<P> Son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (polytropos), and is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (Greek: μῆτις or mētis, "cunning intelligence"). He is most famous for his nostos or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade - long Trojan War . </P> <P> In Greek the name was used in various versions . Vase inscriptions have the two groups of Olyseus (Ὀλυσεύς), Olysseus (Ὀλυσσεύς) or Ōlysseus (Ὠλυσσεύς), and Olyteus (Ὀλυτεύς) or Olytteus (Ὀλυττεύς). Probably from an early source from Magna Graecia dates the form Oulixēs (Οὐλίξης), while a later grammarian has Oulixeus (Οὐλιξεύς). In Latin the figure was known as Ulixēs or (considered less correct) Ulyssēs . Some have supposed that "there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality ." However, the change between d and l is common also in some Indo - European and Greek names, and the Latin form is supposed to be derived from the Etruscan Uthuze (see below), which perhaps accounts for some of the phonetic innovations . </P> <P> The etymology of the name is unknown . Ancient authors linked the name to the Greek verbs odussomai (ὀδύσσομαι) "to be wroth against, to hate", to oduromai (ὀδύρομαι) "to lament, bewail", or even to ollumi (ὄλλυμι) "to perish, to be lost". Homer relates it to various forms of this verb in references and puns . In Book 19 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus' early childhood is recounted, Euryclea asks the boy's grandfather Autolycus to name him . Euryclea seems to suggest a name like Polyaretos, "for he has much been prayed for" (πολυάρητος) but Autolycus "apparently in a sardonic mood" decided to give the child another name commemorative of "his own experience in life": "Since I have been angered (ὀδυσσάμενος odyssamenos) with many, both men and women, let the name of the child be Odysseus". Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades (Λαερτιάδης), "son of Laërtes". In the Iliad and Odyssey there are several further epithets used to describe Odysseus . </P> <P> It has also been suggested that the name is of non-Greek origin, possibly not even Indo - European, with an unknown etymology . Robert S.P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin . In Etruscan religion the name (and stories) of Odysseus were adopted under the name Uthuze (Uθuze), which has been interpreted as a parallel borrowing from a preceding Minoan form of the name (possibly * Oduze, pronounced /' ot͡θut͡se /); this theory is supposed to explain also the insecurity of the phonologies (d or l), since the affricate / t͡θ /, unknown to the Greek of that time, gave rise to different counterparts (i . e. δ or λ in Greek, θ in Etruscan). </P>

Who did odysseus fight in the trojan war