Odysseus

In the Iliad, Odysseus is already the counsellor and fixer: he holds the assembly together in Book II, goes on the night raid in Book X, and is one of the three envoys sent to Achilles in Book IX. The Odyssey makes him the centre. The proem calls him the man of many devices who wandered far, saw the cities and learned the minds of many men, and suffered many griefs at sea.

His defining quality is not physical strength. It is the capacity to adapt, to lie convincingly, to wait, and to remember. He survives the Cyclops by calling himself “Nobody,” escapes Circe by knowing the herb that protects him, and returns to Ithaca as an old beggar rather than as a king. He understands that identity can be hidden and revealed.

After Troy, Odysseus is driven off course by storms and by Poseidon’s anger. He loses his ships and companions one by one: the Lotus-Eaters tempt his men with forgetfulness; the Cyclops Polyphemus eats them; Aeolus’ bag of winds is opened by his crew within sight of Ithaca; the Laestrygonians destroy all but one ship; Circe turns some of his men into pigs; he descends to the underworld to consult Tiresias; the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis kill more; and the crew eat the cattle of Helios and are destroyed.

He alone survives, held for seven years by Calypso, then shipwrecked on Scheria, where the Phaeacians treat him as an honoured guest. There he finally tells the story of his wanderings, and they carry him home in a ship loaded with gifts. The narrative thus places his own voice at the centre of the poem: the wanderer becomes the poet of his own suffering.

Odysseus reaches Ithaca asleep and is carried ashore by the Phaeacians. Athena disguises him as a beggar and sends him to the swineherd Eumaeus. He reveals himself to Telemachus, returns to his own hall to be abused by the suitors, and waits. Penelope sets the contest of the bow; no suitor can string it. The beggar asks for a turn, strings the bow, and shoots Antinous through the throat.

The killing that follows is a slaughter, not a fair fight. With Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius, Odysseus kills the suitors and the unfaithful servants, and only then proves himself to Penelope by naming the secret sign of the bed he built from a living olive tree. His nóstos is complete only when the household is restored and the families of the dead are reconciled.