Is the Main Character of the Odyssey Really the Odysseus from the Iliad Himself?

Abstract

In the Odyssey the figure of Odysseus appears very different from the one outlined in the Iliad, in which he is not an archer. Also considering many other details of the Odyssey narrative – for example, the concomitance between the journey of Telemachus in search of news of his father and the unexpected return of Odysseus after twenty years, not to mention Odysseus’s strange departure from Ithaca after the massacre of the suitors – it is reasonable to assume that who could hide behind the character of Odysseus could be an expert fighter engaged by Telemachus to prevent Penelope’s impending marriage (which might have jeopardized his aspiration to become king of Ithaca). Actually, all the characteristics of the protagonist of the Odyssey correspond in an extraordinary way to those of a hero of the Iliad, the Cretan Meriones, who during the Trojan War had distinguished himself as a very strong and shrewd warrior and archer: it was he who won the archery competition in the games on the occasion of Patroclus's funeral. One can assume, therefore, that Telemachus on his journey to Pylos and Sparta met that veteran of the Trojan War who put his experience as a fighter at the disposal of the son of his former comrade in arms, helped him solve his problems and left soon after. However, later the poet of the Odyssey would have twisted the reality of the facts in order to transform the final massacre of dozens of unarmed men into a heroic and morally acceptable act. One should also consider that in this new interpretation the journey of Telemachus gains a fundamental importance, while in the traditional reading of the Odyssey it appears completely irrelevant. Keywords: Odyssey, Odysseus, Meriones, Homer, Ithaca