Odysseus

Gemmell's Odysseus is the King of Ithaka, an ugly, cheerful sea captain and the best storyteller on the Great Green, who happily admits in private that his tales of monsters are invented. He sails a ship called the Penelope, and he is one of the few people in the trilogy who can make both the reader and the other characters laugh. He is also much sharper than he lets on. It was Odysseus who, years before the story opens, visited the withdrawn young Aeneas and gave him the name Helikaon, and his affection for the man he helped to make runs through all three books. As the kings gather and Agamemnon's ambitions turn towards Troy, Odysseus finds friendship and obligation pulling him in opposite directions, and he ends up a reluctant ally of a man he does not trust. He sees the shape of the coming war more clearly than most, and likes it less. Shield of Thunder fills in more of his own past.

Appears in

1. 1Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow (2005)Years before the siege, a Dardanian prince, a Theran priestess and a Mykene hero are drawn to Troy as Agamemnon plans a war.
2. 2Troy: Shield of Thunder (2006)The kings of the Great Green gather at Troy for Hektor's wedding, while Agamemnon's long-planned war moves from threat to fact.
3. 3Troy: Fall of Kings (2007)Finished by Stella Gemmell after her husband's death, the last Troy novel follows the war to its end as Agamemnon's armies close on the city.