\b0 Called Odysseus öthe hatedö by the Greeks, he was the king of \b \cf4 \ATXht10916 Ithaca\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , son of
Laertes and Anticlea, and husband of \b \cf4 \ATXht11615 Penelope\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , by whom he had \b \cf4 \ATXht12005 Telemachus\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . As he had been told by an oracle that if he left for the Trojan War he would be kept away from his homelan
d for twenty years, he tried to avoid taking part by pretending to be mad, but was unmasked by Palamedes and \b \cf4 \ATXht10115 Agamemnon\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . He in turn unmasked \b \cf4 \ATXht10104 Achilles\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , whose mother had dressed him i
n girlÆs clothes in the royal palace of Skyros. During the siege of \b \cf4 \ATXht12019 Troy\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 he distinguished himself by his bravery, prudence, and eloquence. He obtained AchillesÆ armor, wrought by \b \cf4 \ATXht7 Hephaestus\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , after his death instead of the Telamonian, Ajax . He devised the trick of the wooden horse that led to the fall of the city and was one of the Greeks who seized the \b \cf4 \ATXht11601 Palladium\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . After the end of the war, in spite
of the protection of \b \cf4 \ATXht6 Athena\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , it took him ten years to make his way home.\par
