Myth & LegendGreek → English
Odysseus
/oʊˈdɪsiəs/proper noun
The king of Ithaca whose ten-year voyage home from Troy is the subject of the Odyssey.
The Greek roots
ὀδύσσομαι
odýssomai
to bear a grudge, to hate
Literally: “the one who bears a grudge”
Follow a root:ὀδύσσομαι1 word
The story of the word
Homer stops the poem to explain the name. Autolycus, the newborn's grandfather, says he has come here bearing grudges against many, so let the child be called Odysseus. The pun runs both ways through the epic: he is the man who resents and the man the gods resent, and the whole voyage is the bill for it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
Same family
odysseyUlysses
In a sentence
She read the Odysseus books first and went back to the Telemachy afterwards.