Ulysses
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Ulysses. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
u-lis'ez, or Odysseus, in Greek legend, a king of Ithaca and one of the heroes of the Trojan war. He sailed with twelve ships in the Greek expedition against Troy. Through the ten years' siege, he was celebrated for sagacity, eloquence, and courage. He was prudent also and was chosen frequently to act the part of a spy. After the fall of Troy he attempted to return to Ithaca, but, owing to the enmity of Poseidon, he was doomed to ten years' wandering before he reached home again. The experiences and advantages of these ten years form the subject of the Odyssey. He was thrown on the coast of Africa; visited the country of the Cyclops in Sicily, and the Aegean Isle where Circe turned his companions into swine; passed Scylla and Charybdis ; and, after a great variety of adventures, at last drew near his own island of Ithaca. Meanwhile his wife Penelope had spent the twenty years of her husband's absence in the care of her son Telemachus and in outwitting the suitors who swarmed the royal palace and insisted on her making a selection among them, assuring her that Ulysses was dead. Penelope had proved faithful, however. Telemachus, on arriving at man's estate, had gone in search of his father; but, guided by Minerva, returned just at the right moment. He found his father, disguised by Minerva as a beggar, with Eumaeus, the swine-herd. Ulysses made himself known to his son, and the two laid a plan whereby they might punish the suitors who had lorded it over the palace and tormented Penelope. A trial of skill was arranged among them, Penelope agreeing to accept that one as her husband who should shoot an arrow through twelve rings hung in line. Ulysses was admitted as a beggar and storyteller, a common union of professions at that time. Telemachus provided a bow formerly used by his father and removed all other weapons. But not one among the company could string the bow. Even Telemachus failed. The old beggar asked to be allowed to try. All derided him except Telemachus, who urged that he be permitted to try. So Ulysses took the bow. He strung it with ease, and, before anyone could stop him, he had shot an arrow through the twelve rings and aimed another at the throat of one of the suitors. With the aid of Telemachus, Eumaeus, and another faithful follower, the suitors were all slain and Ulysses came to his own again. See Penelope ; Circe ; Cyclops ; Odyssey
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in heroic history, one of the most renowned of the Greek heroes. Ulysses was the King of Ithaca, one of the small Ionian isles, the husband of the exemplary Penelope, and father of Telemachus. Ulysses was not only a prudent warrior, but a sage counsellor, and was as much honored in the general conference as he was valued in the field for his military skill, ready expedients, and undaunted courage. When the Greeks undertook the Trojan War, Ulysses, after long declining to join the alliance, at last consented, and, embarking his small but picked band, set sail for the Phrygian shores. During the war he acted a prominent part; he induced Achilles to return to the camp, slaughtered the sleeping Thracians in their tents, entered Troy in disguise, and carried off the palladium of the Trojans. After the fall of the city he embarked on board his fleet, with his followers, to return to his wife and king. dom; but the gods, enraged at his carrying ng off the palladiu palladium, defeated all his efforts to regain his native country, and for 20 years, by adverse winds and fearful storms, made him the sport of winds and waves. At length, after an absence of 30 years, he regained his island home and found his faithful and still beautiful Penelope surrounded by a host of importunate suitors. Having by stratagem obtained an entrance into his palace, and put to the sword the riotous suitors, Ulysses was restored to his throne, to the arms of his wife, and to his son, whom he had left a child. After a reign of 16 years, a natural son of Ulysses, not knowing Ithaca was part of his father's kingdom, landed in the island at the head of a lawless band, and, beginnning to plunder the inhabitants, Ulysses hastened to meet the invader; when, in the contest that ensued, he fell by the sword of his son. It is the adventures encountered by Ulysses on his return voyage that form the subject of Homer's poem of the "Odyssey."
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
Known to the Greeks as Odysseus . The famous king of Ithaca, son of Anticlea and Laertes (or, according to some, of Sisyphus ). He married Penelope , daughter of Icarius, on which his father resigned to him the crown. He went to the Trojan war, where he was esteemed for his sagacity. On the conclusion of the war he embarked for Greece, but was exposed to numerous misfortunes on his journey. In his wanderings, he, with some of his companions, was seized by the Cyclops Polyphemus, from whom he made his escape. Afterward he was thrown on the island of Aeea, where he was exposed to the wiles of the enchantress Circe . Eventually he was restored to his own country, after an absence of twenty years. The adventures of Ulysses on his return from the Trojan war form the subject of Homer's Odyssey.