Χαί?ετε, παντες !
I was just reviewing some paradigms, when I made the connection of ἱππεύς with Ὀδυσσεύς — and it made me wonder if, just as a horseman deals with horses, perhaps our man Odysseus dealt with something that gave him is name. The only thing I see in the dictionary is ὀδύ?ομαι, which has to deal with lamentation; there’s also the verb ὀδυσσομαι, I hate.
Has there been any thought to the origin of such names?
Remember the scene where the Cyclops asks Odysseus his name and he replies ‘Nobody’? Well, according to the classicist Bernard Knox, the Greek word for ‘nobody’ is ΟΥΤΙΣ, and this word sounds very much like the first part of Odysseus’s name.
Hi,
You can also find some discussion of this topic here. The three responses to this original post have a bunch of theories and references.
Thymios
Middle Liddell, says that it is derived from ὀδύσσαομαι.
It gives an interesting reference: Od. 19.407.
Kata Wikipedian:
His name means “son of pain” according to Homer, or perhaps more likely, it comes from the Greek οδηγός: “a guide; the one showing the way”. It may also mean “pain” in the sense of the “the one inflicting and suffering pain” - ironically, nearly always he suffers pain (mental and/or physical) in return if he inflicts pain on some one and vice versa.
The “son of pain” part would, I believe, be the Odusseia reference Bert posted. (I just checked my Loeb Odyssey).
Actually the word is ὀδυσσάμενος a participle of ὀδύσσομαι.
Er, I was referring to the Greek name of the Odyssey.
I guess Odysseus has a connection with “odos” (street, road), “odeuw” (walking, travelling), so Odysseus means “traveller”.
There is also a theory suggesting it of Illyrian origin, from “Ode”, “Ule” meaning the same as “odos” or/and “odeyw”. “Ule” could be also the source for Romans’ Ulysses.
I greatly appreciate the responses! Very interesting. Χά?ιν ὑμῖν ἔχω.
i’m a little suspicious of homer’s etymology, but i’m not really qualified to offer a different one, especially since i just returned my library copy of sihler’s new comparative grammar, and his discussion of phonological changes would certainly be helpful here.
i think the derivation from “hodegos” on wikipedia is certainly false, since that word only appears with any frequency in the hellenistic period. likewise with the other etymologies connected with “hodos,” including “hodeuo.” there’s the not-so-minor matter of the rough breathing, which in this case preserves an initial “s” (at least according to the oxford english dictionary, which cites sanskrit “sada”). the only connection between this root and the word “odysseus” is the sound “od.”
the derivation from “dewk” (latin dux) seems shaky because the preformative “o” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. we also have to explain the ending: as far as i know, “eus” by itself denotes the agentive suffix we’re looking for. if “dewk” really is the root, then we have to supply a semivowel between the velar stop and the ending in order to get our double sigma: “o” + “duk” + “yeus.” i don’t know how that could be explained.
the foreign origin hypothesis seems most attractive to me. the variety of spellings of the name probably attests to some ancient, non-greek origin. the latin “ulixes” is probably a borrowing of the sicilian greek “oulixes” (or etruscan “ulixe?” if anyone has any good information on that, please share). the change from “d” to “l” (or perhaps the other way around) is not unprecedented: i’m not very good with greek dialects, but i know that the classical sanskrit retroflex “d” corresponds in many instances to a vedic retroflex “l,” which has survived into modern marathi.
If I’m not mistaken, that would also cause the name to be rendered Ὀδυττεύς in Attic.
the change from “d” to “l” (or perhaps the other way around) is not unprecedented: i’m not very good with greek dialects, but i know that the classical sanskrit retroflex “d” corresponds in many instances to a vedic retroflex “l,” which has survived into modern marathi.
That’s interesting that Sanskrit does that too. 
Latin is in fact known to derive *d to l in some circumstances; lingua, for instance, is from the Indo European root *dng’huh2-.
Chantraine records a few interesting points:
Outside of “literary” works, the form with δ is not well-attested. However, it appears frequently in forms Ὀλυσεύς, Ὀλυσσεύς, Ὀλυττεύς, Ὀλισεύς, Ὠλυσσεύς. Although some of these forms may be faulty, Chantraine asserts that they completely guarantee an original root in λ.
The ancient and popular etymology, based in part on Odyssey 19.407 sq., is “child of hatred.”
The true etymology (pardon the pleonasm) is unknown.
W.B. Stanford comments on 19.407: the Latin “Ulixes” is derived from the Aeolic Ὀλισσεύς.
Cordially,
Paul
Hyptia,
So the final alpha in )Arizw/na is long? 
Cordially,
Paul
Oops! Lemme fix that…