Odysseus

How long did it take Odysseus to get home?

Odysseus was gone from Ithaca for a total of twenty years. He spent ten years fighting at Troy, and another ten wandering the seas trying to get back home.

Though he faced many trials and tribulations during his wanderings, Odysseus did eventually make it back to Ithaca. When he finally arrived, however, he found his palace crawling with violent suitors who wanted to marry his wife Penelope and take over his kingdom. Thus, Odysseus’ homecoming was not complete until he had killed all the suitors.

Who turned Odysseus’ crew into pigs?

Odysseus’ crew was turned into pigs by the witch Circe. Circe’s remote island was one of the many stops Odysseus made during his decade of wandering. Upon landing on the island, he sent out some of his men as scouts, but they were transformed into pigs when they came upon Circe’s palace.

When Odysseus learned what had happened, he set out to rescue his men. The god Hermes aided in this quest by gifting Odysseus a plant that made him immune to Circe’s magic. When he came to the witch’s palace, he demanded that she restore his men to their true form. Circe, realizing that she had no power over Odysseus, did as he asked.

How did Odysseus die?

Odysseus was fated to die at the hands of his son Telegonus, the product of his affair with the witch Circe. Telegonus had come to Ithaca in search of his father, having learned about Odysseus from his mother.

But when Telegonus arrived in Ithaca, Odysseus mistook him for a pirate and attacked him. During the ensuing battle, Telegonus, not recognizing his father, killed Odysseus with a spear tipped with the venom of a sea creature. This fulfilled the prophecy that Odysseus’ death would come from the sea.

Odysseus and the Cyclops

During his wanderings, Odysseus happened upon the island of the Cyclopes—giant one-eyed sons of Poseidon. There, the brutal Cyclops Polyphemus captured Odysseus and a few of his men, trapping them in his cave. 

Polyphemus picked off Odysseus’ men two by two, killing and eating them. But Odysseus managed to escape in the end by getting the Cyclops drunk on wine and then blinding him with a sharpened stake when he fell asleep.

Pronunciation

Alternate Names

From an early date, Odysseus’ name existed in a number of variants, including Oliseus, Olyseus, Olysseus, Olyteus, Olytteus, Ōlysseus, and Oulixēs. These forms seem to have been more closely related to Odysseus’ Italian counterparts, the Etruscan Uthuze and the Roman Ulixes or Ulysses. According to John Tzetzes, the Etruscans sometimes called Odysseus Nanus or Nannus.^[3]

Titles and Epithets

Odysseus’ most famous epithet is polytropos, popularly translated as “the man of twists and turns.” This is one of several epithets that highlight Odysseus’ cunning. Others include polymētis, “of many councils,” and polymēchanos, “of many devices.”

Odysseus had other important epithets. Because of his role in sacking Troy, he was called ptoliporthios (“sacker of cities”). Due to his many long years of wandering, he was called polytlas and polytlēmōn (“much-suffering, much enduring”), polypenthēs (“of much pain”), and polystonos (“of much sorrow”). Finally, Odysseus was often simply called by his patronymic, Laertiadēs, meaning “son of Laertes.”

Early Life

Though Odysseus became most famous for his role in the Trojan War and his subsequent wanderings, there is at least one important myth about his early life.

When Odysseus was just entering adulthood, he went to visit his maternal grandfather, Autolycus, on Mount Parnassus in northern Greece. One day, while hunting with his grandfather and uncles, his thigh was gored by a boar. Odysseus managed to kill the boar and escape, but the encounter gave him a scar on his thigh that he carried for the rest of his life (and which allowed some people to recognize him when he returned to Ithaca after his twenty-year absence).^[21]

The Oath of Tyndareus and Marriage to Penelope

Some time afterwards, Odysseus was among the suitors who came to Sparta to seek Helen’s hand in marriage. Helen’s beauty was so famous that all the most powerful Greek princes and heroes wanted to marry her. Odysseus was well aware that he, with his humble kingdom, did not stand a chance against his wealthier and more powerful rivals. In one version, he did not even bother to bring any gifts to accompany his suit, so sure was he that he could never win Helen.^[22]

But Odysseus knew that Helen’s father, Tyndareus, was afraid that as soon as he chose one of the suitors for his daughter, the others would quarrel with the winner. Odysseus had a solution to this problem, which he offered to share with Tyndareus—in exchange for his help in winning the hand of Helen’s cousin Penelope.

Once Tyndareus agreed to the terms, Odysseus explained his solution to the suitor problem: Tyndareus should simply make all the suitors swear an oath that they would support Helen’s chosen husband against anybody who might attack him. After the suitors swore this oath—often called the “Oath of Tyndareus”—Helen was safely married to Menelaus.^[23]

Tyndareus kept his word and helped Odysseus win Penelope. In some versions, Tyndareus simply made Icarius, Penelope’s father, marry his daughter to Odysseus.^[24] But in other versions, Odysseus only won Penelope after he defeated her other suitors in a footrace.^[25]

The Trojan War

Odysseus as Recruit and Recruiter

In most accounts, Odysseus and Penelope were happy together. Before long they had a son, whom they named Telemachus. 

But their happiness was cut short when, back in Sparta, Helen ran off with the dashing Trojan prince Paris. Menelaus flew into a rage and resolved to stop at nothing to get her back. He therefore called on all of Helen’s former suitors to join him in attacking Troy: after all, by swearing the Oath of Tyndareus, the suitors had committed to support Helen’s marriage against any who violated it. They had no choice but to help Menelaus.

Since he had been one of Helen’s suitors, Odysseus was also required to join in the war effort. In one popular myth, he tried to avoid going to Troy by feigning madness; when the Greeks came to get him, he yoked a horse and a bull to a plow and started sowing his fields with salt. 

But one of the recruiters, Palamedes, did not buy Odysseus’ convenient bout of insanity. He proved that Odysseus was faking by placing the infant Telemachus in front of the plow; Odysseus swerved out of the way at the last moment. With his sanity confirmed, Odysseus was forced to join the Greeks in the Trojan War—but he continued to bear a fateful grudge against Palamedes.^[26]

Perhaps somewhat hypocritically, Odysseus then went on to help Menelaus recruit other draft dodgers. The most important of these was Achilles: there had been a prophecy that without him, the Greeks would not be able to take Troy. But Achilles’ mother, Thetis, did not want the young man to fight in the Trojan War, for another prophecy had predicted that he would die there. Thus, she disguised Achilles as a girl and hid him among the daughters of Lycomedes, the king of the island of Skyros.^[27]

Undeterred, Odysseus came up with a clever plan to draw Achilles out of hiding. He came to Skyros with gifts for Lycomedes and his daughters—mostly clothing and jewelry, but also a shield and spear. Next, Odysseus had his men outside fake an attack on the palace. While the girls panicked, Achilles threw off his disguise, grabbed the shield and spear, and prepared to fight. Once Achilles had revealed his identity in this way, Odysseus convinced him to join the Greeks in their war against Troy.^[28]

Delegation to the Trojans

After several misadventures (which lasted as many as ten years, according to some sources), the Greeks finally reached Troy. Hoping that the Trojans would want to avoid a fight, the Greeks decided to send a delegation to demand that Helen be returned. The group was headed by Helen’s husband, Menelaus, and the crafty Odysseus.

This attempt at diplomacy did not go well. The Trojans refused to return Helen, and one of the Trojan elders even tried to have Menelaus and Odysseus assassinated. After making their escape, Menelaus and Odysseus reported the disappointing results to the rest of the Greeks. Thus began the Trojan War.^[29]

Led by Menelaus’ older brother Agamemnon, the Greeks attacked Troy with everything they had. But Troy’s walls were virtually impregnable, and the Greeks soon realized that they needed to settle in for a long war.

Revenge on Palamedes

Meanwhile, Odysseus had not forgotten how Palamedes had put his son’s life in danger when he came to Ithaca to recruit him. Thus, early on in the Trojan War, Odysseus decided to take his revenge. 

There are different accounts of this episode. In one version, Odysseus framed Palamedes for treason. He hid Trojan gold in Palamedes’ tent and forged letters between Palamedes and the Trojan king Priam, in which Palamedes promised to betray the Greeks. This was evidence enough for the Greeks, who promptly put Palamedes to death.^[30]

In another version, attested in a much later source, Odysseus and his friend Diomedes convinced Palamedes that there was treasure buried at the bottom of a well. When Palamedes descended the well to look, Odysseus and Diomedes hurled large stones on top of him and buried him alive.^[31]

Odysseus in the Iliad

Odysseus was one of Agamemnon’s most trusted advisors during the Trojan War and is thus an important character in Homer’s Iliad, which takes place during a few eventful weeks in the ninth year of the war.

Throughout the Iliad, Odysseus distinguishes himself repeatedly as a keen diplomat and firm leader. One episode tells of how Agamemnon tried to test the mettle of the Greek army by telling them that they could go home, hoping that they would voluntarily choose to stay at Troy until they had sacked the city. Instead, the army took Agamemnon at his word and stampeded for the ships. It was Odysseus who prevented them from disbanding.^[32]

This was not the only time Odysseus cleaned up (or tried to clean up) one of Agamemnon’s messes. After Agamemnon insulted Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, and caused him to abandon the war, Odysseus went to Achilles to try and smooth things over. This time, however, Odysseus’ diplomacy failed, for Achilles refused to forgive Agamemnon.^[33]

Later, with the Trojans gaining ground in Achilles’ absence, Odysseus and Diomedes went out on a nighttime spying mission to gather intelligence. They were able to capture a Trojan spy called Dolon, who told them where they could find fresh Trojan reinforcements, led by the Thracian king Rhesus. After killing Dolon, Odysseus and Diomedes snuck into Rhesus’ camp, killed him and his men, and stole his prize horses.^[34]

Homer’s Odysseus is also a brave and skilled fighter, even if he is not as impressive as other heroes like Achilles or Ajax. In one battle, it was only through Odysseus’ efforts that the Greeks were not completely routed by the Trojans.^[35] During the funeral games for Patroclus, Odysseus proved his ability by wrestling Ajax to a draw and winning the footrace.^[36]

After Achilles’ close friend Patroclus was killed in battle by the Trojan champion Hector, it was Odysseus who managed to temper Achilles’ rage. Achilles, devastated by the loss of his friend, wanted to attack the Trojans immediately. But the more level-headed Odysseus convinced him to let the Greeks eat something first.^[37]

The Armor of Achilles

After Achilles was killed by the Trojan prince Paris, Odysseus and Ajax helped carry his body back to the Greek camp. Achilles received a lavish hero’s burial, after which it was decided that his precious armor, forged by the smith god Hephaestus himself, should go to the greatest surviving Greek hero.

Two men presented themselves as candidates for this title: the giant Ajax (sometimes called Ajax “the Greater,” to distinguish him from another Ajax of smaller stature who also fought at Troy, called Ajax “the Lesser”) and Odysseus. Though Ajax was the better warrior, Odysseus’ cunning and strategic ability was considered even more valuable. Odysseus was therefore awarded the armor.

Ajax, furious and humiliated, wanted to avenge his honor by murdering Odysseus. But Athena, Odysseus’ protector, caused Ajax to go mad and turn his sword against the livestock instead. When Ajax realized what he had done, he killed himself.^[38]

Neoptolemus and Philoctetes

With the deaths of both Achilles and Ajax, the Greeks were down their two best warriors. According to a prophecy, if they had any hope of winning the Trojan War (which had already been raging for a decade), they needed the help of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus), who was being raised on the island of Skyros. Odysseus, who had once recruited Achilles on that very island, now returned there to bring Achilles’ son to Troy.^[39]

Another prophecy revealed that the Greeks could not conquer Troy without the bow of Heracles (and, perhaps more importantly, the poisoned arrows that accompanied it). This great bow belonged to Philoctetes, who had joined the Greek army when the war broke out but who had been marooned on the island of Lemnos after receiving a foul-smelling injury.

Once again, it was Odysseus who went to fetch the warrior. Though Philoctetes at first refused to go with Odysseus (it had been Odysseus’ idea to maroon Philoctetes in the first place), he was eventually convinced. Once at Troy, his injury was cured and he used his famous bow to kill Paris.^[40]

The Palladium

The Greeks soon learned of yet another prophecy concerning the course of the war: the city of Troy could not be conquered, it was said, as long as the Trojans held the Palladium—an ancient statue sacred to Athena—within their walls. 

Odysseus again came to the rescue, vowing to steal the Palladium. In some versions of the myth, he snuck into Troy by himself, disguised as a beggar, but in most versions he was assisted in some capacity by his usual accomplice, Diomedes.^[41]

The Trojan Horse

After the Greeks had been at Troy for ten years, Odysseus made what was no doubt his most important contribution to the war effort: he found a way to win the war. 

His plan was relatively simple: the Greeks would build a hollow wooden horse in which several of their heroes would hide. They would then board their ships and sail away from Troy, leaving the horse on the beach. After the Trojans had taken it into the city, the men would sneak out of the horse and open the gates for the Greek army.

To ensure that the Trojans took the bait, the Greeks told one man, Sinon, to stay behind. Sinon pretended that he had been cast out by the Greeks and that the horse was an offering to Athena: the Trojans would do well, he said, to take it into their city. Though some doubted Sinon (especially Cassandra and the priest Laocoon), the Trojans ended up bringing the horse into Troy.

After the Trojans finished celebrating their “victory” and went to bed, the men in the horse opened a trap door, climbed out, and opened the city gates to the rest of the army, which had in the meantime sailed back to Troy. At last, the Greeks had found a way to get past Troy’s impregnable walls—by trickery. Once inside, they proceeded to sack and pillage the city that they had spent a decade fighting.^[42]

The Return Journey: Odysseus in the Odyssey

Though Odysseus played an extremely important role in the Trojan War, he is even more famous for his later adventures. These are the subject of the second great Homeric epic, the Odyssey.

Ismarus and the Cicones

Soon after setting sail from Troy, Odysseus and his twelve ships put in at the town of Ismarus in Thrace. Though Odysseus’ men easily raided the city, they made the mistake of getting drunk afterwards. While their guard was down, they were attacked by the neighboring Cicones, who killed seventy-two of Odysseus’ men and forced the rest to retreat.^[43]

The Lotus-Eaters

Odysseus’ ships were then blown off course by storms, which brought them to the land of the Lotus-eaters. After tasting the lotus fruit, Odysseus’ men fell into a blissful state and no longer cared about returning home. But their captain dragged them to the ships, strapped them down, and sailed away.^[44]

The Cyclops

Odysseus’ next stop was the island of the Cyclopes, a race of giant one-eyed shepherds. One Cyclops, Polyphemus, managed to trap Odysseus and a few of his men in his cave and proceeded to eat them. In fact, he would have eaten them all had Odysseus not devised a plan to escape.

First, Odysseus got Polyphemus drunk with some wine he happened to have on hand. When the Cyclops fell into a deep, drunken sleep, Odysseus and his remaining men blinded him with a sharpened stake. Polyphemus woke up screaming, but, because Odysseus had told him earlier that his name was “Nobody,” his cries did him little good: as he called for help, Polyphemus could only say that “Nobody” was hurting him, so his neighbors assumed he was ill or simply having a bad dream.

The next day, when the blinded Polyphemus opened his cave to pasture his sheep, Odysseus and his men were able to sneak away. But once they were safely in their ship, Odysseus could not resist the urge to taunt the Cyclops. As he and his men were sailing away, he cried out:

Cyclops, if any one of mortal men shall ask thee about the shameful blinding of thine eye, say that Odysseus, the sacker of cities, blinded it, even the son of Laertes, whose home is in Ithaca.^[45]

Polyphemus heard Odysseus and cast a boulder at him, nearly sinking the ship. He then begged his father Poseidon to avenge him. This was how Odysseus incurred the hatred of Poseidon, who prevented him from reaching home for ten years.^[46]

Aeolus and the Winds

Odysseus then sailed to the island of Aeolus, the master of the winds. Aeolus took a liking to Odysseus and gave him a bag containing all of the winds except the West Wind. With the weather now in his favor, Odysseus would have a quick and easy journey home.

And indeed, Odysseus made it most of the way to Ithaca without incident. But while he was sleeping, his men opened the bag of winds, thinking Odysseus was hiding a treasure inside. The released winds quickly blew Odysseus all the way back to Aeolus. Realizing that Odysseus must have angered some god, Aeolus refused to help the hero a second time.^[47]

More Misfortunes: The Laestrygonians and Circe

Things only got worse for Odysseus from here. First he came to the land of the cannibalistic Laestrygonians, who attacked his ships while they were in harbor and ate his men. Of Odysseus’ twelve ships, eleven were destroyed—along with all the men inside. Only Odysseus’ ship was able to get away.^[48]

Odysseus, now with only one ship, next came to the island of the sorceress Circe, a daughter of the sun god Helios. Odysseus sent out a small party of men to explore, but only one of them, Odysseus’ brother-in-law Eurylochus, returned. Eurylochus revealed that, as he hid, the other men drank a potion that Circe gave them and were immediately transformed into pigs.

With the help of Hermes, Odysseus was able to track down Circe and force her to change his men back. Impressed, Circe entertained Odysseus and his men for a long time, giving them a welcome break from their wanderings. Odysseus himself became Circe’s lover.^[49]

The Underworld

Eventually, Odysseus decided that it was time to leave Circe and make another attempt to get home. When he asked Circe for directions, she told him that the only person who could help him was the prophet Tiresias. But since Tiresias was dead, the only way to speak to him would be to visit him in the Underworld.

Circe revealed how to get to the Underworld and what sacrifices Odysseus needed to make to appease the infernal gods. She also told him that when the shades of the dead approached him, he could speak with them by letting them drink from the sacrificial blood.

Odysseus did as Circe instructed and successfully entered the Underworld. When Tiresias appeared, he gave Odysseus clear instructions to avoid harming the cattle of Helios when he and his men put in on the island of Thrinacia. He also warned Odysseus that when he did reach Ithaca, he would find his palace overrun by suitors trying to marry his wife Penelope and claim his kingdom. 

Tiresias then revealed that Odysseus had offended Poseidon by blinding his son Polyphemus; thus, after returning to Ithaca, he would need to go on another journey to appease the powerful god:

do thou go forth, taking a shapely oar, until thou comest to men that know naught of the sea and eat not of food mingled with salt, aye, and they know naught of ships with purple cheeks, or of shapely oars that are as wings unto ships. And I will tell thee a sign right manifest, which will not escape thee. When another wayfarer, on meeting thee, shall say that thou hast a winnowing-fan on thy stout shoulder, then do thou fix in the earth thy shapely oar and make goodly offerings to lord Poseidon—a ram, and a bull, and a boar that mates with sows—and depart for thy home and offer sacred hecatombs to the immortal gods who hold broad heaven, to each one in due order.^[50]

Tiresias concluded by prophesying Odysseus’ death: “And death shall come to thee thyself far from the sea, a death so gentle, that shall lay thee low when thou art overcome with sleek old age, and thy people shall dwell in prosperity around thee.”^[51]

After learning what he needed from Tiresias, Odysseus spoke to the shades of people he had known while they were alive, including Achilles, Agamemnon, and even his own mother, Anticlea, who had died waiting for her son to come home from Troy. He also saw many famous dead heroes (Theseus, Heracles) and villains suffering eternal punishment (Sisyphus, Tantalus).^[52]

Sea Monsters and Sacred Cows

Odysseus and his men then returned to Circe’s island, where they buried one of their companions, Elpenor, who had died while they were preparing to sail for the Underworld. 

When they set off again, Odysseus and his men first sailed by the Sirens, monsters who lured sailors to their death with their beautiful song. Odysseus stopped his men’s ears with wax so that they would not hear the fatal music. But Odysseus was determined to listen; thus, he had himself lashed to the mast so he could hear the song without diving to his death.^[53]

Odysseus then passed between the many-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, two creatures who inhabited opposite sides of a narrow strait. Following Circe’s advice, Odysseus steered close to Scylla, knowing that while she would devour six of his men (one for each of her mouths), Charybdis would swallow the whole ship and all of his men with it.^[54]

After passing these monsters, Odysseus reached the island of Thrinacia, which was sacred to the sun god Helios. Though Odysseus warned his men not to harm the cattle of Helios (as Tiresias had instructed), they ignored him and hunted down the sacred animals. Helios reported this crime to Zeus, who caused a storm to wreck Odysseus’ ship. Odysseus—who alone had not touched Helios’ cattle—was the sole survivor.^[55]

Ogygia and Calypso

After losing his last ship and all of his crew, Odysseus was washed ashore on the island of Ogygia. There he was found by Calypso, the daughter of the Titan Atlas. Calypso made Odysseus her lover and forced him to remain with her for seven years.

Eventually, the gods remembered Odysseus, and Zeus sent Hermes to order Calypso to release the hero.^[56] Calypso allowed Odysseus to build a raft, but not before offering to make him immortal if he stayed with her. Odysseus gently declined this offer:

I know full well of myself that wise Penelope is meaner to look upon than thou in comeliness and in stature, for she is a mortal, while thou art immortal and ageless. But even so I wish and long day by day to reach my home, and to see the day of my return.^[57]

The Phaecians

Odysseus built a raft and set sail from Ogygia. But when Poseidon saw him, he sent up a great storm that wrecked the raft. It was only with the help of the sea goddess Leucothoe that Odysseus was able to avoid drowning. Clinging to a piece of timber, he floated on the sea for days until he washed ashore on Scheria, the island of the Phaecians.^[58]

It was on Scheria that Odysseus’ luck finally took a turn for the better. He was discovered on the beach by the princess Nausicaa, who told him to come to the palace. There, Odysseus was welcomed by the kindly king Alcinous and his wife Arete. Odysseus eventually agreed to tell his story, after which the Phaecians gave him many beautiful gifts, put him on a ship, and took him to Ithaca. After twenty years, Odysseus had finally come home.^[59]

The Suitors

Back in Ithaca, Odysseus discovered that, as Tiresias had warned, many suitors had come to his palace to try to marry his wife Penelope. To prevent them from recognizing and killing him, Athena disguised Odysseus as an old beggar.^[60]

Odysseus first found his way to the house of Eumaeus, a swineherd and a loyal former servant. There he met his son, Telemachus, now a fully grown man. Overcome, Odysseus revealed his identity to Telemachus and Eumaeus and recruited them to help him defeat the suitors.^[61]

Odysseus then went to the palace, still disguised as a beggar. The suitors, living off of the estate of the absent Odysseus, had made his palace their home. For a few days Odysseus played the role of the beggar, letting himself be mistreated by the suitors.^[62] He was recognized only by his dog Argus, who died immediately after being reunited with his master, and by his old nurse Euryclea, who recognized him by the scar on his thigh.^[63]

Odysseus did not reveal his identity to Penelope, but he did speak to her privately one night at the palace. During their interview, Penelope told Odysseus that she had been fending off the obnoxious suitors for years, but that she had decided to marry whichever one of them could string Odysseus’ old bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe rings.^[64]

The next day, Penelope announced the test of Odysseus’ bow. When none of the suitors were able to even string it (much less shoot an arrow through the rings), the “beggar” Odysseus asked to try. Of course, he easily accomplished the task. He then revealed his identity to the shocked suitors and—with the help of his son Telemachus, the swineherd Eumaeus, and the cowherd Philoetius—proceeded to slaughter them all.^[65]

After the massacre, Odysseus resolved to scour his home clean. He had the handmaids who had slept with the rowdy suitors clean up their bodies; once they had finished their task, he hanged them.^[66]

Reunion with Penelope

Odysseus then revealed himself to Penelope. But Penelope, who had not seen her husband in twenty years, was hesitant to take him at his word.

Penelope decided to test Odysseus to make sure it was really him. She ordered the servants to bring out his bed so that he could sleep, but Odysseus immediately told her that this was impossible, for he had built the bed out of a living olive tree. Since only the real Odysseus could have known this fact, Penelope realized that her husband had finally come home.^[67]

Laertes and the People of Ithaca

The next day, Odysseus went out to the country, where his aged father, Laertes, had his estate. Immediately after father and son were reunited, however, Odysseus learned that the people of Ithaca, wanting revenge for the deaths of the suitors, had taken up arms against him.

Odysseus and Laertes grabbed their weapons and prepared to fight the angry mob. But just then Athena appeared to persuade both sides to make peace with one another.^[68]

Other Adventures and Death

Following his return to Ithaca, Odysseus was forced to set out on another journey: he still needed to appease Poseidon, who had been angry with him ever since he had blinded Polyphemus. 

Odysseus sailed to northern Greece and traveled deep inland with an oar on his shoulder, as Tiresias had instructed him to do. When he met somebody who mistook the oar for a winnowing fan, he planted it in the ground and sacrificed to Poseidon.

But Odysseus did not immediately go home. Instead, he stayed in the kingdom of the Thesprotians and even married the Thesprotian queen, Callidice. He then helped the Thesprotians fight a war against their neighbors. After Callidice died, Odysseus made their son, Polpoetes, king of Thesprotia and sailed back to Ithaca.

In the meantime, Telegonus, Odysseus’ son by Circe, had set sail in search of his father. When he arrived in Ithaca, he started raiding the countryside; in response, Odysseus went out to confront the violent stranger. Unfortunately, the father and son did not recognize each other, and Telegonus killed Odysseus with a spear whose tip had been poisoned with the barb of a stingray.

When Telegonus realized that he had killed his father, he was heartbroken. He buried and mourned Odysseus, then brought Penelope and Telemachus to his mother’s island of Aeaea. There, Telemachus married Circe, while Telegonus himself married Penelope.^[69]

Other Versions

There were also other, lesser-known versions of the final adventures of Odysseus.

In some accounts, Penelope did not wait faithfully for Odysseus to return, as she did in the Odyssey. Instead, she took a god or one of the suitors (or even all of the suitors, in some versions) as her lover. When Odysseus came home and discovered this, he either banished Penelope,^[70] killed her,^[71] or left Ithaca to continue his wanderings.^[72]

In other versions, Odysseus was exiled from Ithaca for killing the suitors and ended up sailing to Aetolia, the mainland region just opposite Ithaca. There, he married the daughter of a certain Thoas, settled down, and eventually died of old age.^[73]