Odysseus By Steven Burkins Odysseus was the son of Laertes and was the ruler of the Kingdom of Ithaca. He was one of the most important Greek leaders in the Trojan War and he was the hero of Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus was one of the Greek kings who went to Troy and came back a hero. He was ruling the small island of Ithaka when he was asked by the Atreidae to join forces which he never did, With them on the expedition to recover Helen. As he moved through time, additional elements of his character were emphasized and extrapolated upon, but all the seeds for later development can be seen in the Iliad. Did the depiction of the Iliadic character of Odysseus change in subsequent literature? And how was he portrayed in later Greek tragedies? At first it may have been his actions being traced throughout Homer’s poems. This is Odysseus as he was getting ready to fight.