Why Is Odysseus Called Ulysses? (Ulysses vs Odysseus)

Open two different copies of Homer and you can meet what looks like two different heroes. One is Odysseus, king of Ithaca; the other is Ulysses, and the gods around him have changed their names too — Athena has become Minerva, Poseidon is Neptune, Zeus is Jove. It is the single most common source of confusion for first-time readers. The answer is simple, and it changes nothing about the story: they are the same man.

One hero, two languages

Odysseus is the hero's Greek name — the name Homer sang. Ulysses is the Roman version of that same name. The Romans, retelling Greek myth in Latin, called him Ulixes; English later smoothed Ulixes into Ulysses. So the two words are not two characters, and not even a translation of a title — they are one name passed through a second language, the way Iōánnēs becomes John or Giovanni. When you read "Ulysses," read "Odysseus." Nothing else is different.

The same thing happens to the gods. Greek myth reached the modern West largely through Rome, and the Romans matched Greek gods to their own: Athena to Minerva, Poseidon to Neptune, Zeus to Jupiter (Jove), Hermes to Mercury. A translator who uses "Ulysses" will almost always use the whole Roman set, for consistency.

Why older translations Romanize

For most of English literary history, an educated reader learned Latin before — or instead of — Greek. The Roman names were simply the familiar ones. So the great older translators used them without apology.

Samuel Butler's prose translation — the base text of this site's companion edition — is squarely in that tradition. Here is his opening sentence:

"Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy." — Odyssey, Book 1 (Butler)

The hero is not named in that first line, but the moment he is, he is "Ulysses," and he stays Ulysses for all 24 books. His divine ally is Minerva; the sea-god who hounds him is Neptune; the king of the gods is Jove. If you have absorbed the Greek names elsewhere, Butler's cast can feel briefly like strangers. Give it one chapter and the substitution becomes automatic.

Why modern translations restore the Greek

From roughly the mid-twentieth century, the fashion reversed. Translators like Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Fagles, and Wilson chose the Greek names to bring readers closer to Homer's own text and to shed the Latin overlay. Today "Odysseus" is the default in editions, criticism, and ordinary conversation; "Ulysses" now signals the older reception rather than the poem itself. Which line of translators saves which effect is exactly the terrain of our guide to the best Odyssey translation.

Does the name ever matter inside the story?

Once — and it is the most famous naming trick in the poem. Trapped in the Cyclops' cave (Book 9), Odysseus tells the giant Polyphemus his name is "Nobody" (Greek Outis). After he blinds the one-eyed giant, the other Cyclopes call to ask who is hurting him; Polyphemus roars that "Nobody" is killing him, and they leave him to it. Only from the safety of his ship does Odysseus shout his real name — and hands Poseidon, Polyphemus' father (Neptune, in Butler), the grudge that delays his homecoming. If you want that scene as a plot primer rather than a puzzle, start with the Cyclops episode.

Where to go next

If the names were your only worry, that worry is now gone — so the real question is whether to read the poem at all before the film. Is the Odyssey worth reading? answers it honestly, and the Odyssey, explained walks the whole story in one sitting. Either way, you will meet one hero, whatever the spelling on the spine.