| Title: | Ulysses |
| Original Title: | Ulysse |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 17 (1765), p. 376 |
| Author: | Louis, chevalier de Jaucourt (biography) |
| Translator: | J. Connor Bylsma [Grand Valley State University] |
| Subject terms: |
Mythology
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.323 |
| Citation (MLA): | Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de. "Ulysses." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by J. Connor Bylsma. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2016. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.323>. Trans. of "Ulysse," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 17. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de. "Ulysses." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by J. Connor Bylsma. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.323 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Ulysse," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 17:376 (Paris, 1765). |
Ulysses, king of two little islands in the Ionian sea, Ithaca and Dulichium, was the son of Laertes and Anticlea; he was an eloquent, handsome, and cunning prince who contributed as much to the capture of Troy by his artifices, as did Ajax and Diomedes by their valor; but only Homer immortalized Ulysses ’ adventures in his poem The Odyssey, and all mythologists have attempted to explain this fable; however, were it not for Homer, Ithaca, Ulysses , and all aspects of the epic, would be entirely unknown to us.
We know that the poet has the young Telemachus leave to find his father; and that after having recounted Telemachus’ voyage up to Sparta, he leaves him there, that is to say, from the fourth book of the Odyssey until the arrival of Ulysses at Ithaca, where he happens to then be. It is that gap that is so wonderfully filled by the illustrious archbishop of Cambrai in his Telemachus , one of the most beautiful and insightful poems ever written. [1]
Ulysses , after his death, received many heroic honors, and even had an oracle in the country of the Eurytanians, a people of Aetolia. Among the monuments of this prince for us remaining is a medal from Gorlaeus which shows him nude, spear in hand, right foot on a wheel: near him is a column upon which rests his helmet.
Note
1. François Fénelon, Les Aventures de Télémaque (1694).