Polites (friend of Odysseus)
Template:Short description Template:About In Greek mythology, Polites (Template:Langx), the friend of Odysseus, was a minor character in the epics by Homer.
Mythology
[edit]Polites was a member of Odysseus's crew.<ref>Homer, Odyssey 10.224</ref> Odysseus refers to him as his dearest friend, though he is only mentioned twice. It is unclear whether he was killed by Scylla or by the lightning bolt that Zeus hurled at Odysseus's ship.
Polites features more prominently in some versions of the folk tale known as The Hero of Temesa, which recounts the tale of one of Odysseus's crew (in some sources unnamed, but in others, including in the retelling by Strabo,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> identified as Polities) who was killed on the island of Temesa and returned as a vengeful ghost. Various sources give different accounts of the death—some say he was stoned after raping a woman, others simply claim he was murdered by the locals—but in all versions, the ghost threatened the populace and extracted a high tribute in exchange for a more peaceful coexistence until he was defeated by a visitor to the island, sometimes identified as Euthymus of Locri, a boxer and Olympic victor.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Because the ghost is sometimes described as wearing a wolfskin, scholar David Odgen speculates that "we are probably dealing with a monster that is mixanthropic: partly human and partly animal, a wolf-man..." and thus an early classical example of a werewolf story.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In post-classical tradition
[edit]Music
[edit]Polites appears as a character of Epic: The Musical, a sung-through adaption of The Odyssey created by musician Jorge Rivera-Herrans. Polites is portrayed as a significant member of Odysseus' fleet that gives him ideas of empathy, agitating Odysseus' relationship with the goddess Athena and his crew in their encounter with Aeolus. Steven Dookie provides the voice of Polites.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Note
[edit]References
[edit]- Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Template:ISBN. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Template:Characters in the Iliad Template:Characters in the Odyssey