Foil

Klytaimestra, Aphrodite, and Penelope

These first two women listed are unfaithful wives. We sort of understand Aphrodite's situation because she’s the goddess of love. Klytaimestra, on the other hand, is really bad news, as she not only cheated on her husband Agamemnon but killed him when he got back from war. Penelope, however, is a beacon of fidelity. These two adulteresses serve to highlight Penelope’s incredible virtue, which makes this a clear foil.

Odysseus/Telemachos and Agamemnon/Orestes

The foil here is between these two father-son pairs. Agamemnon, as you all know, was killed by his wife and her lover and subsequently avenged by his son Orestes. Odysseus, while not killed, is dishonored and therefore similarly wronged, but in his case only by the suitors (the potential lovers of his wife). Telemachos struggles so much throughout the Odyssey because of his inability to avenge his father the way Orestes did his. He wants to pay the suitors back for disrespecting the name and property of Odysseus, but finds himself incapable of doing so. The parallel (if minor) story of Agamemnon’s death makes palpable for us Telemachos’s feelings of obligation.