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Definition: Odysseus from Philip's Encyclopedia

(Ulysses) Greek hero of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. King of the city-state of Ithaca, husband of the faithful Penelope, he was an astute and brave warrior. It was Odysseus who devised the wooden horse used to enter Troy during the Trojan War.

Odysseus

From The Encyclopedia of Ancient History
Mythical king of Ithaca, son of Laertes and Antikleia; with Penelope, father of Telemachos. In the Iliad , he is already Odysseus "of the many wiles" ( polymetis ) and has a reputation for cunning, being chosen for the embassy to Achilles (Book 9) and accompanying Diomedes on the night mission (Book 10), but otherwise differs little from the other Greek heroes. In the Odyssey , which recounts his ten-year voyage home from Troy, his cunning is prominent. Initially behaving in Iliadic fashion, attacking the Kikones purely for glory and gain, he learns caution, routinely concealing his identity in order to test those he encounters, including his swine-herd Eumaios, Penelope, Laertes, Telemachos, and even the disguised Athena. He survives numerous adventures, though losing all his companions, before being detained on Kalypso's island for seven years. Released at Zeus' behest, he is shipwrecked by Poseidon and washes up in Scheria, home of the Phaiakians. There he recounts his exploits – …
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Full text Article Laertes

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary
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Full text Article Greek mythology

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Oral and literary traditions of the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes and the nature and history of the cosmos. The Greek myths and legends are known today primarily from Greek literature, including such classic works as Homer ’s Iliad and Odyssey , Hesiod ’s Works and Days and…
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Full text Article Odysseus

From Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World
Ancient Greek mirrors were typically round, made...
In myth, this wily king of Ithaca (a small island on the northwest coast of Greece) was a captain of the Greeks in the…
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Full text Article Odysseus

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Odysseus slaying the suitors, detail of a...
Hero of Homer ’s Odyssey . According to Homer, Odysseus was the king of Ithaca. His shrewdness, resourcefulness, and endurance enabled him to capture Troy (through the device of the Trojan horse) and endure nine years of wandering and adventures before reaching his home in Ithaca, where his wife, …
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Full text Article Odysseus,

From The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
according to Greek legend the son of Laertes and Anticleia and one of the most famous heroes of ancient Greece. After the capture of Troy, achieved by his stratagem of the wooden horse, he set sail for Ithaca but unfavourable winds carried him along the coast of North Africa and across the unknown…
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Full text Article Mythology

From The Classical Tradition
Translated by Jeannine Routier Pucci and Elizabeth Trapnell Rawlings Along with philosophy and politics, mythology is one of the major areas of influence of ancient culture on our own. In the most common sense of the word, mythology belongs to the classical tradition. Among ancient societies, it was…
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Greek mythology developed out of the regional traditions and local cults that developed among ethnically similar but culturally distinct groups. Traditions and deities waxed and waned in popularity across the history of ancient Greece. Unlike many of their ancient contemporaries, the gods of the…
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Full text Article Odysseus

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
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Full text Article MYTHOLOGY

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
In the NT, the term μυθος is always used in a negative sense (1 Tim 1:4; 4:7; Tit 1:14; 2 Pet 1:16); in 2 Tim 4:4 it is starkly contrasted with αληθεια. The * antithesis μυθος αληθεια, largely present in Greek thought and even in * Philo ( Exsecr. 162), one also finds in Christian authors and in…
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Full text Article Odysseus (Latin Ulixes, hence Ulysses)

From Dictionary of Classical Mythology
Odysseus escapes from the cave of the...
King of ITHACA ; husband of the faithful PENELOPE ; hero of Homer's Odyssey ; and one of the most famous characters in the whole of ancient myth. Not surprisingly he was always a popular figure with ancient artists, with the various episodes of his life frequently depicted on vase-paintings from as…
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