ABSTRACT

If any mythic hero has become a model for real human beings, issuing from a minor Greek island as a prototype for the men of the Western world, both ancient and modern, that hero is surely Ulysses.

Ulysses has been said, with the exception of Christ, to be the most frequently mentioned and best-known figure of Western tradition. Christ, however, has the world’s most powerful religion behind him. Ulysses stands alone. Christ is real and historical, and was perhaps responsible for the greatest revolution which has ever taken place. Ulysses is without historical significance, since he belongs to legend. He bequeathed no new departures. He embodied no force of spiritual renewal and was simply the king of a tiny island. All of this, however, has still said nothing about him. What makes him as important as in fact he is, in spite of historical negligibility, lies in his having transmitted a psychological heritage.