Some time after their marriage, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his lovely wife, Penelope,
had a son, whom they named Telemachus.
Their lives seemed to be in perfect bliss, until news reached Ithaca, that Helen, wife
of king Menelaus of Sparta, had been abducted by prince Paris of Troy.
Acting upon the oath sworn by Helen's suitors, Menelaus summoned all of them, to help him
bring back his wife.
Suprisingly, Odysseus who had proposed the oath, was reluctant to answer the call to
aid.
He refused to join the quest not because of cowardice, but because he had been warned
by the seer of Ithaca, Halitherses, that if he journeyed to sparta to join the quest,
it would take him a long and ardous time to return home.
So in order to escape this, Odysseus pretended to be mad.
Every day, he harnessed a donkey and an ox to a plow, and then started sowing salt on
a field.
When Palamedes, the man sent to recruit Odysseus saw this hilarious act, he was not convinced
in the slightest, that the king of Ithaca had gone mad, for he was aware of his cunning
nature, odysseus had quite a reputation.
Palamedes put baby Telemachus in front of the plow, in order to test his sanity. and
just as he expected, Odysseus immediately changed course, thereby exposing his plan.
Odysseus was left with no choice but to join the expedition.
He bade farewell to his wife and son, and set out to sparta.
He never forgave Palamades for making him leave his family, and would later carry out
his revenge in the future.
When the Greeks had assembled an army against Troy, Odysseus learned a prophecy from the
prophet Calchas, that the Greeks would win the war if only a warrior named Achilles joined
their forces.
Achilles was the demigod son of the goddess Thetis, and King Peleus.
Fearing a prophecy that Achilles would either live a long peaceful life or die a glorious
death as a mighty warrior, Thetis had dipped him in the river styx, as a baby.
The river made Achilles invulnerable, except his heels, where his mother had held him.
Thetis then sent him, disguised as a woman, to the court of King Lycomedes of Scyros.
Knowing this, the crafty Odysseus visited the court of Lycomedes, disguised as a peddler
selling women's clothes.
He hid a spear among his goods, and Achilles was the only one who showed interest in the
spear when he saw it.
In a different story, Odysseus blew a battle horn in a fake attack on Scyros, and everyone
fled at the sound, except Achilles.
Having been revealed, Achilles joined the greeks in the war against the Trojans.
During the war, Odysseus devised a plan to penetrate the walls and gates of Troy,.
He ordered the construction of a huge wooden horse, popularly called the Trojan horse,
leaving it near the gates of troy.
Then, he, and all of the greatest greek warriors, quietly hid inside the belly of the Trojan
horse, while the rest of the Greeks pretended to sail away.
The trojans, thinking the war was over, opened their gates, and celebrated their victory
around the wooden horse.
However when night came, the greek warriors came out of their hiding place, and led the
rest of the greeks through the gates, into the city of troy.
Odysseus and Diomedes killed the Trojan spy, Dolon, and the Thracian king Rhesus, and captured
their famed seer, Helenus.
The Greeks slew the rest of the Trojans, and sacked the city, thus, winning the 10 year
long war.
Odysseus then had Hector's little son, Asyntax, thrown down from the walls of Troy, which
was rather very cruel of him.
In the end, It was odysseus' cleverness and battle strategy, that gave the Greeks their
victory.
He played the role of a wise and crafty strategist, and a fierce warrior.
Perhaps without him, the Greeks could never have defeated Troy.
Now do you remember Palamedes?
Yes, Odysseus had his revenge.
he and Diomedes fooled palamedes into entering a well, convincing him that treasures laid
hidden inside.
The moment palamedes was inside the well, Odysseus and Diomedes started throwing rocks
at him, till he was dead and buried at the bottom of the well.