Odysseus Laertiades

This article examines Odysseus' vexed treatment of Laertes in the contexts of Odysseus' shifting relationship to trees as he moves from Troy to Ithaka and his contested paternity: figural son of Autolykos or true son of Laertes. Homeric epic implies a broader narrative biography for Odysseus in which Autolykos' usurpation of paternity—first through his unusual naming of Odysseus and second when Odysseus comes of age—changes Odysseus and his relationship with Laertes in a way that is only resolved when Odysseus returns to the garden of his childhood and recounts to Laertes the naming of the trees in their garden. The tension between the Autolykan and the Laertian is expressed through the full-line formula of address to Odysseus: διογενὲς Λαερτιάδη, πολυμήχαν ̓ Ὀδυσσεῦ

Biology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies