Why was Odysseus originally called away from home? Why do you think he was willing to take on this challenge despite the risk involved?

The episode discussed above in which Odysseus is a suitor for Helen is not found in Homer and belongs to later accounts of Odysseus (see Apollodorus). This later tradition recounts how Tyndareos, Helen's father, is besieged with suitors for Helen and turns to Odysseus, who may also be a suitor for Helen, for help. Odysseus suggests that Tyndareos make all prospective suitors swear an oath that they will support any suitor who wins Helen and then has to fight anyone who challenges his right to Helen or abducts her. Presumably, since Odysseus suggested this oath, he is bound to honor it and joins Agamemnon and the Greek forces as they try to retrieve Helen from Paris. As a reward for suggesting the oath to Tyndareos, Tyndareos asks his brother, Icarius, to give his daughter Penelope to Odysseus in marriage.

Homer tells us that when Agamemnon visits Odysseus in Ithaca to convince him to join the Greek forces, Odysseus is reluctant to join:

Do you not remember how I came to your house with Menelaus, to persuade Ulysses to join us with his ships against Troy? It was a whole month ere we could resume our voyage, for we had hard work to persuade Ulysses to come with us (Iliad, Book XXIV, ll. 116ff).

There is no discussion as to why Odysseus is reluctant to join Agamemnon. Additionally, Odysseus understands that Agamemnon's venture will not only require a long, perilous voyage—Ithaca is further away from Troy than any other Greek state—but also he has a young wife and an infant son, and he is understandably unwilling to leave them. Because Odysseus is both intelligent and far-sighted, he understands that going to war with Troy, on Trojan soil, will require time and effort that he is not prepared to lose.

Odysseus's willingness to join Agamemnon, then, is most likely a result of his sense of duty and, from a practical standpoint, his belief that it would not be a good idea to refuse the most powerful Greek leader at the time, Agamemnon, who could bring disaster on Odysseus and Ithaca. Self-preservation is a powerful motivator. Odysseus could not have foreseen that the war against Troy would last for ten years or that his voyage home would take another ten years.