From antiquity onward, Odysseus is usually pictured wearing the soft cap of the Greek mariner

cheek piece from a Greek battle helmet decorated with a relief of our hero

Our Odysseus, Barry Morse

Our hero with his patron goddess Athena

Full size reproduction of the Trojan horse

Blinding the Cyclops

Penelope

Telemachus and Penelope before her famous loom, from a vase painting

Odysseys and Penelope reunited

Various traditions have arisen concerning Odysseus, some of them casting him as a hero, others as a scoundrel. This biography includes the ones most commonly accepted, particularly those referred to or implicit in the Odyssey.

Odysseus ruled the Cephallenians, a people that dwelled on Islands off the northwest coast of mainland Greece.  His oikos, or palace, sat on the rocky island of Ithaca (modern Ithiki). He was not particularly rich by the standards of the other Greek princes who faught at Troy, but he was comfortable enough. His oikos, or homestead, was on small, rocky Ithaca, a beautiful place even today. Like all the heroes of the time, he counted divinities among his ancestors. But they came from his mother's side. Anticlea was the daughter of Autolycus, a notorious thief and con man, who lived with his sons on Mt. Parnassus. Autolycus was the son of Chione and Hermes, an Olympian god. 

Hermes watched over shepherds, land travel, merchants, weights and measures, oratory, literature, athletics and thieves, and known for his cunning and shrewdness. Most importantly, he was the messenger of the gods, and escorted souls of the newly dead to the realm of Hades. Chione, the beautiful daughter of Daedalion, caught the eye of both Hermes and his older brother Apollo. The latter chose to wait until nightfall to dally with the girl, but Hermes charmed her into sleep and came to her first during the day. Chione bore two sons--Philammon to Apollo and Autolycus to Hermes. Philammon inherited Apollo's talent for music, and Autolycus inherited Hermes' skill at trickery.

It was Autolycus who named his grandson, saying, "Since I have become odius among men, let him be Odysseus." The pun is slightly different in Greek, but means roughly the same thing.

Odysseus' father, Laertes, had no distinguished ancestry to boast of, but in his youth he had proved himself in the two great pan-Hellenic adventures -- the hunt for the Calydonian boar and the quest for the Golden Fleece with the Argonauts. The Greek-speaking world of the heroic age consisted of antonymous states related only by political alliances and inter-marriages among the princes. There was no concept of Greece as a country. Something of a national consciousness only began stirring when heroes of the various states joined forces for these adventures. There was to be a third -- the Trojan War, which would virtually bring the heroic age to an end. But. we're getting ahead of our story.

As a boy, Odysseus early exhibited his talents. He had a fondness for archery and excelled at it. With his dog Argos, he liked to hunt, even after a boar gored him and left a scar on his thigh. By this scar his old nurse Eurycleia would later recognize him when he returned in disguise from his wanderings. His chief prowess came from his intelligence and his gift of gab. Some go as far to say that he wasn't particularly imposing in appearance, even a bit bandy-legged, but once he began to speak, no one could resist him. His cleverness endeared him to the goddess Athena, who became his protector at Troy and later on the sea.

Odysseus was one of the original suitors of Helen of Troy. He came to Sparta to woo her primarily because it was expected of him. He was far more interested in Helen's cousin Penelope. King Tyndareus , Helen's father or stepfather, feared then that the preference of one suitor might provoke the enmity of the others, and so Odysseus promised him that, if he would help him win his niece Penelope, he would suggest a way by which there would be no dispute among the suitors When Tyndareus agreed, promising to help him, Odysseus told him to exact an oath from all the hopeful princes that they would defend the favored bridegroom against any wrong that might be done him in respect of his marriage. Helen married Menelaus of the cursed house of Atreus.

Icarius of Lacedaemon, father of Penelope, offered his daughter to the first man who could defeat him in a foot race, and Odysseus succeeded. Subsequently, the old king tried to make the couple settle in Lacedaemon. However,  Odysseus refused. So when the newly-weds set forth for Ithaca, Icarius followed the chariot begging her to stay. After some time, Odysseus bade his wife either to come with him willingly, or else go back with her father to Lacedaemon. Penelope did not reply, but instead covered her face with a veil, and by that sign they both understood that she wished to depart with her husband. She was to prove every bit as clever and wily as her husband.

Upon arriving in Ithaca, Odysseus built a new palace for himself and his bride. Out of a huge oak tree, he carved the marriage bed and then constructed the home around it. The couple had one son, Telemachus. Shortly after his birth, the news came that Helen had eloped with Paris.

After Paris abducted Helen, her husband Menelaus invoked the Oath of Tyndareus. Odysseus was reluctant to make good on it. He pretended to have gone mad, plowing his fields and sowing salt instead of grain. Palamedes of Euboia, who came to bring Odysseus to the War, placed Telemachus in front of the plow, and Odysseus revealed his sanity when he turned aside to avoid injuring the child.

Odysseus served the Greek forces with distinction. He was one of the ambassadors who came to Troy to demand the peaceful restoration of Helen. This embassy failed when the Trojans, who had summoned an assembly, not only refused to give anyone nor anything back, but also threatened to kill the envoys, who were saved only by the intervention of Antenor.

During the war, Odysseus was among those who came to beg Achilles to return to the fight, promising him, on behalf of Agamemnon, the seven tripods, the seven women, the seven cities, and all the other gifts, including Achilles' slave girl Briseis, that the king offered Achilles. But Achilles disliked Odysseus. The two had a running argument about the relative virtue of brains and brawn. As Achilles perished and Odysseus survived, the dispute rather settled itself.

When, after the death of Achilles and Hector, Troy still could not be taken, new prophecies were uttered concerning the fall of the city, and the seer Calchas declared to the Achaeans that they would not be successful unless they had the bow and arrows of Heracles. Before his death, Heracles had given them to Philoctetes who had been marooned on an island at the start of the war, because of a terrible skin disease. To have the prophecy fulfilled, Odysseus and Diomedes sailed to Lemnos where Philoctetes had been abandoned, and having by craft or cunning got possession of the bow, they persuaded him to sail back with them to Troy.

But since the city was still impregnable, Calchas issued a new prophecy, saying that the Trojan seer Helenus was the only one who knew the oracles that protected the city. Odysseus then captured him, and having brought him to the camp, the Achaeans made him disclose the oracles. It was Odysseus again, who following them, brought Neoptolemus to Troy, and stole the Palladium from the city.

After the death of Achilles, Ajax, the Greek strongman, and Odysseus competed for his arms, that were offered as a prize to the bravest. Odysseus was then preferred by the judges, and Ajax, some say, planned an attack on the army to calm his bitterness. However, Athena drove Ajax mad, and he slaughtered the cattle with the herdsmen, taking them for the Achaeans. When he later came to his senses, he slew himself.

It was not before Odysseus conceived the stratagem of the Wooden Horse that Troy could be taken. For, thanks to it, the warriors that hid inside the treacherous device (among whom Odysseus himself), could enter the city and open the gates to the rest of the army.

Odysseus' eventful return from Troy is chronicled in the Odyssey, so we will not go into it here, except to mention that Poseidon, angry over the blinding of his son Polyphemus, delayed Odysseus' homecoming until Athena intervened. Most sources agree that, as the shade of Tiresias prophesied, Odysseus died peacefully at a ripe old age.