The Odyssey

• Odysseus

  The main character of the Odyssey, ventures out to return home to Ithaca.

  Odysseus endures many challenges, such as being faced with the Laestrygonians and Cyclops.
• Penelope

  The wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus. The suitors fight to win her over her hand in marriage, but she stalls, waiting for Odysseus.
• Telemachus

  The son of Odysseus and Penelope. During the Odyssey, he ventures out to find his father, Odysseus and is helped by Athena along the way. He has developed his courage to fight against the suitors and has grown up into a strong man.
• Athena

  The goddess of wisdom, she helped Odysseus and his family during the Odyssey. She has a fondness for Odysseus, and helps him return home.

  Ex: She uses her powers to cover Odysseus in fog when he goes into the palace of the Phaeacians and also disguises Odysseus as a beggar to conceal his identity.
• Poseidon

  The god of the sea. He is angry at Odysseus for stabbing the eye of the Cyclops and creates many obstacles for Odysseus to return home.
• Circe

  An enchantress; used a potion to turn Odysseus's men into pigs.

  She tricked Odysseus into staying with her as a lover on her island of Aeaea
• Calypso

  A nymph who lives on the island of Ogygia.

  She holds Odysseus on her island for 7 years, wanting to marry him.

  She even offers him immortality, but Odysseus refuses to and longs to go home.
• Antinous

  One of the leaders of the suitors; helps to create a plan to murder Telemachus and is one of the more physically aggressive upon the suitors.
• Eumaeus

  A swineherd who was raised with Odysseus. He feels very brotherly towards Odysseus and has huge respect for him. In the Odyssey, he was the first to help Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, and showed xenia towards him. Helps Odysseus and Telemachus against the suitors.
• Nausicaa

  The princess of the Phaeacians, daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete. Nausicaa helps to save Odysseus when he is battered and starving. She guides him towards the Phaeacian palace, where he receives help to journey home from the King/Queen.
• Arete

  Queen of the Phaeacians, mother of Nausicaa. She is an intellegent person and holds power in the Phaeacian kingdom. Nausicaa told Odysseus to appeal to her for help.
• Alcinous

  King of the Phaeacians, father of Nausicaa. He shows hospitality to Odysseus ( a competition, the bard/music ). He is the one who asks Odysseus to retell his story of the journey home from the Trojan war.
• Polyphemos

  The one-eyed giant or Cyclops, son of Poseidon

  He is the one who traps Odysseus and his men in the cave, got stabbed in the eye by Odysseus
• Elpenor

  One of Odysseus's men journeying with him, at Circe's palace, he got drunk and fell to his death from her palace. Odysseus visits the underworld and meets him. He tells Odysseus to give him a proper burial, and with his men, Odysseus does what he asked (loyalty).
• Tiresias

  A prophet in the Underworld. Odysseus journeys to the underworld to meet him in Book 11. From Tiresias, he learns about how to journey back home and what he should do next. Through his visit, Odysseus was able to communicate with other souls, like his mom, Anticlea, and Agamemnon.
• Agamemnon

  Odysseus meets Agamemnon's soul in the underworld. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her new lover, Aegisthus. He warns Odysseus to be wary of his wife in returning home to Ithaca.
• Argos

  Odysseus's dog, who with unwavering loyalty, keeps his promise to protect his family. He later sadly passes away upon seeing Odysseus, happy that he is able to see him one last time.
• Laertes

  The father of Odysseus, who is saddened by Odysseus's absence and the death of his wife. He is grieving for Odysseus's death on his farm, but when he learns of his return, he quickly joins in the fight against the suitors.
• Menelaus

  King of Sparta, his brother is Agamemnon and Menelaus is the husband of Helen.

  Telemachus visits him during his journey to find his father. Menelaus and Helen recount the days of Odysseus, weeping in his absence. Menelaus encourages Telemachus to keep searching for his father and tells him that he is on the island of Calypso.
• Helen

  Wife of Menelaus; seems to be living happily with Menelaus back home in Sparta.

  She recounts stories of Odysseus and how he is clever/wise.

  She gives Telemachus and Menelaus a drink, so they can forget their grief/sadness in Book 4.
• Eurycleia

  A loyal servant/nurse of Odysseus, who has cared for him and Telemachus as they grew up. She is well-informed about the different things happening in the palace. She kept Telemachus's journey to find his father a secret from Penelope and also kept Odysseus's disguise a secret as well ( recognized the scar on his leg).
• Charybdis

  A giant whirlpool located beneath a fig tree on the opposite shore from her partner, Scylla. The monster wrecked the ship of the hero Odysseus on his way home from the Trojan War.
• Scylla

  A six-headed monster of the sea. Odysseus decides to sacrifice six men to Scylla, the female monster with six heads on long necks who eats six sailors at once, as it guarantees the survival of the majority compared to Charybdis.
• Hermes

  Messenger of the gods and guides souls to the underworld.

  Helps Odysseus create a potion with a special plant to help protect himself against Circe.

  When Odysseus is on the island of Calypso, Hermes is there to convince Calypso to let Odysseus return home.
• Sirens

  Humanlike beings who lure people with their singing. Their goal is to lure sailors off their course and to their deaths. When Odysseus encounters them, he tells his men to tie him to the ship so he can hear their music, but cover their ears with wax to protect his men.
• Hera

  Goddess, wife of Zeus. Sided with the Greeks in the Trojan war.
• Demodocus

  A bard, sings about the war and narratives of the Trojan war.

  He visits King Alcinous's gathering and sings of the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles at Troy. Everyone listens with pleasure except Odysseus, who weeps at the painful memories that the story recalls. The king notices Odysseus's grief and ends the feast so that the games can begin.
• Melanthius

  Odysseus' disloyal goatherd in The Odyssey. After Odysseus has returned to Ithaca disguised as a beggar, Melanthius insults him and kicks him. Odysseus sees Melanthius bringing some of the best goats to slaughter for the suitors.
• Tantaulus

  Tantalus committed a great offense against the gods by stealing nectar and ambrosia from their table, as well as killing his son and tricking the gods into eating him. As punishment, Tantalus was banished to a special realm of the underworld known as Tartarus, where he would be forever surrounded by water he couldn't drink and fruit he couldn't reach.
• Sisyphus

  While in the underworld, after providing offerings, he sees the spirits of the dead. Odysseus explains, ''and I saw Sisyphus at his endless task raising his prodigious stone with both his hands."

  Sisyphus is condemned to forever push a rock up a hill only for it to always fall back to the bottom of the hill; this is an endless cycle of repetition that he can never escape.
• Aeolus

  Wind god, Aeolus gave Odysseus a favorable wind and a bag in which the unfavorable winds were confined. Odysseus' companions opened the bag; the winds escaped and drove them back to the island.
• Proteus

  The old shape-shifter god.

  Menelaus has fought with him. After an aggressive fight, Proteus told Menelaus what he needed to relay to the gods to obtain safe passage and winds home.
• Should all of the suitors be killed or should some- like Amphinomus- be spared?

   Xenia, or hospitality, is a central theme and custom in Greek culture. Since most of the suitors were staying and taking advantage of Odysseus's home and family, the suitors practiced poor xenia and should repay for their crimes. The group had killed Odysseus's livestock, treated the servants poorly, and wanted to kill Telemachus. Amphinomus did express how he did not intend to kill Telemachus, saying that they should wait for a sign from the gods.
• In Book 4, Menelaus tells a story about his encounter with the god Proteus. Why is it very difficult to grab a hold of, and hold onto Proteus?


  Proteus is a shape-shifting god, so he is very powerful and has the advantage of shifting into any shape.
• As we learn in Book 5, Odysseus has been trapped on a goddess' island for seven years. What is the name of this goddess?

  Calypso
• Who were Odysseus's parents?

  Laertes and Anticleia
• What name did Odysseus use to trick Polyphemus when in the cave?Odysseus called himself "Noman," to disguise as someone else to trick Polyphemus (Cyclops) book 9.
• Some ways Penelope tricks the suitors

  • She put them off with a ruse, persuading them to wait until she had finished a funeral shroud for Laertes, Odysseus's father, which she wove by day and secretly unravelled by night. In this way she managed to deceive them for three years.
  • Athena inspires Penelope to come down and speak to the suitors. The queen tells the suitors that if they hope to win her hand they should give her gifts, as is customary.
• What does the "Odyssey" mean

  A journey
• How many suitors are there in the Odyssey?

  108 suitors