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Ulysses Monument in Ithaca
The cunning Ulysses, one of the most famous Greek heroes at the 10-year Battle of Troy.
Ulysses, King of Ithaca, son of Laertes (hence also called Laertiade) and Anticleia, proved to be an extremely brave warrior in the battle for Troy (Ilion), who chose some situations for his companions with his wisdom and eloquence.
When Ulysses was to go to war against Troy after the robbery of Helen, he went mad, because an oracle had only prophesied his return after 20 years. Palamedes exposed him.
Ulysses found Achilles, lured Iphigeneia to Aulis, recovered Achilles' body with Aias and received his weapons. From the captured Helenos he learned the conditions under which Troy could be conquered. Therefore he brought the archer Philoktetes - he later killed Paris - from Lemnos and Achilleus´ son Neoptolemos from Skyros.
The construction of the wooden horse, a ruse of war by Ulysses, in whose belly hid the besiegers with the greatest fighting strength, led to the fall of Troy. In the triumphal procession, the Trojans used it as an offering behind their city walls to seal their destruction.
Even today we still use the synonym Trojan Horse for an ominous, ruinous gift.
After his Iliad, the ancient Greek poet Homer, lifetime in the 8th century B.C., described the adventurous return journey of his hero Ulysses in his Hexameters Odyssey.
Ulysses and his companions dazzle the one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus, his friends on the island of Aiaia are transformed into pigs by the magical daughter of the sun god Helios, Kirke, defying the sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, to name but a few dangerous situations.
Exhibit of the National Archaeological Museum Athens
This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday, January 29, 2014.