Editing Odysseus (section)

=== During the Trojan War ===

==== The ''Iliad'' ====
{{Main|Iliad}}
[[File:Patroclus corpse MAN Firenze.jpg|thumb|[[Menelaus]] and [[Meriones (mythology)|Meriones]] lifting [[Patroclus]]'s corpse on a cart while Odysseus looks on, [[Etruscan art|Etruscan]] [[alabaster]] urn from [[Volterra]], Italy, 2nd century BC]]
Odysseus is represented as one of the most influential Greek champions during the Trojan War in Homer's account. Along with [[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]] and [[Idomeneus]] he is one of the most trusted counsellors and advisors. He always champions the Achaean cause, especially when others question Agamemnon's command, as in one instance when [[Thersites]] speaks against him. When Agamemnon, to test the morale of the Achaeans, announces his intentions to depart Troy, Odysseus restores order to the Greek camp.<ref>''Iliad'' 2.</ref> Later on, after many of the heroes leave the battlefield due to injuries (including Odysseus and Agamemnon), Odysseus once again persuades Agamemnon not to withdraw. Along with two other envoys, he is chosen in the failed embassy to try to persuade Achilles to return to combat.<ref>''Iliad'' 9.</ref>

[[File:Rhesos MNA Naples.jpg|thumb|left|Odysseus and [[Diomedes]] stealing the horses of Thracian king [[Rhesus of Thrace|Rhesus]] they have just killed. Apulian red-figure situla, from Ruvo]]
When [[Hector]] proposes a single combat duel, Odysseus is one of the [[Danaans]] who reluctantly volunteered to battle him. [[Ajax the Great|Telamonian Ajax]] ("The Greater"), however, is the volunteer who eventually fights Hector.<ref>''Iliad'' 7.</ref> Odysseus aids [[Diomedes]] during the night operations to kill [[Rhesus of Thrace|Rhesus]], because it had been foretold that if his horses drank from the [[Karamenderes River|Scamander River]], Troy could not be taken.<ref>''Iliad'' 10.</ref>

After [[Patroclus]] is slain, it is Odysseus who counsels Achilles to let the [[Achaea (ancient region)|Achaean]] men eat and rest rather than follow his rage-driven desire to go back on the offensive—and kill Trojans—immediately. Eventually (and reluctantly), he consents.<ref>''Iliad'' 19.</ref> During the funeral games for Patroclus, Odysseus becomes involved in a wrestling match with Ajax "The Greater" and foot race with Ajax "The Lesser", son of Oileus and Nestor's son [[Antilochus]]. He draws the wrestling match, and with the help of the goddess [[Athena]], he wins the race.<ref>''Iliad'' 23.</ref>

Odysseus has traditionally been viewed as Achilles's antithesis in the ''Iliad'':<ref>D. Gary Miller (2014 ), ''Ancient Greek Dialects and Early Authors'', De Gruyter {{ISBN|978-1-61451-493-0}}. pp. 120–121</ref> while Achilles's anger is all-consuming and of a self-destructive nature, Odysseus is frequently viewed as a man of the mean, a voice of reason, renowned for his self-restraint and diplomatic skills. He is also in some respects antithetical to Telamonian Ajax (Shakespeare's "beef-witted" Ajax): while the latter has only brawn to recommend him, Odysseus is not only ingenious (as evidenced by his idea for the Trojan Horse), but an eloquent speaker, a skill perhaps best demonstrated in the embassy to Achilles in book 9 of the ''Iliad''. The two are not only foils in the abstract but often opposed in practice since they have many duels and run-ins.

==== Other stories from the Trojan War ====
[[File:05-Mosaico del Oecus. Aquiles en Skyros alta.jpg|thumb|[[Roman mosaic]] depicting Odysseus at Skyros unveiling the disguised [[Achilles]];<ref>[http://www2.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antigua-universal/NOTICIAS/INICIO_NOTICIAS_26-mayo_05.htm Documentation on the "Villa romana de Olmeda"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161204161344/http://www2.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antigua-universal/NOTICIAS/INICIO_NOTICIAS_26-mayo_05.htm |date=4 December 2016 }}, displaying a photograph of the whole mosaic, entitled "Aquiles en el gineceo de Licomedes" (Achilles in [[Lycomedes]]' 'seraglio').</ref> from [[La Olmeda]], [[Pedrosa de la Vega]], Spain, 5th century AD]]

Since a prophecy suggested that the Trojan War would not be won without [[Achilles]], Odysseus and several other [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaean]] leaders are described in the ''[[Achilleid]]'' as having gone to [[Achilles on Skyros|Skyros]] to find him. Odysseus discovered Achilles by offering gifts, adornments and musical instruments as well as weapons, to the king's daughters, and then having his companions imitate the noises of an enemy's attack on the island (most notably, making a blast of a trumpet heard), which prompted Achilles to reveal himself by picking a weapon to fight back, and together they departed for the Trojan War.<ref>''[[Achilleid]]'', book 1.</ref>

The story of the death of [[Palamedes (mythology)|Palamedes]] has many versions. According to some, Odysseus never forgives Palamedes for unmasking his [[feigned madness]] and plays a part in his downfall. One tradition says Odysseus convinces a Trojan captive to write a letter pretending to be from Palamedes. A sum of gold is mentioned to have been sent as a reward for Palamedes's treachery. Odysseus then kills the prisoner and hides the gold in Palamedes's tent. He ensures that the letter is found and acquired by Agamemnon, and also gives hints directing the Argives to the gold. This is evidence enough for the Greeks, and they have Palamedes stoned to death. Other sources say that Odysseus and Diomedes goad Palamedes into descending a well with the prospect of treasure being at the bottom. When Palamedes reaches the bottom, the two proceed to bury him with stones, killing him.<ref>Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 3.8; Hyginus 105.</ref>

[[File:Odysseus Ajax Louvre F340.jpg|thumb|left|Oinochoe, ''ca'' 520 BC, Odysseus and [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]] fighting over the armour of Achilles]]

When Achilles is slain in battle by [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]], it is Odysseus and [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]] who  retrieve the fallen warrior's body and armour in the thick of heavy fighting. During the funeral games for Achilles, Odysseus competes once again with Ajax. Thetis says that the arms of Achilles will go to the bravest of the Greeks, but only these two warriors dare lay claim to that title. The two Argives became embroiled in a heavy dispute about one another's merits to receive the reward. The Greeks dither out of fear in deciding a winner, because they did not want to insult one and have him abandon the war effort. [[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]] suggests that they allow the captive Trojans to decide the winner.<ref>Scholium to ''Odyssey'' 11.547.</ref> The accounts of the ''Odyssey'' disagree, suggesting that the Greeks themselves hold a secret vote.<ref>''Odyssey'' 11.543–47.</ref> In any case, Odysseus is the winner. Enraged and humiliated, Ajax is driven mad by Athena. When he returns to his senses, in shame at how he has slaughtered livestock in his madness, Ajax kills himself by the sword that Hector had given him after their duel.<ref>Sophocles, ''Ajax'' 662, 865.</ref>

Together with Diomedes, Odysseus fetches Achilles's son, [[Neoptolemus|Pyrrhus]], to come to the aid of the Achaeans, because an oracle had stated that Troy could not be taken without him. A great warrior, Pyrrhus is also called Neoptolemus (Greek for "new warrior"). Upon the success of the mission, Odysseus gives Achilles's armour to him.

It is learned that the war can not be won without the poisonous arrows of [[Heracles]], which are owned by the abandoned [[Philoctetes]]. Odysseus and Diomedes (or, according to some accounts, Odysseus and [[Neoptolemus]]) leave to retrieve them. Upon their arrival, Philoctetes (still suffering from the wound) is seen still to be enraged at the [[Danaans]], especially at Odysseus, for abandoning him. Although his first instinct is to shoot Odysseus, his anger is eventually defused by Odysseus's persuasive powers and the influence of the gods. Odysseus returns to the Argive camp with Philoctetes and his arrows.<ref>Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.8.</ref>

Perhaps Odysseus's most famous contribution to the Greek war effort is devising the strategy of the [[Trojan Horse]], which allows the Greek army to sneak into Troy under cover of darkness. It is built by [[Epeius of Phocis|Epeius]] and filled with Greek warriors, led by Odysseus.<ref>See, e.g., ''Odyssey'' 8.493; Apollodorus, ''Epitome'' 5.14–15.</ref> Odysseus and Diomedes steal the [[Palladium (mythology)|Palladium]] that lay within Troy's walls, for the Greeks were told they could not sack the city without it. Some late Roman sources indicate that Odysseus schemed to kill his partner on the way back, but Diomedes thwarts this attempt.

[[File:Wall painting - rape of the palladion - Pompeii (I 2 26) - Napoli MAN 109751 - 02.jpg|thumb|Odysseus ([[Pileus (hat)|pileus hat]]) carrying off the [[palladion]] from [[Troy]], with the help of [[Diomedes]], against the resistance of [[Cassandra]] and other Trojans. Antique fresco from Pompeii.]]

==== "Cruel, deceitful Ulixes" of the Romans ====
Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' portray Odysseus as a [[culture hero]], but the Romans, who believed themselves the heirs of Prince [[Aeneas]] of Troy, considered him a villainous falsifier. In [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', written between 29 and 19 BC, he is constantly referred to as "cruel Odysseus" ([[Latin]] ''dirus Ulixes'') or "deceitful Odysseus" (''pellacis'', ''fandi fictor''). Turnus, in ''Aeneid'', book 9, reproaches the Trojan Ascanius with images of rugged, forthright Latin virtues, declaring (in [[John Dryden]]'s translation), "You shall not find the sons of Atreus here, nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear." While the Greeks admired his cunning and deceit, these qualities did not recommend themselves to the Romans, who possessed a rigid sense of honour. In Euripides's tragedy ''[[Iphigenia at Aulis]]'', having convinced Agamemnon to consent to the sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the goddess [[Artemis]], Odysseus facilitates the immolation by telling Iphigenia's mother, [[Clytemnestra]], that the girl is to be wed to [[Achilles]]. Odysseus's attempts to avoid his sacred oath to defend [[Menelaus]] and [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] offended Roman notions of duty, and the many stratagems and tricks that he employed to get his way offended Roman notions of honour.