Ulyssesin Greek Odysseus, is the Greek hero protagonist of the Homeric poem Odyssey: endowed with great cunning and tenacity, the king of Ithaca leaves Troy after winning the war narrated inIliadthanks to the horse stratagem he himself devised.
It is not entirely clear where the name Odysseus (Ὀδυσσεύς) comes from: it is possible that it was chosen because it could mean “he who hates” or “he who is hated”in reference to the verb ὀδύσσομαι – odýssomai, but it also has assonance with the Greek term οὖτις-outis which means “no one”, or the name adopted by Ulysses to deceive the Cyclops Polyphemus.
In the Latin translation the word Ulysses was chosen, which has assonance with the adjective ulceratus “irritated”with the aim of finding a Latin word that gave the same idea as “Odysseus” in Greek. Both names would therefore allude to the fiery soul of the hero.
THE’Odyssey narrates the long sea voyage home, the island of Ithacawhich he achieves after ten years, also thanks to his indomitable, astute and smoking-hot character, which will allow him to get by by overcoming many vicissitudes: the journey is also told in the adaptation by director Christopher Nolan, released in theaters today 16 July 2026.
The beginning of the story of Odysseus after the Trojan War
Ulysses is the son of Anticleagrandson of the god Hermes, and of Laertesone of the Argonauts who together with Jason recovered the Golden Fleece. He married with Penelope and from their marriage was born Telemachus.
At the outbreak of the Trojan War, Odysseus consulted an oracle, which predicted that if he ever left, he would not return home before twenty years. Then Ulysses tried to pretend to be crazy to avoid both breaking the oath given to the other Greeks and avoiding leaving, but this ploy didn’t work.
At the end of the war, won by the Greeks after ten years, he embarks to return home to Ithaca, to his wife and son: the return journey will last another ten yearsthus fulfilling the oracle’s prophecy.
The 12 stages of Ulysses’ journey
1. Ulysses faces the Cicones
Ulysses’ fleet arrives in the land of the Ciconians, who had sided with Priam, king of the Trojans. Ulysses attacks them to rob them, but spares Maron, priest of Apollo, who gives him some very sweet wine as a sign of gratitude.
2. In the land of the Lotus Eaters
He then arrives in the land of the Lotophagi, or lotus eaters, a fruit that makes men forget everything. The Lotus Eaters are hospitable, but sneaky: they offer the Lotus to the group, so that the men forget the way back. So Ulysses ties his companions to the ships and takes them away by force.
3. The adventure with the Cyclops Polyphemus
Then Ulysses lands on the island of Polyphemus, a terrible Cyclops, a one-eyed creature, son of the sea king Poseidon. The Cyclops traps Ulysses and his companions in his cave to devour them. Thanks to the wine that Marone had given them, Ulysses gets Polyphemus drunk and, while they converse, he reveals his name to the Cyclops, telling him that his name is “Nobody”. Polyphemus falls asleep and Ulysses’ men blind him. The next morning, Polyphemus takes his sheep out of the cave one by one to graze, feeling their backs to make sure that only the sheep come out and not the men. Ulysses and his men hide by hanging under the belly of the sheep, and flee. When Polyphemus is asked who blinded him, he will reply: “Nobody”creating a misunderstanding.
4. On the island of Aeolus, the god of the winds
The next stop is on the island of Aeolus, where Ulysses receives the waterskin containing all the winds from the god himself: the god commands Ulysses never to open it, for any reason. The ship, after a month on the island, leaves for Ithaca: they are almost about to reach it but Ulysses’ men, curious and unable to resist the temptation, open the waterskin. Thus the unfavorable winds are released, and the fleet is pushed out to sea again.
5. The island of Laestrygonians and the destruction of the fleet
The ships thus land on the island of the Lestrigoni, monstrous giants who destroy all the ships of the fleet, except that of Ulysses, who leaves with the now decimated group.
6. The meeting with the sorceress Circe
Odysseus’s only ship then arrives on the island of Circe, a seductive sorceress who transforms Odysseus’ companions into pigs. The god Hermes, messenger of the gods and grandfather of Ulysses’ mother, gives him a magical herb that allows Ulysses not to transform: the hero therefore manages to escape Circe’s pitfalls, and convinces her to restore human form to his companions.
7. Odysseus descends into the underworld and meets the soothsayer Tiresias
Ulysses then decides to head towards the kingdom of the dead to question the blind soothsayer Tiresias and get information about his future: Tiresias tells him that Poseidon is furious with him for having blinded Polyphemus, warns him about meeting the oxen of the Sun god, telling him to leave them unharmed because if they touch them they will return to their homeland only after a long time, and predicts that his death will be peaceful and in old age.
8. Ulysses and the sirens
After the descent into hell, Ulysses and his ship encounter the sirens, bewitching creatures, who hypnotize the sailors with their singing and then drown them. But Ulysses, thanks to an indication received from Circe, manages to neutralize them by plugging his sailors’ ears with wax. However, he wants to hear the singing, so he has himself tied to the mast of the ship to listen without throwing himself into the sea.
9. Scylla and Charybdis
The ship must then cross what is now the Strait of Messina: Circe has in fact advised him that route to avoid another more dangerous one, even if the hero will have to face two terrible sea monsters, Scylla who lives on the Calabrian coast and Charybdis on the Sicilian one. Ulysses manages to defeat them both and lands on the island of the Sun, today’s Sicily.
10. The sacred oxen on the Island of the Sun
The oxen sacred to the god of the Sun, Helios, graze on the island, the very ones Tiresias warned them against. Ulysses’ companions, however, enthusiastic about the victory over Scylla and Charybdis, kill them to feast and celebrate. When they set off again, the gods unleash a storm that sinks the ship, and everyone dies except Ulysses, who was not guilty of that crime.
11. The seven years with the nymph Calypso
Exhausted, Ulysses lands on the island of Ogygia, where the nymph Calypso lives, who falls madly in love with him and holds him back for seven years: again thanks to the intervention of the god Hermes, Ulysses is freed.
12. On the island of the Phaeacians: the meeting with Nausicaa
Odysseus then lands on the island of the Phaeacians, where he meets the daughter of King Alcinous, the princess Nausicaa. She rescues him after the hero had to face another storm sent by Poseidon, who was angry with him. Nausicaa brings him to her father who, moved by his story and all the vicissitudes he has faced, helps Ulysses get ready to return home. Nausicaa, although never expressing it openly, falls in love with him, but he does not reciprocate. The two separate, and Ulysses returns to Ithaca.
The arrival of Odysseus in Ithaca: the meeting with his wife Penelope
Twenty years after his departure for Troy and after ten years of adventures at sea, Ulysses arrives in Ithaca disguised as a beggar: his wife Penelope, in fact, is under the control of the Suitors, the nobles of the island, who, believing her to be a widow, want to marry her. Penelope declined all the proposals, saying that she would choose a husband after finishing spinning: every night, however, she undoes the work woven during the day, taking up more and more time.
Upon his arrival, only the elderly dog, Argus, recognizes Ulysses. This gives him the advantage of being able to observe how things are going in his home. He joins the suitors, accepts the challenges imposed to take Penelope as his wife, managing to overcome them all. At that point he kills all the other suitors.
Penelope, when he reveals that he is Ulysses, initially does not believe him. She then subjects him to one final test, asking him to move their nuptial bed. But Ulysses replies that it cannot be moved, because it was carved from a still living olive tree: Penelope, thus, recognizes her husband and the two resume their life together.
