Odysseus

Odysseus — or Ulysses in Latin — is the king of Ithaca, son of Laertes and Anticlea. Among all the Greek heroes, he is the most cunning, protected by Athena, goddess of wisdom, who sees in him her mortal favorite. During the Trojan War, he plays a decisive role: it is he who invents the Trojan Horse — a stratagem that, after ten years of fruitless siege, allows the Greeks to infiltrate the city and bring it down in a single night.

But his victory condemns him. By blinding Polyphemus, the Cyclops son of Poseidon, he draws upon himself the wrath of the god of the Sea. Poseidon swears to prevent him from returning home — and the Odyssey can begin.

The homeward voyage lasts ten years. Aeolus offers him the winds imprisoned in a wineskin — his curious companions release them. The cannibalistic giant Laestrygonians destroy almost the entire fleet. The sorceress Circe transforms his men into swine — until Hermes arms Odysseus against her spells. Circe eventually frees them and guides Odysseus to the ends of the world.

In the Land of the Dead, he consults the soul of the seer Tiresias. On the return journey, he resists the Sirens by having himself tied to the mast — his men have their ears plugged with wax. He loses companions in the strait between Charybdis and Scylla. The survivors slaughter the sacred cattle of Helios and perish struck by lightning. Odysseus alone survives, washed up on the island of the nymph Calypso, who holds him captive for seven years.

On Zeus's order, Hermes convinces Calypso to release Odysseus. He builds a raft, but Poseidon unleashes one last storm. The sea goddess Ino offers him a magic veil that allows him to swim to the land of the Phaeacians, who finally bring him back to Ithaca.

In Ithaca, his wife Penelope has kept a hundred suitors at bay for twenty years. She has promised to choose a husband when she has finished her weaving — a tapestry she undoes each night. Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, is the only one who can string his own bow. He shoots an arrow through twelve axes aligned, reveals his identity, and massacres the suitors with the help of his son Telemachus. The prophecy is fulfilled.

In the extended Saint Seiya universe, Odysseus is an angel serving Artemis in the celestial realm of Tenkai. The choice of his name is deliberate: like the Homeric hero navigating between favorable gods and hostile deities, this character evolves in a world where divine allegiances cross and clash. The tension between Athena, Apollo, and Artemis recalls the Olympian power games that shaped Ulysses' fate.

The theme of voyage and wandering — seeking one's place in a cosmos at war — deeply pervades the Tenkai saga, of which Odysseus is one of the central protagonists. Like Ulysses, he embodies cunning and adaptation in the face of powers that surpass him.