Odysseus
The craftiest of all Greek heroes, whose ten-year voyage home from Troy tested every human capacity for survival and adaptation.
The Legend of Odysseus
Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus — a man defined not by strength but by metis (cunning intelligence). He devised the Trojan Horse that ended the ten-year siege. But his journey home took another ten years, during which he faced the Cyclops Polyphemus (whom he blinded after declaring himself Nobody), the enchantress Circe (who turned his men to pigs), the Sirens (whom he heard while bound to the mast), Scylla and Charybdis, the cattle of Helios, and seven years of imprisonment by the nymph Calypso. He was the only survivor of his crew, arriving in Ithaca alone, disguised as a beggar by Athena. He found his palace overrun by suitors consuming his wealth and courting Penelope. With Telemachus and the loyal swineherd Eumaeus, Odysseus strung his great bow — which no suitor could bend — and slaughtered them all. Homer gives him the epithet polytropos: man of many turns, many disguises, many strategies.
Fun Fact
The word odyssey — meaning any long, transformative journey — comes directly from Odysseus's name.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Odysseus
🗡 heroMan of many wiles
Odysseus was the most cunning of all Greek heroes — the man of polytropos (many turns), whose intelligence rather than strength defined a new kind of heroism.
Odysseus
🗡 heroKing of Ithaca, hero of the Trojan War
The cleverest of the Greek heroes, whose ten-year journey home from Troy is one of the greatest stories ever told. Odysseus's cunning was his greatest weapon.
Jason
🗡 heroLeader of the Argonauts
The hero who assembled the Argonauts and sailed to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece, aided by Medea's sorcery.
Theseus
🗡 heroSlayer of the Minotaur, king of Athens
The hero who navigated the Labyrinth, slew the Minotaur, and became the legendary king of Athens. Theseus was considered Athens's national hero.
Menelaus
🗡 heroKing of Sparta, husband of Helen
Menelaus was the king of Sparta whose stolen wife Helen was the cause of the Trojan War — yet he survived the war, the return, and old age, a rare happy ending among Greek heroes.
Idomeneus
🗡 heroKing of Crete at Troy
Idomeneus was the king of Crete who led eighty ships to Troy and was among the fiercest fighters — his story continued in a vow that cost him his son.
Thoas of Aetolia
🗡 heroLeadership, Trojan War, Survival
Aetolian king and capable Greek commander at Troy who led forty black ships and survived the war.
Theseus
🗡 heroFounder-hero of Athens
Theseus was the great hero of Athens who slew the Minotaur, united Attica, and established Athenian democracy — Athens' answer to Heracles.
Theseus
🗡 heroFounder-hero of Athenian democracy
The hero who killed the Minotaur and later united Attica under Athens, becoming the mythological founder of Athenian democracy.
Autolycus
🗡 herotheft, cunning
The master thief and shapeshifter, grandfather of Odysseus, whose gift for deception was inherited by the most cunning hero in Greek mythology.
Antiphates
🗡 heroCannibalism, kingship
King of the Laestrygonians, a race of man-eating giants encountered by Odysseus on his voyage home
Cocalus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A king of Sicily who sheltered the craftsman Daedalus after his escape from Crete and whose daughters killed King Minos with boiling water