Who is Odysseus?

Pronunciation: oh-dis'-ee-uhs

Odysseus is a legendary figure in the annals of Greek Mythology. The movie version of the character in Troy condensed the history of this man, so as to let the focus of the movie be on the dynamic between Paris, Hector and Achilles.

However, Odysseus is really the main reason that the entire Greek army went to war against Troy. When Helen was to be married, many suitors came from the whole of Hellas [what we now call Greece], wishing to win her hand, and among them came Odysseus, King of Ithica.

King Tyndareus of Sparta, Helen's father/stepfather, feared then that the preference of one suitor might provoke the enmity of the others, and so Odysseus promised him that, if Tyndareus would help him to win the hand of Penelope, daughter of King Icarus, 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 suitors of Helen that they would defend the favoured bridegroom against any wrong that might be done him in respect of his marriage. So when Menelaus won the hand of Helen, all accepted it in virtue of the oath, and thus Odysseus married Penelope, who was the prize of such a wise advice.

When the movie Troy starts, the Trojans, led by king's sons Hector and the younger Paris, are meeting with Menelaus to strike a truce between the two kingdoms. Unbeknownst to everyone, Paris seduces Helen and spirits her away when the Trojans return home. In the movie, Odysseus seems eager to honor the Oath of Tyndareus and help lead the Greek armies in their quest to get Helen back. According to the actual legends, however, he was so reluctant to go to war that he feigned madness in an attempt to avoid the battle. Menelaus' brother, the war-mongering Agamemnon, sent King Palamedes, who seeing through the charade, threatened death to Odysseus' baby son, Telemachus, if he refused the call to war. So it was with a very heavy heart that Odysseus joined his kingdom's army to that of the Greek forces.

In the movie version of the story of Odysseus, he then persuades Achilles to join the battle with a mere speech. The two then fought side-by-side and Achilles was set to leave the battle when his cousin Patroclus [in the original legend, the two were just close friends] was killed by Hector. After Achilles killed Hector, Odysseus invented the wooden horse -- aka the Trojan Horse -- and the two climbed inside and led the battle inside King Priam's fortress, eventually defeating the Trojans. Paris then shot Achilles inside, with an arrow through the ankle, the only place that Achilles was vulnerable [having stayed dry when his mother dipped him as a baby into the river Styx]. Odysseus then lit the funeral pyre for the fallen warrior and the movie fades to black with a narration by Odysseus [played by British actor Sean Bean].

In the original legend, Odysseus had to first find the kingdom where Achilles was hiding [as a young girl, nonetheless] and then trick him into participating. When Achilles later tried to leave the battle and return to Greece, over an incident involving Agamemnon, it was Odysseus who convinced him to stay by promising him great wealth and ownership of the prisoner Briseis [handmaiden of Apollo and part of the royal family of Troy]. Odysseus also never forgot what Palamedes did and plotted successfully to have him framed as a Trojan spy. Agamemnon ordered Palamedes stoned to death as punishment. In addition, Achilles was actually killed prior to the Trojan Horse trickery. Paris, aided by the god Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel with an arrow; Achilles died of the wound. After his death, it was decided to award Achilles' divinely-wrought armor to the bravest of the Greeks. Odysseus and Ajax [prince of Salamis] both competed for armor but Odysseus' eloquence caused the Greeks to award the prize to him, Ajax went mad and killed himself. In the movie version of the story, Ajax was the huge Greek warrior who was speared by Hector on the Trojan battlefield.