Who is the mother of Odysseus?

Who is the mother of Odysseus? Anticleia is the traditional answer in Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. She is the wife of Laertes, king of Ithaca, and the mother of Odysseus and his sister Ctimene.

Anticleia is the daughter of Autolycus, a famous thief and trickster who was said to be a son of Hermes. In Book 11 of the Odyssey, Odysseus encounters Anticleia's spirit in the Underworld while seeking advice from the prophet Tiresias. She tells him that she died from grief and longing during his long absence after the Trojan War.

A common complication is that some later, non-Homeric traditions claim Odysseus was actually the son of Sisyphus, who fathered him with Anticleia before her marriage to Laertes. Nevertheless, in the central Homeric tradition and in standard mythology quizzes, Anticleia is the single canonical answer. She also gives Odysseus crucial news about Penelope, Telemachus, and the deteriorating condition of Laertes.