Odysseus
King of Ithaca

Alternative parentage: Sisyphus and Anticleia,^[15B] Ithacus^[Q35C]

In Roman mythology, he is Ulysses.^[15B]
Born in Ithaca on Mount Neriton, or at Alalcomenae in Boeotia according to another tradition.^[H45]
Renowned for his eloquence, subtlety, sagacity, and wisdom, he was one of the suitors of Helen. He was the most politic of all the commanders who conducted the siege of Troy, to the capture of which he greatly contributed by his stratagems and exploits. The invention of the wooden horse is ascribed to him by some writers. After the death of Achilles he contended for his armour with success against Ajax. His wanderings, navigations, and adventures after the destruction of Troy form the subject of the Odyssey of Homer, who relates that he sailed from Troy with twelve ships, and was driven by the wind to the coast of Africa; that he visited the island of Aeolus, who gave him a number of winds confined in a bag; that he passed a year in the island of Circe the magician; that, after many of his companions had been devoured by the Cyclops and Scylla, he was driven to the island of Calypso, who gave him a warm reception, detained him for eight years, and tempted him to marry her, with the promise of immortality, which he declined, 'vetulam suam praetulit immortalitati'; that after an absence of twenty years he returned to Ithaca alone and disguised as a beggar, and found his palace occupied by numerous suitors, whom, with the aid of his son Telemachus, he killed.^[Q35C]