Editing Odysseus (section)

== Name, etymology, and epithets ==
The form {{lang|grc|Ὀδυσ(σ)εύς}} ''Odys(s)eus'' is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, there are the variants ''Oliseus'' ({{lang|grc|Ὀλισεύς}}), ''Olyseus'' ({{lang|grc|Ὀλυσεύς}}), ''Olysseus'' ({{lang|grc|Ὀλυσσεύς}}), ''Olyteus'' ({{lang|grc|Ὀλυτεύς}}), ''Olytteus'' ({{lang|grc|Ὀλυττεύς}}) and ''Ōlysseus'' ({{lang|grc|Ὠλυσσεύς}}). The form ''Oulixēs'' ({{lang|grc|Οὐλίξης}}) is attested in an early source in [[Magna Graecia]] ([[Ibycus]], according to [[Diomedes Grammaticus]]), while the Greek grammarian [[Aelius Herodianus]] has ''Oulixeus'' ({{lang|grc|Οὐλιξεύς}}).<ref>Entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2372123 "{{lang|grc|Ὀδυσσεύς}}"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305063452/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2372123 |date=5 March 2008 }}, in: Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott: ''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]'', 1940.</ref> In [[Latin]], he was known as ''{{lang|la|Ulixēs}}'' or (considered less correct) ''{{lang|la|Ulyssēs}}''. Some have supposed that "there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality."<ref>{{cite book|last=Stanford|first=William Bedell|title=The Ulysses theme. A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero|year=1968|publisher=Spring Publications|place=New York|page=8}}</ref> However, the change between ''d'' and ''l'' is common also in some Indo-European and Greek names,<ref>See the entry [[wikt:Ἀχιλλεύς|"Ἀχιλλεύς"]] in Wiktionary; ''cfr.'' Greek [[wikt:δάκρυ|δάκρυ, ''dákru'']], vs. Latin ''[[wikt:lacrima|lacrima]]'' "tear".</ref> and the Latin form is supposed to be derived from the [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] ''{{lang|ett-Latn|Uthuze}}'' (see below), which perhaps accounts for some of the phonetic innovations.

The etymology of the name is unknown. Ancient authors linked the name to the Greek verbs ''{{lang|grc-Latn|odussomai}}'' ({{lang|grc|ὀδύσσομαι}}) "to be wroth against, to hate",<ref>Entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Do)du%2Fssomai "{{lang|grc|ὀδύσσομαι}}"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106112951/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Do%29du%2Fssomai |date=6 January 2021 }} in Liddell and Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon''.</ref> to ''{{lang|grc-Latn|oduromai}}'' ({{lang|grc|ὀδύρομαι}}) "to lament, bewail",<ref>Entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Do)du%2Fromai "{{lang|grc|ὀδύρομαι}}"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806092701/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Do)du%2Fromai |date=6 August 2020 }} in Liddell and Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon''.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Homers Odysseen|editor=Helmut van Thiel|location=Berlin|publisher=Lit|year=2009|page=194}}</ref> or even to ''{{lang|grc-Latn|ollumi}}'' ({{lang|grc|ὄλλυμι}}) "to perish, to be lost".<ref>Entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=LSJ+o%29%2Fllumi&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057 "{{lang|grc|ὄλλυμι}}"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806004754/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=LSJ+o%29%2Fllumi&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057 |date=6 August 2020 }} in Liddell and Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon''.</ref><ref name="Burns2008">{{cite book|author=Marcy George-Kokkinaki|title=Literary Anthroponymy: Decoding the Characters in Homer's Odyssey|url=http://www.antrocom.net/upload/sub/antrocom/040208/10-Antrocom.pdf|access-date=4 May 2017|publisher=Antrocom|year=2008|volume=4|issue=2|pages=145–157|archive-date=22 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422065930/http://www.antrocom.net/upload/sub/antrocom/040208/10-Antrocom.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Homer]] relates it to various forms of this verb in references and puns. In Book 19 of the ''Odyssey'', where Odysseus's early childhood is recounted, [[Euryclea]] asks the boy's grandfather [[Autolycus]] to name him. Euryclea seems to suggest a name like ''Polyaretos'', "for he has ''much'' been ''prayed for''" ({{Lang|grc|πολυάρητος}})  but Autolycus "apparently in a sardonic mood" decided to give the child another name commemorative of "his own experience in life":<ref>{{cite book|last=Stanford|first=William Bedell|title=The Ulysses theme|url=https://archive.org/details/ulyssesthemestud0000stan_n5f7|url-access=registration|year=1968|page=[https://archive.org/details/ulyssesthemestud0000stan_n5f7/page/11 11]}}</ref> "Since I have been angered ({{Lang|grc|ὀδυσσάμενος}} ''odyssamenos'') with many, both men and women, let the name of the child be Odysseus".<ref>''Odyssey'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D19%3Acard%3D361 19.400–405] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210617013557/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D19%3Acard%3D361 |date=17 June 2021 }}.</ref> Odysseus often receives the [[patronymic]] epithet ''Laertiades'' ({{lang|grc|Λαερτιάδης}}), "son of [[Laertes (father of Odysseus)|Laërtes]]".

It has also been suggested that the name is of non-Greek origin, possibly not even [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], with an unknown etymology.<ref name="Dihle1994">{{cite book|last=Dihle|first=Albrecht|title=A History of Greek Literature. From Homer to the Hellenistic Period|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NkO_Eozss_cC&pg=PA19|access-date=4 May 2017|year=1994|publisher=Routledge|place=London and New York|translator=Clare Krojzl|isbn=978-0-415-08620-2|page=19}}</ref> [[Robert S. P. Beekes]] has suggested a [[Pre-Greek]] origin.<ref>Robert S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, Leiden 2009, p. 1048.</ref> In [[Etruscan religion]], the name (and stories) of Odysseus were adopted under the name ''{{lang|ett-Latn|Uthuze}}'' (''Uθuze''), which has been interpreted as a parallel borrowing from a preceding [[Minoan language|Minoan]] form of the name (possibly ''*Oduze'', {{IPA|omn|ˈot͡θut͡se|pron|small=no}}); this theory is supposed to explain also the insecurity of the phonologies (''d'' or ''l''), since the [[affricate]] {{IPAblink|t͡θ}}, unknown to the Greek of that time, gave rise to different counterparts (i.&nbsp;e. ''δ'' or ''λ'' in Greek, ''θ'' in Etruscan).<ref>Glen Gordon, [http://paleoglot.blogspot.de/2009/11/pre-greek-name-for-odysseus.html ''A Pre-Greek name for Odysseus''], published at ''Paleoglot. Ancient languages. Ancient civilizations''. Retrieved 4 May 2017.</ref>

In the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey,'' Homer uses several [[epithets in Homer|epithets]] to describe Odysseus, starting with the opening, where he is described as "the man of many devices" (in the 1919 Murray translation). The Greek word used is ''polytropos'', literally the man of many turns, and other translators have suggested alternate English translations, including "man of twists and turns" (Fagles 1996) and "a complicated man" (Wilson 2018).