Ulysses was a famous Greek hero, his character a mix of mythology and history. According to tradition he was son of Laertes and Anticlea, and is known as the King of Ithaca.
One of the most popular protagonists of Greek mythology, his fame crossed the entire ancient world and still remains a reference to his eulogised qualities of cunning and tenacity.
Ulysses participated in the legendary Trojan War and, next to the great protagonists of the Homeric poem the Iliad, Agamemnon and Achilles, Menelaus and Paris, came to be a central figure when he invented the famous Trojan horse, the ploy used to enter the city and conquer it.
His figure stands out eminently in Homer’s other epic poem, the Odyssey, which sings the praises of his deeds while wandering the Mediterranean, protected by the goddess Athena, overcoming every difficulty and danger, meeting distant people and monstrous beings on his return journey to his homeland Ithaca.
According to legend, he arrived there incognito, and with the help of his son Telemachus, took back the throne, killed the Proci and freed his faithful wife Penelope.
In Homer’s account, Ulysses represents the hero par excellence who defies all adversity to achieve his goal. Through the narration of the adventures of the brave and daring navigator, Homer finds a way to bring the characters and places of the Mediterranean myth to life in the story: the enchantress Circe, the Sirens, the cyclops Polyphemus, the shadows of Hades, the monsters Scylla and Charybdis, thus contributing to the story of the myth that people still find alluring and fascinating today.
