Odysseus, Lat. Ulysses, in Greek mythology, son and successor of King Laertes of Ithaca. A leader of Greek forces during the Trojan War, Odysseus was noted (as in the Iliad) for his cunning strategy and his wise counsel. He is the central figure of the Odyssey, which tells of his adventures after the fall of Troy. In post-Homeric legend, however, he was pictured as a wily, lying, and evil man. He avoided service in the Trojan War by feigning madness—until exposed by Palamedes, whom he later treacherously caused to be executed.

Elytis, Odysseus, pseud. of Odysseus Alepoudelis, 1911-96, Greek poet, b. Iraklion, Crete. Strongly influenced by surrealism, especially the works of Paul Éluard, in the 1930s he began publishing individualistic and sensuous lyric poetry replete with imagery of the Aegean Islands. He fought with the antifascist resistance in World War II; after the war, his work retained an optimism tempered by violence and hardship. His most impressive work, 11 years in the writing, was To Axion Esti [Worthy It Is] (1959; tr. 1974). A three-part poem that fused the poet's personal experiences with evocations of Greek myth and history, it catapulted him to fame and became extremely popular with the Greek public, particularly those parts that were set to music. In 1979 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his works in English translation are the selected poems of The Sovereign Sun (1974) and What I Love (1986).

Alepoudelis, Odysseus: see Elytis, Odysseus.

Roman Ulysses

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, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, awaited him. Classical opinion was divided on whether he was an unscrupulous politician or a wise and honourable statesman. Odysseus has been one of the most frequently portrayed figures in literature, treated by numerous Greek and Roman poets and by later writers such as William Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida), Níkos Kazantzákis (The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel), and (metaphorically) by James Joyce (Ulysses) and Derek Walcott (Omeros).

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or Odysseas Elytēs, orig. Odysseus Alepoudhelis

(born Nov. 2, 1911, Iráklion, Crete—died March 18, 1996, Athens, Greece) Greek poet. The scion of a prosperous family from Lesbos, he began publishing verse influenced by French Surrealism in the 1930s. His first two collections reveal his love of the Greek landscape and the Aegean Sea. During World War II he fought against the Italians in Albania and became something of a bard among young Greeks. One of his best-known poems is The Axion Esti (1959); later works include The Sovereign Sun (1971) and The Little Mariner (1986). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979.

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