English 'odyssey' derives from Homer's 'Odýsseia,' the epic poem about the hero Odysseus — whose name may mean 'he who causes wrath' — and has been a common noun for 'a long, adventurous journey' since the 1580s, when English translators first brought the Homeric tradition into the vernacular.
A long, eventful journey or series of adventures, especially one involving many changes of fortune.
From Latin 'Odyssēa,' from Greek 'Odýsseia' (Ὀδύσσεια), the epic poem attributed to Homer narrating the ten-year journey of Odysseus (Ὀδυσσεύς) from Troy to his home in Ithaca. The hero's name 'Odysseus' is traditionally connected to Greek 'odýssomai' (ὀδύσσομαι, 'to be angry at, to hate'), suggesting 'he who is hated' or 'he who causes wrath' — a name explained in Homer as referring to the enmity of gods and men. The generic sense of 'a long, adventurous
The Romans called Odysseus 'Ulixes' or 'Ulysses,' a name that may derive from an Etruscan intermediary form 'Uthuze.' This is why the Greek hero is known by two completely different names in Western tradition. James Joyce titled his modernist masterpiece 'Ulysses' (1922), mapping Odysseus's mythic wanderings onto a single day's walk through Dublin — turning the longest journey in literature into the shortest.