CHARACTERS OF THE ODYSSEY

Odysseus - The protagonist of the Odyssey. Odysseus fought among the other
Greek heroes at Troy and now struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca.
Odysseus is the husband of Queen Penelope and the father of Prince
Telemachus. Though a strong and courageous warrior, he is most renowned for
his cunning. He is a favorite of the goddess Athena, who often sends him
divine aid, but a bitter enemy of Poseidon, who frustrates his journey at every
turn.

Circe - The beautiful witch-goddess who transforms Odysseus’s crew into

swine when he lands on her island. With Hermes’ help, Odysseus resists
Circe’s powers and then becomes her lover, living in luxury at her side for a
year.

Penelope - Wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus. Penelope spends her

days in the palace pining for the husband who left for Troy twenty years earlier
and never returned. Homer portrays her as sometimes flighty and excitable but
also clever and steadfastly true to her husband.

Telemachus - Odysseus’s son. An infant when Odysseus left for Troy,

Telemachus is about twenty at the beginning of the story. He is a natural
obstacle to the suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite his courage
and good heart, he initially lacks the poise and confidence to oppose them. His
maturation, especially during his trip to Pylos and Sparta in Books 3 and 4,
provides a subplot to the epic. Athena often assists him.

Polyphemus - One of the Cyclopes (uncivilized one-eyed giants) whose island

Odysseus comes to soon after leaving Troy. Polyphemus imprisons Odysseus
and his crew and tries to eat them, but Odysseus blinds him through a clever
ruse and manages to escape. In doing so, however, Odysseus angers
Polyphemus’s father, Poseidon.

Nestor - King of Pylos and a former warrior in the Trojan War. Like
Odysseus, Nestor is known as a clever speaker. Telemachus visits him in
Book 3 to ask about his father, but Nestor knows little of Odysseus’s
whereabouts.
Arête
Menelaus - King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen, he
helped lead the Greeks in the Trojan War. He offers Telemachus assistance in
his quest to find Odysseus when Telemachus visits him in Book 4.

Helen - Wife of Menelaus and queen of Sparta. Helen’s abduction from Sparta
by the Trojans sparked the Trojan War. Her beauty is without parallel, but she
is criticized for giving in to her Trojan captors and thereby costing many Greek
men their lives. She offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find his father.

Agamemnon - Former king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus, and commander

of the Achaean forces at Troy. Odysseus encounters Agamemnon’s spirit in
Hades. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover,
Aegisthus, upon his return from the war. He was later avenged by his son
Orestes. Their story is constantly repeated in the Odyssey to offer an inverted
image of the fortunes of Odysseus and Telemachus.

Nausicaa - The beautiful daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the
Phaeacians. Nausicaa discovers Odysseus on the beach at Scheria and, out of
budding affection for him, ensures his warm reception at her parents’ palace.

Alcinous - King of the Phaeacians, who offers Odysseus hospitality in his

island kingdom of Scheria. Alcinous hears the story of Odysseus’s wanderings
and provides him with safe passage back to Ithaca.

Arete - Queen of the Phaeacians, wife of Alcinous, and mother of Nausicaa.

Arete is intelligent and influential. Nausicaa tells Odysseus to make his appeal
for assistance to Arete.

Laertes - Odysseus’s aging father, who resides on a farm in Ithaca. In despair

and physical decline, Laertes regains his spirit when Odysseus returns and
eventually kills Antinous’s father.

Tiresias - A Theban prophet who inhabits the underworld. Tiresias meets

Odysseus when Odysseus journeys to the underworld in Book 11. He shows
Odysseus how to get back to Ithaca and allows Odysseus to communicate with
the other souls in Hades.

Eumaeus - The loyal shepherd who, along with the cowherd Philoetius, helps
Odysseus reclaim his throne after his return to Ithaca. Even though he does not
know that the vagabond who appears at his hut is Odysseus, Eumaeus gives the
man food and shelter.

Eurycleia - The aged and loyal servant who nursed Odysseus and Telemachus
when they were babies. Eurycleia is well informed about palace intrigues and
serves as confidante to her masters. She keeps Telemachus’s journey secret
from Penelope, and she later keeps Odysseus’s identity a secret after she
recognizes a scar on his leg.

Melanthius - The brother of Melantho. Melanthius is a treacherous and

opportunistic goatherd who supports the suitors, especially Eurymachus, and
abuses the beggar who appears in Odysseus’s palace, not realizing that the man
is Odysseus himself.

Melantho - Sister of Melanthius and maidservant in Odysseus’s palace. Like

her brother, Melantho abuses the beggar in the palace, not knowing that the
man is Odysseus. She is having an affair with Eurymachus.

Athena - Daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom, purposeful battle, and the
womanly arts. Athena assists Odysseus and Telemachus with divine powers
throughout the epic, and she speaks up for them in the councils of the gods on
Mount Olympus. She often appears in disguise as Mentor, an old friend of
Odysseus.

Poseidon - God of the sea. As the suitors are Odysseus’s mortal antagonists,
Poseidon is his divine antagonist. He despises Odysseus for blinding his son,
the Cyclops Polyphemus, and constantly hampers his journey home. Ironically,
Poseidon is the patron of the seafaring Phaeacians, who ultimately help to
return Odysseus to Ithaca.

Zeus - King of gods and men, who mediates the disputes of the gods on Mount
Olympus. Zeus is occasionally depicted as weighing men’s fates in his scales.
He sometimes helps Odysseus or permits Athena to do the same.

Antinous - The most arrogant of Penelope’s suitors. Antinous leads the

campaign to have Telemachus killed. Unlike the other suitors, he is never
portrayed sympathetically, and he is the first to die when Odysseus returns.
Eurymachus - A manipulative, deceitful suitor. Eurymachus’s charisma and
duplicity allow him to exert some influence over the other suitors.

Amphinomus - Among the dozens of suitors, the only decent man seeking
Penelope’s hand in marriage. Amphinomus sometimes speaks up for Odysseus
and Telemachus, but he is killed like the rest of the suitors in the final fight.

Heracles
Odysseus meets Heracles in the Underworld and mentions that it was only his
ghost as his immortal half was sent to Olympus where he married Hebe.
Aeolus
Keeper of the Winds, Aeolus gives Odysseus a tightly closed bag full of the
captured winds so he could sail easily home to Ithaca. After their failure,
Aeolus refused to provide any further help, because he believed that their short
and unsuccessful voyage meant that the gods did not favor them.
Helios
God of the Sun, Helios' cattle are impiously killed and eaten by Odysseus'
crew. The guardians of the island, Helios' daughters, tell their father about this.
Helios appeals to Zeus telling him to dispose of Odysseus' men or he will take
the Sun and shine it in the Underworld. Zeus destroys the ship with his
lightning bolt, killing all the men except for Odysseus.
Khione
Goddess of snow, ice and wind, Khione is daughter of Boreas, god of the cold
north-winds.
Ino
It isn't known why Ino helps him, but she does. Ino gives Odysseus a magical
veil that keeps him buoyant after Poseidon (god of the sea) sinks his ship. She
leads him toward the land of the Phaecians, where Nausicaa and Arete help him
to get back to Ithaca - after he has told them the story of his 'odyssey' between
the war at Troy and his reaching Scherie (also known as Phaeacia - land of
the Phaecians).
Hermes
Hermes is Patron of Travellers, Messenger of the gods and the king of thieves
and one of the 12 Olympian gods, Hermes appears three times in the Odyssey.
The first time is to deliver a message to Calypso to let Odysseus return home.
The second time, he appears to Odysseus to warn him about Circe and provides
the necessary information that Odysseus needed to put Circe into submission.
The third time he is sent to escort the spirits of the suitors from the halls of
Odysseus's home to the underworld.
Calypso and Circe

"Now he's left to pine on an island, wracked with grief" (Odyssey V): Calypso
and Odysseus, by Arnold Böcklin, 1883
Two interesting goddesses in the Odyssey are Calypso and Circe, who both
show friendly and hostile reactions toward Odysseus.
Calypso rescued Odysseus after his ship and crew were destroyed by the storm
created by Zeus after Odysseus's crew killed Helios's sun cattle, even after a
warning from Circe. She tended to his needs on her isolated island and made
him her lover. In total, Calypso held Odysseus captive on her island for seven
years and she hoped for him to stay there with her forever as her husband.
Seeing as Calypso was a daughter of a titan, Odysseus could not argue or resist
the goddess’ desires and it took the divine intervention of Zeus to ensure
Odysseus passage onto his next destination. While appearing hostile towards
Odysseus in her deeds of keeping him captive on her isle for so long against his
will, Calypso does genuinely care for Odysseus. She feeds and shelters him and
allows him to wander the isle at his own will. She does not bear him any ill-will
as he is preparing to leave her island and helps him out by showing the best
places to obtain wood from her island for his ship and provides the tools for
constructing it. Calypso can be seen to be a friendly goddess, but a bit sharp-
tongued too. When she learns that she must release Odysseus, she criticizes the
gods and how they are able to have affairs and sleep with mortal women whilst
Goddesses suffer consequences if their intentions are not as pure.
Circe, like Calypso, is also a goddess found in an isolated location, with her
house among dense woodland. Circe is initially hostile to Odysseus and his
men and attempts to turn them all to pigs with a potion slipped into the wine
with honey she offers them, but with Hermes' aid, Odysseus is able to enter her
abode and pacify her. She returns all of Odysseus’ men to their natural state
and offers them food and hospitality for one year. Unlike Calypso, Circe
appears to be quite unemotional with Odysseus. She is of great help to him and
his homeward journey.