Hey, fun fact. Odysseus’ name, Odysseus ? Yeah, that connects to the Greek verbs ὀδύσσομαι (odusommai) or “to hate”, ὀδύρομαι (oduromai), or “to lament” and even ὄλλυμι (ollumi) or “to be lost”
That’s sets up an interesting idea, because all Greek mythology revolves around this idea that fate is an unchangable thing. That your life’s story been set in stone long before you were born, that the Fates spun your yarn and marked its cutting-point centuries before your oldest ancestor came into this world
And nowhere is that better represented than here - Odysseus comes into the world with a name already marking him with the tragedy of the Odyssey. There was no avoiding this for him
However !! A point to be noted. His wet-nurse, Euryclea, actually suggested that he be named Polyaretos “for he has been much prayed for”. It was, in fact, his grandfather Autolycus who named him Odysseus, his reasons basically being “a lotta people pissed me off in life, so I’m gonna name you Piss-off”
So, I like to imagine that Autolycus actually unknowingly fucked his grandson over with that pun, and that if he had listened to Euryclea, the tragedies of the Odyssey could be avoided. In this essay I will
