Odysseus the Odious (or Let’s Take a Ulyssiad!)

“All along the southbound odyssey/ The train pulls out at Kankakee . . .”

Only a poet with the humor and imagination of Steve Goodman would rhyme “odyssey” with Kankakee in his classic song, “City of New Orleans.” “Odyssey” is not normally a word I think about, even when planning a trip. However, a few weeks ago, I received “Odyssey” as the word of the day from the “Oxford English Dictionary” e-mail list. The definition contained nothing surprising: “(The name of) one of two great hexametric epic poems of ancient Greece traditionally attributed to Homer (the other being the Iliad).” The second definition covers the common noun meaning of “odyssey” as “a long series of wanderings; a long adventurous journey.” Imagine my surprise, however, when I read that the source of the name of the traveler, Odysseus, comes not from a word that reflects epic grandeur, but from a Greek word meaning “to hate” and the Latin “odium.” The entry notes, “Odysseus was thought to be so called because he was ‘hated by gods and men’.”

Having taught “The Odyssey” several times as a cross-curricular unit with Global Studies, I am aware of Odysseus’s foibles. As a teacher, and as a female, I gave him little quarter when it came to his infidelities with Circe and Calypso. (Note: If you have not read Margaret Atwood’s “The Penelopiad,” the story of “The Odyssey” from Penelope’s point-of-view, I highly recommend it.)

While Odysseus did display other examples of bad boy behavior--such as taunting the Cyclops or endangering his men by demanding that he alone hear the song of the Sirens--he looked after his men very ingeniously. The fact that none of them made it back to Ithaca alive testifies to their own bad judgment, not to a failure to lead on Odysseus’s part.

Odysseus is better known for his cunning than his bad behavior. After all, he came up with the ruse of the Trojan Horse, which finally put an end to the 10-year Trojan War. Out of curiosity, I looked up the Latin equivalent for Odysseus, Ulysses, in the “OED” and found this definition: “Used as the type of a traveler or adventurer;  . . . also, a crafty and clever schemer.” I also found the adjective “Ulyssean” meaning “resembling Ulysses in craft or deceit, or in extensive wanderings.” Does Odysseus deserve the loathing associated with his name?  He did displease Poseidon, and the gods took sides for and against this intrepid traveler. Interestingly, his Greek name reflects the gods’ displeasure with the epic hero, but his (roamin’) Roman name reflects his clever accomplishments, giving the epic hero some credit.

Next time you embark upon an odyssey and have an unpleasant time, you can blame it on Odysseus the Odious. Occasionally on “Be-Worded,” have suggested new words. (See “friendkind” and “pixelography.”) In defense of Ulysses, the Clever, I am going to propose a new word for those journeys we take which have pleasant twists and turns: ulyssiad. Maybe in the future, a clever lyricist in the tradition of Steve Goodman will craftily rhyme “ulyssiad” with a place, creating another classic in the world of songs about travel.

NOTE: A Google search of “ulyssiad” turned up an old book, “The Ulyssiad: An American Epic,” by Eliza Madelina Wilbur Souvielle, published in 1896. As best as I can tell, this book involves Ulysses Grant and the Civil War on some level.