The Odyssey Characters

Odysseus is a Greek hero, King of Ithaka, son of Laertes, husband to Penelope, father of Telemachos, favorite of Athene, nemesis of Poseidon, and inventor of the Trojan horse. Odysseus’s most...

Telemachos is the son of Odysseus and Penelope. He is marked by his prudence and, as we are told time and again, his clear-headedness. This guy is not one to rush into action without first consider...

Penelope is the wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachos, Queen of Ithaka, and the object of desire for every nobleman in the land. She’s also a strong woman. This may seem like crazy-talk by t...

The daughter of Zeus, Athene is the goddess of wisdom and patroness of warfare. This combination makes it come as no surprise that she likes a hero with some brains in him – namely Odysseus....

Antinoös is the human face we get to put to the otherwise nameless group of evil suitors. As such, Antinoös represents unbecoming greed and impropriety. He eats, drinks, raids Odysseus...

Brother of Menelaos and a Greek King. He was married to the unfaithful Klytaimestra and killed upon his return from Troy by her and her lover, Aigisthos. See "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" for more.

Sometimes spelled Agelaus. One of the suitors we see in Book XXI. He asks Telemachos to reason with Penelope about marrying someone already.

Sometimes spelled Ajax. A Greek hero in the Trojan war whom Odysseus encounters in the Underworld. Aias killed himself after Odysseus was named a greater man than he, and still refuses to speak to...

Sometimes spelled Ajax. A Greek who fought in the Trojan war, and also an irreverent jerk who raped and killed a princess on Athene’s altar and was killed for his action.

Sometimes spelled Aegisthus. The treacherous lover of Agamemnon’s wife, Klytaimestra. He conspired with her to kill her husband and was later murdered in revenge by Orestes, Agamemnon’s...

An Ithakan lord present at Telemachos’s meeting in Book II.

Sometimes spelled Aeolus, Eolus or Aeolos. God of the winds; he helps Odysseus and his men in Book X, before he realizes there is no hope for the Ithakans.

The fake name that Odysseus gives when speaking with Penelope while in the guise of a beggar. The scholar Olga Levaniouk has recently argued that this name means “fiery,” in the sense o...

Sometimes spelled Achilles. A big Greek hero that fought against the Trojans. He’s already dead by the time the Odyssey begins, so we only see him in the Underworld. It is interesting that in...

Sometimes spelled Alcinous. King of the Phaiakians, husband of Arete, father to Nausikaa. He’s the guy who asks Odysseus to tell his story.

One of the suitors. In the Underworld, he tells the story of the slaughter to Achilleus and Agamemnon. It’s clear from his version that the suitors are none-too-repentant of their ways.

Sometimes spelled Amphinomus. The good suitor, relatively speaking. Penelope seems to recognize this, as does Odysseus; he even goes so far as to warn Amphinomos to get out before the slaughter. Un...

Odysseus’s mother; he converses with her in the Underworld and discovers that she has taken her own life out of grief for his continued absence.

Sometimes spelled Antilochus. One of Odysseus’s war buddies with whom he converses in the Underworld. When alive, he was a good friend of Achilleus.

King of Lamos, the land of the not-so-human Laistrygones. He greets the Ithakans by attacking the first man he sees and drinking his blood.

Sometimes spelled Antiphus. One of the Ithakan men. He remains loyal to Odysseus; Telemachos consults with him among others in Book XVII.

Goddess of love. In the land of the Phaiakians, the bard Demodokos sings a tale about Aphrodite cheating on her husband (Hephaistos) with the God of war (Ares); she is caught in the act, literally,...

God of war. He is referenced in the Odyssey as the lover of Aphrodite, who was married. He and Aphrodite were caught – during sex – by her husband Hephaistos, and shown to the world whi...

Queen of the Phaiakians, wife to Alkinoös, and mother to Nausikaa. She’s the dominant one in her marriage, so Odysseus has to get her to like him in order to obtain help from her husband...

Odysseus’s loyal dog. When his master return homes after nearly twenty years, Argos recognizes him, rejoices, and dies. If you think Penelope had to wait a long time to see Odysseus again, tr...

Sometimes spelled Autolycus. Odysseus’s maternal grandfather. We only hear about him in a flashback; he’s the one Odysseus was hunting with as a boy when he got the tell-tale scar on hi...

Sometimes spelled Cassandra. A Trojan princess. She was raped and killed by Little Aias on the altar of Athene, which meant he had to die for his disrespect. (The problem was the location more than...

Sometimes spelled Demodocus. The blind bard of the Phaiakians; has been traditionally thought (without any real basis) to be a representation of Homer himself. This is why we think Homer is blind....

Laertes’s housekeeper.

A nymph who comes into play in Menelaos’s story to Telemachos about that one time he was stranded on an island. It was Eidothea who advised him to capture Proteus, the god of the island, to d...

One of the Ithakans unfortunate enough to be traveling with Odysseus, and even more unfortunate to have wandered up to Circe’s roof and fallen to his death before the men departed. Odysseus c...

The name that Odysseus gives to his father, Laertes, in Book XXIV, before revealing his true identity.

Sometimes spelled Eumaeus. The Ithakan swineherd who takes Odysseus in when he returns home in the guise of a beggar. He provides an excellent example of hospitality.

Antinoös’s father. We meet him post-slaughter, while he’s looking for a little vengeful slaughter action himself – against Odysseus and Telemachos.

Odysseus’s nurse when he was a little boy. She’s still around in the palace working as a servant when Odysseus returns and she recognizes her master by the scar on his thigh.

Sometimes spelled Eurylochus. One of the Ithakans traveling with Odysseus on the way back from Troy. He is a cautious man, refusing to enter Circe’s hall even when accompanied by armed men. H...

Sometimes spelled Eurymachus. One of the not-so-nice suitors. He even plots to kill Telemachos and then deceives Penelope about it.

An Ithakan augur and loyal to Odysseus. In Book II, he interprets the two vicious eagles as a sign that Odysseus is coming home soon.

Menelaos’s wife and instigator of the entire Trojan war. Although we don’t hear this tale in the Odyssey, the following would have been common knowledge among Homer’s audience. He...

God of the sun. You might be wondering what’s up with all this cattle – basically, Helios was famous not only for controlling the most essential body of matter in our solar system, but...

Sometimes spelled Hephæstos. Aphrodite’s crippled blacksmith husband. Luckily, he married a beautiful goddess. Unluckily, she cheats.

The messenger of the Gods. He doesn’t seem to have any real personality of his own, but he sure is Zeus’s yes-man.

A minor character in the story of How Odysseus Got His Bow. Actually, Iphitos is the man who gave him the bow.

Penelope’s sister. She isn’t actually present in the Odyssey, but in Book IV Athene sends a vision of her to Penelope in her sleep, to reassure the Queen that her husband is soon coming...

Sometimes spelled Irus. Also known as Arnaeus. The real beggar of the palace in Ithaka. He gets territorial when a new beggar (who we know to be Odysseus in disguise) starts poking around his turf....

Sometimes spelled Calypso. The goddess who holds Odysseus hostage for purposes of sex.

Monster #2 of the worst duo ever. Skylla and Charybdis are the two monsters Odysseus and his men have to pass on the way to Ithaka, and the latter is the one that swallows the sea and vomits it bac...

Sometimes spelled the Cicones. The resident natives in Ismaros, where Odysseus first lands after leaving Troy. The Ithakans plunder them, because they can, and the Kikonians quite reasonably retali...

The sorceress of the island Aiaia.

The daughter of Laertes, Odysseus’s sister.

Sometimes spelled Clytemnestra. Agamemnon’s no-good wife. She sleeps with Aigisthos while her husband is gone and kills Agamemnon when he finally does get home. She meets her death the same w...

A Phaiakian prince, the son of Alkinoös and Arete. He wins the foot-race during the athletic games, before Odysseus starts throwing his brawn in everyone’s face.

An evil suitor. Pretty much all he does in the Odyssey is to throw a cow’s foot at beggar Odysseus.

Sometimes spelled Cyclopses or Kyklopes. The one-eyed monsters that the Ithakans encounter on the way home.

Odysseus’s father. For some reason, he seems to live in a shack at the outskirts of Ithaka. Penelope is weaving his funeral shroud.

Sometimes spelled Laestrygonians. The scary and not-quite human folk that the Ithakans encounter in Lamos on the way home from Troy. Their king is Antiphates, whom you may remember as the blood-dri...

A Phaiakian prince, the son of Alkinoös and Arete. He wins the boxing match during the athletic games, before Odysseus beats everyone at everything.

The name pretty much says it all. The Lotus Eaters eat the Lotus. Oh, and forget about their lives, homes, families, dreams, and aspirations after doing so. We almost forgot that part.

The keeper of Apollo’s groves at Ismaros; he provides the Ithakans with wine.

The town crier of Ithaka. He’s called out as one of the men loyal to Odysseus, so he accordingly isn’t slaughtered along with everyone else in sight.

Sometimes spelled Melampus. This is another minor name in a major digression over yet another minor character. Let’s see if we can identify some sort of relevance to our tale: In Book XV, Tel...

Sometimes spelled Melanthius. The Ithakan goatherd. Unlike many of the other, loyal servants we meet, Melanthios sides with the suitors and insults beggar Odysseus. He’s also the one to arm t...

She’s the female version of Melanthios; a servant of the palace who is loyal to the suitors rather than the Queen. She, too, gets her just punishment.

A King of Sparta and husband to Helen; he is the second man Telemachos visits in his search for Odysseus, and it is in fact Menelaos who confirms the boy’s father is still alive and on Kalyps...

Athene first takes the disguise of this man, friend of Odysseus and ruler of the Taphians, when she comes to Ithaka to council Telemachos.

Mentor can be confusing in the Odyssey since the name either refers to Mentor, the elderly Ithakan, or Mentor, Athene in yet another guise. (Imagine how much easier everyone’s life would be i...

Sometimes spelled Mycenae. Agamemnon’s kingdom.

Sometimes spelled Nausicaa. The Phaiakian princess, daughter of Alkinoös and Arete. Nausikaa is the first of her people to find Odysseus, and it is she who brings him to the palace (somewhat i...

This guy is part of the digression regarding Theoklymenos, the hitchhiking fugitive seer that Telemachos picks up on his way back from Sparta. In the story, Neleus is the not-so-nice King that exil...

Also known as Pyrrhus. Achilleus’s son. Achilleus asks for him in the Underworld, and Odysseus responds with details of the boy’s accomplishments in battles, etc., etc. In other words,...

The King of Pylos and the first man Telemachos goes to visit while searching for news of his father. Nestor provides another great example of good Greek hospitality; plying the Ithakan Prince with...

A wealthy ship-seller in Ithaka. Athene obtains a ship for Telemachos from him.

Agamemnon’s son; he kills Klytaimestra and her lover Aigisthos as vengeance for his father’s death. In the meeting of the gods at the beginning of the Odyssey, first on the agenda is mu...

Sometimes spelled Patroclus. One of the shades Odysseus sees in the Underworld. Patroklos was Achilleus’s best friend. The Iliad tells how, after Patroklos was killed by Hektor, the greatest...

Sometimes spelled Peisistratus or Pisistratus. Nestor’s son. He accompanies Telemachos to Sparta to see King Menelaos.

One of Telemachos’s crewmen. When the Prince comes back to Ithaka at Athene’s urging, Peiraios agrees to house Theoklymenos, the hitchhiking fugitive seer they picked up on the way. (Mo...

Sometimes spelled the Phaeacians. The hospitable people of Scheria who house Odysseus, listen to his tale, and help him back to Ithaka, only to be destroyed by Poseidon after the fact. These are th...

Sometimes spelled Phemius. The resident bard in Ithaka. We first meet him as he saddens Penelope by singing of the Trojan war. Later, he is spared from the slaughter because he has been loyal to Od...

A cowherd in Ithaka and one of the servants who remain loyal to Odysseus. He fights on Odysseus’s side against the suitors during the slaughter.

Sometimes spelled Polyphemus. The specific one-eyed monster that the Ithakans encounter on their way home. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Polyphemos eats human flesh. Doubly unfortunately, Po...

God of the sea, as well as an ever-angry and vengeful grudge-holder. He’s the one who forces Odysseus to wander the sea for nearly twenty years, all because the man stabbed his son’s ey...

An island god we hear about in Menelaos’s tale to Telemachos; he reveals to the King how to escape the island he’s stuck on (namely, by traveling to Egypt and sacrificing to Zeus).

A Phaiakian who competes in the athletic contests held during Odysseus’s stay. He taunts Odysseus about not wanting to take part, leading Odysseus to bust out some top-notch discus-throwing.

These are the dangerous females who lure men to their deaths with their voices. Odysseus becomes the first mortal to have heard their voices and lived to tell the tale when he has his men tie him t...

Sometimes spelled Scylla. The first of the two horrible monsters Odysseus must pass with his men (the second is Charybdis). Skylla has six heads and plucks six men from the ship as it passes. Odyss...

Mentes, the man Athene pretends to be when she first arrives in Ithaka, is the ruler of the Taphians.

Sometimes spelled Tiresias. The blind prophet whose help Odysseus seeks in the Underworld.

Sometimes spelled Theoclymenus. The hitchhiker fugitive seer who grabs a ride with Telemachos on his way out of Sparta. A seer is a convenient accessory to have around when there’s a slew of...