Odysseus

American  

[oh-dis-ee-uhs, oh-dis-yoos] / oʊˈdɪs i əs, oʊˈdɪs yus /

noun

Classical Mythology.

1. king of Ithaca; son of Laertes; one of the heroes of the Iliad and protagonist of the Odyssey: shrewdest of the Greek leaders in the Trojan War.

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Odysseus British  

/ əˈdiːsɪəs /

noun

1. Roman name: Ulysses.  Greek myth one of the foremost of the Greek heroes at the siege of Troy, noted for his courage and ingenuity. His return to his kingdom of Ithaca was fraught with adventures in which he lost all his companions and he was acknowledged by his wife Penelope only after killing her suitors

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Odysseus Cultural  

1. A Greek hero in the Trojan War (see also Trojan War). Odysseus helped bring about the fall of Troy by conceiving the ruse of the Trojan horse. After Troy was ruined, Odysseus wandered for ten years trying to return home, having many adventures along the way. (See Circe, Cyclops, Penelope, Scylla and Charybdis, and Sirens.)

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Discover More

The story of Odysseus' journey home is told in the Odyssey of Homer. By extension, an “odyssey” is any long or difficult journey or transformation.

Example Sentences

Intuitive Machines first made headlines sending two lunar landers to the moon, Odysseus and Athena.

From Barron's • May 14, 2026

"Help me go home," viewers hear Odysseus plead, after having first found the King of Ithaca washed up on a far away sea shore.

From BBC • May 5, 2026

Odysseus touched down in the Malapert A crater, some 300 kilometers from the moon’s south pole, becoming the first commercial lander to touch down on the moon.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 31, 2026

Homer’s “The Odyssey” follows Odysseus, a Greek king trying to get home after the Trojan War, a journey interrupted by Cyclopes, sirens, shipwrecks and gods with grudges.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 1, 2026

Never did any man do work more joyfully than Odysseus made his raft.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton