Who is the king of Ithaca and protagonist of The Odyssey?

Odysseus is the king of Ithaca and the protagonist of Homer’s Odyssey. The epic follows his ten-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War and reclaim his household.

Odysseus is celebrated less for brute strength than for intelligence, adaptability, and cunning. During the Trojan War, he is traditionally credited with devising the strategy of the Trojan Horse. In the Odyssey, his ingenuity helps him survive encounters with the Cyclops Polyphemus, the witch Circe, the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis.

His homecoming is complicated because Poseidon opposes him after Odysseus blinds Polyphemus, Poseidon’s son. While Odysseus is away, his wife Penelope is besieged by suitors and his son Telemachus grows into adulthood. Athena, Odysseus’s divine protector, helps guide both father and son.

A common mix-up is the name Ulysses, the Latin form of Odysseus. They refer to the same hero. Menelaus and Agamemnon are also Greek leaders connected with the Trojan War, while Diomedes is another warrior from the conflict; none is the central hero or king of Ithaca in the Odyssey.