The Odyssey

Characters

Character Map

Who is who, and who belongs to whom. Click a name to open the character page.

Odysseus Odysseus is the king of Ithaca whom the poem asks of the Muse, in the first verse, as the man of many turns: he who wandered much and who has many expedients. He sacked Troy and, when the story begins, he is the only survivor of the war who has not yet... Penelope Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, daughter of Icarius and mother of Telemachus, and she is the queen who holds the house of Ithaca together during her husband's absence. Nobles from Ithaca and the neighboring islands court her and consume the household, and... Telemachus Telemachus is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, a young man who barely knew his father and lives in Ithaca in a house taken over by suitors. The Odyssey begins with him and not with the hero: the first book shows him sitting among the men who eat the family's... Athena Athena is the bright-eyed goddess, daughter of Zeus, who protects Odysseus and his house. It is she who sets the return in motion in the council of the gods and who guides it closely to the end, almost always in disguise, in the figure of a guest, an old... Zeus Zeus is the god who rules the others and, in the poem, the guarantor of the law of hospitality: the stranger and the beggar come from him, and it is in his name that shelter is asked. He hardly appears on stage outside the councils, and he decides Odysseus's... Poseidon Poseidon is the god of the sea and of earthquakes, father of the Cyclops Polyphemus and ancestor of the Phaeacians. He is Odysseus's divine enemy: the poem explains in the first book that he does not kill him, but makes him wander far from his homeland,... Calypso Calypso is the nymph who lives on the island of Ogygia, in a cave surrounded by woods, vines, and four springs, where she sings while she weaves with a golden shuttle. It is there that the poem finds Odysseus at the start of the story: held for years, without... Circe Circe is the goddess who lives on the island of Aeaea, daughter of the Sun and sister of Aeetes, in a house of polished stone surrounded by wolves and lions that she has enchanted with drugs. She sings and weaves beside the door, and receives visitors with a... Polyphemus Polyphemus is the Cyclops who herds alone, in a cave closed by a stone that twenty-two wagons could not move, far from the others, and who knows only lawless deeds. He is a son of Poseidon. The Odyssey introduces him before recounting the encounter: in the... Nausicaa Nausicaa is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete, in Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians. She is a young woman of marriageable age, with five brothers, who goes to wash clothes in the river on the morning she finds a naked shipwrecked man. The poem... Alcinous Alcinous is the king of the Phaeacians, in Scheria, grandson of Poseidon through his father Nausithous, husband of Arete and father of Nausicaa. He rules a people of seafarers who escort strangers without harm, in a palace of bronze and gold surrounded by an... Eumaeus Eumaeus is Odysseus's swineherd, the servant who most cares for his master's goods, and who raises the pigs in a round yard that he built on his own after the king's departure. He was kidnapped as a boy from an island where his father ruled, sold to Laertes,... Eurycleia Eurycleia is the old nurse of Odysseus's house, who raised the master and now keeps the palace stores. She accompanies Telemachus to his room with torches, weeps over what she knows, and keeps what she swears. It is she who, while washing the feet of a... Antinous Antinous is the leader of Penelope's suitors, son of Eupeithes, and the one who speaks most for them. He eats through Odysseus's house with the others, mocks Telemachus, and is the one who tells Ithaca about the loom trick. The poem makes him the harshest of... Laertes Laertes is the father of Odysseus, son of Arcesius, the old man who withdrew from the city to the countryside and lives in mourning for his son. He sleeps with the servants, in the ashes by the fire in winter and in beds of leaves in the vineyard in summer,... Menelaus Menelaus is the king of Sparta, son of Atreus, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen. He returned from Troy after years of wandering through Egypt and other lands, and now lives in the palace full of the wealth he gathered. In the Odyssey he is the host... Helen Helen is the woman because of whom the Achaeans went to Troy, and who now lives in Sparta beside Menelaus, back in the palace. She appears in the Odyssey as a hostess who controls the mood of the table: she drops a drug into the wine to take away pain and... Tiresias Tiresias is the blind prophet of Thebes, the only dead man in Hades who keeps his mind, a gift of Persephone, while the other souls flit about like shadows. Odysseus goes to him on Circe's orders, since she says the prophet will tell him the way and the...

Other characters

Arete: queen of the Phaeacians and wife of Alcinous, whose knees Odysseus must embrace; the people venerate her as a goddess, and she recognizes the clothes he wears, because she made them with her maids.
Demodocus: the blind Phaeacian bard, whom the Muse deprived of sight and gave sweet song; he sings of the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles, the net of Hephaestus and the wooden horse, and the last song makes the guest weep.
Nestor: old king of Pylos, who welcomes Telemachus with a feast, knows nothing of Odysseus and tells of the return of the Achaeans and the affair of Agamemnon, Aegisthus and Orestes.
Peisistratus: son of Nestor, who welcomes strangers before knowing who they are and accompanies Telemachus to Sparta and back to Pylos.
Agamemnon: leader of the Achaeans at Troy, killed by Aegisthus and by his wife on his return; in Hades, he advises Odysseus not to be gentle with his wife and praises Penelope.
Orestes: son of Agamemnon who avenges his father by killing Aegisthus, the example that Athena and Nestor set before Telemachus and that Menelaus repeats, from Proteus.
Eurylochus: companion of Odysseus who suspects the trap of Circe, challenges the order to pass by the island of the Sun and proposes killing the cattle.
Elpenor: the youngest of the companions, who falls from the roof of Circe and dies; his soul is the first to reach the pit and asks for burial, with the oar fixed on the tomb.
Anticleia: mother of Odysseus, who died of longing for him; in Hades she explains that the soul flies away like a dream and that is why he cannot embrace her.
Hermes: messenger of the gods, who carries Zeus's order to Calypso, gives Odysseus the herb against Circe's spell, and leads the souls of the suitors to Hades.
Mentor: companion to whom Odysseus entrusted the house, who rebukes the silent people at the assembly; Athena takes his shape several times.
Eurymachus: leader of the suitors alongside Antinous, who raises Penelope's bride-price, proposes to pay the value of twenty oxen for all that was consumed, and dies with an arrow in his chest.
Amphinomus: suitor from Dulichium who is well regarded by Penelope, who offers bread and cup to the beggar, is warned by him that the master's return will not happen without blood, and dies by Telemachus's spear.
Melanthius: goatherd who insults and kicks the beggar, brings weapons to the suitors during the slaughter, and is bound and mutilated.
Philoetius: loyal cowherd, who waits for the master's return, swears to help when Odysseus reveals himself, and fights at his side.
Theoclymenus: fugitive seer from Argos, whom Telemachus takes aboard his ship, who foretells Odysseus's return and sees blood on the walls before the slaughter.
Phemius: bard of Ithaca who sings for the suitors under compulsion, whose song of the Achaeans' return makes Penelope weep; Odysseus spares him.
Irus: beggar known in Ithaca, of insatiable belly, who tries to drive the beggar from the threshold and is felled with a blow to the nape.