Source Verification: Ulysses
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Is Ulysses the Roman version of Odysseus?
Ulysses is the Latin name of the same hero, not a separate Roman figure. Greek poems call him Odysseus, while Roman poets such as Virgil and Ovid call him Ulysses. What Rome changed is the viewpoint. Virgil shows him as the Greek who took the Palladium with Diomed (Aeneid 2.162-175), and Ovid gives him a speech against Ajax for the arms of Achilles (Metamorphoses 13.98-204).
Source: Virgil, Aeneid 2.162-175
Is Odyssey Greek or Roman?
The Odyssey is Greek. It is the epic attributed to Homer, and it opens by asking the Muse to tell of the man of many devices who wandered far after he sacked the citadel of Troy (Odyssey 1.1-5). The Roman epic is Virgil's Aeneid, which follows the Trojan Aeneas to Italy. Ulysses appears there as one of the Greeks who took Troy.
Source: Homer, Odyssey 1.1-5
Who is Ulysses in Dante's Inferno?
In Longfellow's translation of the Inferno, Canto 26 places Ulysses in the eighth pit of hell among the evil counsellors. Virgil, Dante's guide, says that Ulysses and Diomed are tormented there, and run together to vengeance as to wrath. Ulysses also tells of a last voyage, in which his ship whirls three times and the stern rises on the fourth. Dante is a medieval poet, so this judgment is not found in the ancient epics.
Source: Dante, Inferno
What happened to Achaemenides, the man Ulysses left behind?
In Virgil, the Trojans take Achaemenides with them. As the Cyclops Polyphemus approaches the shore, they cut the anchor-ropes in silence and bend to the oars, and the Greek suppliant sails away with them. Virgil says Achaemenides had been left in the Cyclops's cave by his own comrades, who forgot him when they fled (Aeneid 3.613-654).
Source: Virgil, Aeneid 3.655-674
Where Accounts Differ
- who took the Palladium: Diomed and Ulysses, or three candidates
- Roman sources do not agree on who took the Palladium. Virgil's Aeneas names Diomed and Ulysses together (Aeneid 2.162-175). Ovid's Fasti lists Diomedes, Ulysses and Aeneas as candidates and does not choose. The page reports both.
Sources
- Virgil, Aeneid 2.1-13
- Virgil, Aeneid 2.77-104
- Virgil, Aeneid 2.162-175
- Virgil, Aeneid 2.259-267
- Virgil, Aeneid 3.613-654
- Virgil, Aeneid 3.655-674
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.1-97
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.98-204
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.382-398
- Homer, Odyssey 1.1-5
- Ovid, Fasti
- Dante, Inferno
- W.B. Stanford, The Ulysses Theme (1963)