His name and stories were copied into Etruscan religion under the name Uthuze. Odysseus sometimes receives the epithet 'Laertiades (Greek: Λαερτιάδης') 'son of Laërtes'. The name means 'son of pain', according to Homer. Yet another origin is the Greek οδηγός: odēgós, 'a guide the one showing the way'. One may also read the name as 'pain', or 'the one inflicting and suffering pain' - not surprisingly, Odysseus frequently suffers pain (mental and/or physical) if he inflicts pain on someone else.

This interpretation is reinforced by Odysseus' and Poseidon's mutual wrath for one another. The verb odussōmai (οδύσσωμαι), meaning 'to be wrathful against, hate', suggests that the name could be rendered as 'the one who is wrathful, at the same time, is hated'. The name has several variants: Olysseus ( Ὀλυσσεύς), Oulixeus ( Οὐλιξεύς), Oulixes ( Οὐλίξης) and he was known as Ulysses in Latin or Ulixes in Roman mythology. Ithaca, an island along the Ionian coastline of Greece, is one of several islands that would have comprised the realm of Odysseus' family, but the true extent of the Cephallenian realm and the actual identities of the islands named in Homer's works are unknown.

Relatively little is known of Odysseus' background except that his grandfather (or step-grandfather) is Arcesius, son of Cephalus and grandson of Aeolus. King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea (the tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis names Sysiphus as his father), Odysseus is renowned for his guile and resourcefulness, and is most famous for the ten years it took him to return home after the Trojan War. Odysseus or Ulysses ( Greek Ὀδυσσεύς Odysseys Latin: Ulixes or, less commonly, Ulysses), pronounced /oʊˈdɪs.i.əs/, is the main hero in Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, and plays a key role in Homer's Iliad. Head of Odysseus from a Greek 2nd century BC marble group representing Odysseus blinding Polyphemus, found at the villa of Tiberius at Sperlonga Topics in Greek mythology

Odyssey meaning