | 2 |
journey map odysseus | 3 | odysseus penelope picture | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "Odysseus"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | Odiseu. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | Одисей (Ulysses). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 奧德修斯 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | Uddannelses-, udvekslings- og samarbejdsprogram vedrørende asyl, indvandring og passage af de ydre grænser (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | Programma voor de opleiding, de uitwisseling en de samenwerking op het gebied van het asielbeleid, het immigratiebeleid en de overschrijding van de buitengrenzen (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | Turvapaikka- ja maanhanmuuttopolitiikan sekä ulkorajojen ylittämisen alan koulutus-, vaihto- ja yhteistyöohjelma (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | Programme de formation, d'échanges et de coopération dans les domaines de l'asile, de l'immigration, et du franchissement des frontières extérieures. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Ausbildungs-, Austausch- und Kooperationsprogramm in den Bereichen Asyl, Einwanderung und Überschreiten der Außengrenzen (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | Οδυσσέασ (Ulysses), Οδυσσεύσ (Ulysses), Πρόγραμμα κατάρτισης, ανταλλαγών και συνεργασίας στους τομείς του ασύλου, της μετανάστευσης και της διέλευσης των εξωτερικών συνόρων (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | Odüsszeusz. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | Programma di formazione, di scambi e di cooperazione nei settori dell'asilo, dell'immigrazione e dell'attraversamento delle frontiere esterne (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | odysseusay Sem Cheiro (odour), Programa de formação, de intercâmbio e de cooperação nos domínios da política de asilo, imigração e passagem nas fronteiras externas (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) Одиссей. (various references) odisej. (various references) Odiseo, Programa de formación, de intercambios y de cooperación en los ámbitos del asilo, de la inmigración y del cruce de las fronteras exteriores (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) Odysseus (Ulysses), Utbildnings- utbytes- och samarbetsprogram avseende asyl, invandring och överskridande av medlemsstaternas yttre gränser (exchanges and cooperation in the field of asylum, immigration and crossing of external borders, Programme of training). (various references) วีรบุรุษในเทพนิยายกรีก. (various references) Odise (odyssey). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Odysseus" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: odyssean, odysses, odysseues, odyssies, Oxystegus. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-o-s-s-s-u-y" | |
-2 letters: dosses, douses, soused, souses, sudses, sussed. | |
-3 letters: doses, douse, souse, sudsy, youse. | |
-4 letters: deys, does, dose, doss, dues, duos, dyes, odes, oses, ouds, oyes, sods, sous, soys, suds, sued, sues, suss, udos, used, uses, yods. | |
-5 letters: dey, doe, dos, due, duo, dye, eds, ess, ode, ods, oes, ose, oud, sod, sos, sou, soy, sue. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-o-s-s-s-u-y" | |
+3 letters: soundlessly. | |
+4 letters: pseudocyeses, pseudocyesis. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4F 64 79 73 73 65 75 73 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)--- -.. -.--. ... ... . ..- ... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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| Amazon.com BOOKS: Search for: "Odysseus" |
