]] Odysseus or Ulysses (Greek Odysseus; Latin: Ulixes or, more commonly, Ulysses), , was the Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad. King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea (although there was a tradition that Sisyphus was his true father), Odysseus is renowned for his guile and resourcefulness (known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning), and said to be third to only Zeus and Athena in wisdom (see m?tis, or "cunning intelligence"), and is most famous for the ten eventful years it took him to return home after the Trojan War. Relatively little is known of Odysseus' background except that his paternal grandfather (or step-grandfather) is Arcesius, son of Cephalus and grandson of Aeolus, whilst his maternal grandfather i