ὁ τλήμων Ὀδυσεὺς
On this epithet, Milman Parry offers the following:
The epithet τλήμων, found twice in the Iliad, presents a particular interest because it never occurs in the Odyssey, despite the greater importance of the role played by Odysseus in the latter poem. One might be tempted to see in it a word original with the poet of the Iliad or of the Doloneia, only the meaning of the epithet rules out such a conclusion. Like πολύτλας, τλήμων could never have been invented for the Iliad. It is an epithet whose origin is in some poem describing the wanderings of Odysseus, and which eventually came, like πολύτλας, to be applied to him under all circumstances. For in the Iliad Odysseus has not yet suffered more than other heroes. So we have here a formula indubitably deriving from the tradition and yet never used by the poet (or poets) of the Odyssey. Ought we to infer that the author of the Odyssey knew this formula but never had occasion to make use of it? It could be pointed out in support of this conclusion that the other words of these two lines are often found in the same position [citing 10.231 and 10.498, on which, see below]. It is also true that in the Odyssey Odysseus never has occasion to manage horses or to enter the throng of battle. But all this remains uncertain.
MHV 82
For more on the significance of this epithet, see below on 10.248, where we connect Odysseus’ epithets from τλάω with the endurance and daring required for ambush. Here, we see both semantic fields of the word at work: ὁ τλήμων Ὀδυσεὺς is followed in the very next line by the phrase: αἰεὶ γὰρ οἱ ἐνὶ φρεσὶ θυμὸς ἐτόλμα (“For the spirit [thumos] in his heart [phrēn] was always daring”; on the thumos as the motivator in risky undertakings, see also on 10.220 above). If we connect Odysseus’ epithet to the theme of ambush, we need not state with Parry that it could never have been invented for the Iliad, or assert that it is more appropriate for the Odyssey (Hainsworth 1993 ad loc.). Rather, it is appropriate in an ambush context, wherever that theme is invoked. On the significance of the definite article here, see Haft 1990:46–48 (with further bibliography ad loc.), who notes that although ὁ + epithet phrases are relatively rare in Homer, ὁ τλήμων Ὀδυσεὺς is one of four such phrases applied to Odysseus in the Iliad and Odyssey, and should be understood as demonstrative (i.e. “that [well-known] enduring Odysseus”). See also on 10.363.