I have some trouble with the argument that “oh, all the sources after Homer hated Odysseus and enjoyed making him the embodiment of evil, but in reality he is morally righteous.” First of all, it feels a bit too simplistic to me to say that everybody hated him, so we can’t have a single sympathetic portrayal.
But more importantly: I thought the whole point with Odysseus was precisely this. That different kinds of morality can inhabit him. That he can hold opposing and contradictory ambitions and desires. That he can be the man who loves his son and takes little children on his knee at banquets, but also has no scruples about killing the children of his enemies. That he longs for his land and his family but would never leave Troy without first winning (and for that you don’t need to go far, it's in the Iliad babes). I thought we all agreed that polytropos also meant this. If there is one character in whom we can (and should) reconcile all this… that character is precisely him.
