The Odyssey/YMMV

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Some old sources and poems see Odysseus as a low coward who tricks his way out of fighting violently like a real man. The Edda even shows or posits the transformation of the Greek gods and heroes into the Norse ones -- and Odysseus transforms into the trickster, Loki, 'Lie-smith.'
  • The Romans were of two minds about Odysseus (or Ulysses, as they called him) - on one hand they claimed to be descended from Aeneas and his Trojans and thus saw him as an enemy, on the other hand they also were proud because in some versions of the myth they als were descended from him through his son or grandson Latinus, Aeneas's father-in-law.
  • Furthermore, Zachary Mason's The Lost Books Of The Odyssey is full of Alternative Character Interpretation, such as the story from the POV of a solitary, gentle Cyclops, one where Odysseus actually crafted most of the story up in his life as a bard, and one that posits that both The Iliad and The Odyssey are an extremely elaborate description of a chess game.
• Designated Hero: There are many occasions when it's hard to see Odysseus as a hero.
• Fridge Brilliance: Odysseus has been away from Ithaca for twenty years, and Telemachos is just beginning to take control of his family in the last six months or so. So who's been ruling Ithaca? That's right, Penelope.
• Ho Yay: Eurylochus to Odysseus: "You're a hard man, Odysseus. Your fighting spirit's stronger than ours; your stamina never fails. You must be made of iron head to foot." Also, Telemachus and everyone.
• Idiot Plot: but it seems that a good deal of Odysseus's problems either come from his own stupidity, or at the very least his crew's. But he's already been stated to be a master tactician, and he worships frickin' Athena, patron goddess of Smart Guys. It's like every time they land on an island, Odysseus gets pegged in the face with the idiot ball.
  • There is a reason behind this. The Greek strongly believed in a concept called ὕβρις, which is often rendered today as "hubris" and can be translated to modern days "Pride" or "Acting as a human shouldn't". Another thing that hubris carries along is punishment (if you are guilty of hubris, you are going to be punished somehow). All of Odysseus's mistakes are made out of hubris. For a better description of what hubris means, see The Other Wiki's explanation.
• Marty Tzu: Odysseus
• Nightmare Fuel: Athena...influences the suitors' minds, leading to a frightening description of their hallucinations.
• Tear Jerker: The whole story of Odysseus' dog, Argos. Don't know the story? Well, Argos was his dog, who he trained when he was a pup. Then Odysseus had to leave for 20 years, going to Troy, trying to get back, ect. During his leave, the dog, since his master wasn't there anymore, had to live outside, staying on a pile of dung to keep warm, getting too old and sick to move anywhere else anyway. Odysseus eventually gets home and walks pass his dog (disguised as a beggar by Athena). Argos senses that the person is his master and proceeds to die by the happiness and shock of seeing his master again. And the worst part? Since Odysseus is pretending not to be himself, he can't even grieve for his now dead dog. You can't say that you didn't get a bit teary eyed when you read about that.
  • Argos is a very special dog.
  • And totally Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • Also a bit of Writers Cannot Do Math, given that a dog is extremely unlikely to live that long in an era without veterinarians.
• Values Dissonance: What's the very first thing Odysseus does on his way home? He and his men make a halt on a foreign coast, where they attack and plunder a town, killing the men and taking the women as slaves. It's described as a completely normal thing for them to do.
  • Also, nowadays the killing of the handmaidens who slept with the suitors and the goatherd who allied himself with them seems rather...unneccesary, and are cut from most retellings. The ones that do leave it in (like the TV miniseries) usually cut it down to a single handmaiden who is unintentionally killed in the crossfire trying to aid the suitors.
• What an Idiot!: Odysseus is wise enough to listen to the advice he's given. His companions, on the other hand, never learn to take his direst warnings seriously... which is pretty much the reason why Odysseus comes home alone.
  • Odysseus also suffers from this in places. Like when he and his men have successfully escaped the Cyclops, he turns around and starts insulting him. Fair enough, except he also told the Cyclops his name, his father's name, and where he lives. This is a bit like slapping a gangster in the face and then giving him your wallet.
  • And Elpenor. Most of Odysseus' men who die do so for generally sound reasons (devoured by monsters, killed in a divine storm etc). How does Elpenor die? He goes to bed on the roof drunk, wakes up with a hangover, and proceeds to forget he's on the roof so falls off it and breaks his neck. What.
• The Woobie: Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus, all in their own ways.