Ulysses = Ulixes, is said (erroneously) to be the Latin name for Odysseus, derived from Etruscan Uluxe (or Vlixes) or Sicilian Oulixes; the linguistics of the equation do not really make sense, but the understanding of the transposition from one form of the name to another is that, in some instances, the Greek D transforms into a Latin L. However, there is an argument against the identity of these two different names with one person in favour of two personages, who were both present at the Trojan War.

 

Ulysses will have been a native of the Tuscan city of EPHYRE, Cortona, and sent into exhile with "Rhodians" followers, that is, with an autochthonous folk; his wanderings in the Western Mediterranean are recorded, using an alias, in the Catalogue of Ships—

¶17. And Tlepolemus, son of Heracles, a valiant man and tall, led [from Rhodes] nine ships of the lordly Rhodians, that dwelt [in Rhodes sundered in three divisionsó]in Lindos and Ialysus and Cameirus, white with chalk. These were led by Tlepolemus, famed for his spear, he that was born to mighty Heracles by Astyocheia, whom he had led forth out of Ephyre from the river SelleÔs, when he had laid waste many cities of warriors fostered of Zeus. But when Tlepolemus had grown to manhood in the well-fenced palace, forthwith he slew his own fatherís dear uncle, Licymnius, scion of Ares, who was then waxing old. So he straightway built him ships, and when he had gathered together much people, went forth in flight over the sea, for that the other sons and grandsons of mighty Heracles threatened him. But [he came to Rhodes] in his wanderings, suffering woes, and [there] his people settled in three divisions by tribes, and were loved of Zeus that is king among gods and men; and upon them was wondrous wealth poured by the son of Cronos.

After his wanderings and sufferings, Tlepolemos settled with EPHYROI in KORINTHOS, Sipontum.

Odysseus was a Laertidae, "of the family of ants", (indeed, his father was Laertes, who wandered about in his groves in and out of the several caves that pierce the western slopes of Samos) as was Podarkes ("swift footed"), son of Laomedon, who became Priam when he ascended the throne of Troy, and hence the intimacy of Odysseus with Ilios.

How the name of Odysseus became popularly rooted with a cluster of islands off the western coast of Hellas at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras, is most likely connected with a general misunderstanding about the expansion of Illyrian tribes and the arrival of the name of Albion and of a replica of Troy at Buthrotum in southern Albania that would necessarily require islands with the same name as are present off the coast of Troy, to the north.