Odysseus in Aetolia

This is not a conspiracy theory, nor a fantastic invention. It is a record of a historian of the 2nd century BC, Apollodorus, who, together with Homer and Hesiod, give through their works, a very good and detailed picture of the Greek myths about the gods and heroes.

The end of the Homeric Odyssey has always been a subject of research, but also a source of inspiration for many writers, from antiquity to the present day. In rhapsody λ of the Odyssey, only an oracle of the seer Tiresias is mentioned about the hero's return to his homeland, but nothing at all about the end of the adventure. More specifically, Tiresias speaks of the hero's forced exile to a place far from the sea, but also of his death that will come from the sea in old age.

The Odyssey ends there, but in a continuation of it - as we would say today - Odysseus is killed by Telegonus, his son by Circe. He was the one who came from the sea and killed his father without knowing it. This is the epic Telegonia by Eugammon of Cyrene.

From then on, many poets and historians gave various versions of his death.

The historian Theopompus reports that when the hero returned to Ithaca, he found Penelope having entered into love affairs with the suitors, and for this reason he abandoned his island, went to Tyrrhenia, settled in Gortynia, where he died murdered by its inhabitants.

Aeschylus speaks of a prophecy by Tiresias, that his death would come from the thorn of a fish that would be in the beak of a heron, which would one day fly over his head. Nothing else, however, about the fulfillment of the oracle.

Another version is that of Sophocles (Euryalus), where Odysseus, after the murder of the suitors, flees to Epirus to receive an oracle from the oracle of Dodona. There he is hosted by King Tyrima and enters into a relationship with the king's daughter, Euippe. When

Odysseus is now in Ithaca, Euippe gives birth to his son Euryalus. Years later, Euryalus travels to Ithaca to meet his father. He meets Penelope, while Odysseus is absent. Penelope, realizing that he is the illegitimate child of an illegal relationship, convinces her husband to murder him, which is what happened. Then Telegonus, his son by Circe, appears, who murders his father, Odysseus.

A philosopher, Proclus, in his work "Christomathia", informs us that Odysseus went to Thesprotia, married a queen, Callidike, and became leader of the Thesprotians in the war they had with the Brygi from Thrace. After years, Callidike died and the throne of the Thesprotians was taken by Polypoites, their son.

Odysseus returned to Ithaca, where his son Telegonus killed him without knowing that he was his father. Nevertheless, he transported the body of Odysseus' father, Penelope and Telemachus, to the island of Circe, where his mother granted them immortality.

Apollodorus in his "Epitomi" records Greek myths and legends, as they were recorded in the literature of early, classical and Hellenistic antiquity. So, regarding Odysseus:

After the murder of the suitors, Odysseus clashes with their relatives, who demand his exile from the island, and even his death. Odysseus then asks for help and to be judged by his old comrade-in-arms in Troy, Neoptolemus, who was now king of the Molossians. However, Neoptolemus, who coveted Ithaca, supposedly offers help to Odysseus, advising him to abandon his island and reside for a while in the palace of their mutual friend and comrade-in-arms Thoas, in Calydon in Aetolia.

During the Trojan War, the two had excellent relations and in fact Odysseus himself had asked Thoas to whip him several times in the face, so that he would become disfigured and enter Troy unrecognizable, in order to meet the beautiful Helen.

Odysseus refuses to accept this solution and listen to Neoptolemus, who is pursuing him.

The king of Ithaca was then forced to abandon his island and his

family, which he loved so much, and found himself close to the King of Calydon, where he offered him his hospitality. There he stayed in Calydon for several years and their friendship grew stronger, so much so that Thoas asked Odysseus to marry his daughter. With her he had a son, Leontophon, and remained there until his old age, where he died.

"And Odysseus went to Aetolia to Thoas, the son of Andraemon, who had given birth to his daughter, and had left behind a child, Leontophon, from whom he had grown old."