Outis is an often used pseudonym. Artists, writers and others in public life use this pseudonym in order to hide their identity. The Latin equivalent Nemo is also often used.
Origin of the name
"Outis" was used as a pseudonym by the Homeric hero Odysseus, when he fought the CyclopsPolyphemus, and had put out the monster's eye. Polyphemus shouted in pain to the other Cyclopes of the island that "Nobody" was trying to kill him, so no one came to his rescue. The story of the Cyclops can be found in the Odyssey, book 9. The name Nobody can be found in five different lines of Chapter 9. First of all in line 366: Then in line 369: Then in line 408: In line 455: And in line 460:
Uses of the pseudonym ''Outis''
In the New YorkEvening Mirror, Edgar Allan Poe denounced the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a plagiarist. Longfellow remained silent on the matter, but a defender for Longfellow did appear, an anonymous writer who signed his letters only as "Outis". Speculation as to the identity of Outis has mentioned Cornelius Felton, Lawrence Labree, and Poe himself.
Henry Stevens was an American rare book dealer, and a graduate of Yale University. In 1845 he went to London 'on a book-hunting expedition' and remained there until his death in 1886. As an antiquarian he helped to build up several great American libraries. In 1877, under the pseudonym of 'Mr. Secretary Outis,' he projected and initiated a literary association named The Hercules Club.
István Orosz, Hungarian visual artist, uses the pseudonym Utisz, a phonemic respelling of the Greek Outis: that is, both are pronounced //. The hidden meaning of the ancient tale is very close to the visual pitfalls created by Orosz. He likes to use visual paradox, double meaning images and optical illusion – all of them are some kind of attack upon the eye, an Odysseus' gesture in a symbolic way.
Orosz doubles even himself: from time to time, he signs his works as Utisz, the pseudonym borrowed from Cyclopeia. The most artful Greek, Odysseus, also used as a pseudonym the word meaning No-man, and as we know, with that exchange of names, then Polyphemos the Cyclops’ eye came into the world. The gouging out of the eye, or deception to the eye, also accompanied the works of Orosz/Utisz, if only metaphorically. Trompe l’oeil – we refer with an art historical expression to those images in which illusion guides the gaze. Orosz often uses such artifice, though he is completely aware of the danger of these deceptive procedures. He put it this way at a symposium a few years back: I hope my intentions are clear, in the ambitions of a Hungarian artist at the turn of the century, who does not tell the truth only to be caught in the act.
Pseudonym of Henri Antoine Meilheurat des Pruraux for O il cattolicismo o la morte in Leonardo nr 7.
Hablot Knight Browne was a British graphic artist, well known as Charles Dickens's illustrator. Among others he illustrated The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield and Martin Chuzzlewit. Browne adopted the pseudonym "N. E. M. O." Soon, however, he became "Phiz," a pseudonym well suited for the creator of "phizzes"—delightful caricatures, as seen in his illustrations. Nemo is also the given name of the scrivener with a secret in Dickens's Bleak House.
Camille Claudel, a French sculptor and graphic artist had a pet canary named Nemo. It was mentioned as alter ego of Camille Claudel in some personal letters by Rodin.
Captain Nemo is a fictional character of Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. Captain Nemo is a mysterious hero and a scientific genius who roams the depths of the sea in his submarine, the Nautilus, which he built on a deserted island.
