Odysseus

Odysseus was king of the small island of Ithaca and husband to the faithful Penelope. Though he tried to avoid the Trojan War by feigning madness, his ruse was discovered and he sailed for Troy. There, his intelligence proved decisive — he devised the strategy of the Trojan Horse that finally ended the ten-year siege.

But his journey home became an epic in itself. Over ten years of wandering, Odysseus faced the Cyclops Polyphemus (whom he blinded), the enchantress Circe (who turned his men to swine), the Sirens (whose song he resisted while lashed to his mast), Scylla and Charybdis, and seven years trapped on Calypso's island.

When he finally reached Ithaca, he found his palace overrun with suitors courting his wife Penelope and consuming his wealth. Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus entered his own home, strung his great bow that no suitor could bend, and slaughtered them all. His reunion with Penelope is one of literature's most moving scenes.