Who is who in the Odyssey

Odysseus

Also known as Ulysses

the man who thought of the wooden horse. After the victory it took him ten more years to reach home

Relations husband of Penelope · father of Telemachus · son of Laertes

Telemachus

the son who grew up without knowing his father's face. His name means 'the one who fights far off'

Relations son of Odysseus · son of Penelope

Penelope

queen of Ithaca. She waited twenty years, unweaving by night what she had woven by day

Relations wife of Odysseus · mother of Telemachus

Antinous

leader of the suitors. The man who laughed loudest at another man's feast

Relations son of Eupeithes

Menelaus

king of Sparta. Husband of Helen and brother of Agamemnon, he came home from Troy last of all

Relations husband of Helen · sibling of Agamemnon

Nestor

the old king of Pylos. He lived three generations, and at Troy he was right more often than anyone

Alcinous

king of the Phaeacians. He fed his guest before asking his name, and saw him weep without asking why

Relations father of Nausicaa

Agamemnon

commander of the allied Greek army. He took what belonged to another and lost the strongest spear he had

Relations sibling of Menelaus · father of Iphigenia · husband of Clytemnestra

Helen

queen of Sparta. She was the spark of the war, and after the war she is back in that palace

Relations wife of Menelaus · sibling of Clytemnestra

Nausicaa

princess of the Phaeacians. When everyone else turned away she stayed and met the stranger

Relations daughter of Alcinous

Aeolus

the king who rules the winds. Zeus put them in his keeping, and he helped Odysseus once and never again

Tiresias

the blind prophet. Hera took his sight, and Zeus gave him eyes for what was coming instead of eyes for what was there. He is the one shade who kept his mind after death

Achilles

the strongest spear in the Greek army. The Iliad opens with his anger and closes at the end of that anger

Relations son of Thetis · son of Peleus · father of Neoptolemus

Eurycleia

the nurse who raised Odysseus from childhood. One scar made her the first to know him after twenty years

Laertes

father of Odysseus. Through the twenty years without his son he sank into grief and lived as a keeper of the orchard

Relations father of Odysseus

Eupeithes

the father of Antinous. He gathered the fathers and brothers of the dead for revenge and was killed by the spear of Laertes

Relations father of Antinous

Ajax the Lesser

son of Oileus. For the sacrilege he committed at the fall of Troy he was struck by lightning and sank on the way home. A different man from Ajax the Great, the son of Telamon

Cassandra

princess of Troy. She was cursed to see what was coming and to be believed by no one. On the night the city fell she was harmed at the altar of Athena

Relations daughter of Hecuba

Idomeneus

king of Crete. He made a hasty vow in a storm and met his own son, and afterward his own people drove him out

Diomedes

the great fighter of Argos. In the Trojan War he wounded Aphrodite with his spear. Driven out of the home he returned to, he founded new land in Italy

Athena

Also known as Minerva

goddess of wisdom and craft. She was born from the head of Zeus

Relations daughter of Zeus · daughter of Metis

Poseidon

Also known as Neptune

god of the sea

Relations son of Cronus · son of Rhea · father of Polyphemus · husband of Amphitrite · father of Charybdis · father of Pegasus · father of Proteus

Hermes

Also known as Mercury

god of messengers, roads and trade

Relations son of Zeus · son of Maia · killed Argus Panoptes · father of Pan

Zeus

Also known as Jupiter

king of the gods, of sky and lightning

Relations son of Cronus · son of Rhea · husband of Hera · husband of Metis · father of Athena · father of Ares · father of Hermes · father of Apollo · father of Artemis · father of Dionysus · father of Persephone · father of Perseus · father of Heracles · father of Callisto · father of Minos · husband of Mnemosyne · father of Calliope · father of Clio · father of Erato · father of Euterpe · father of Melpomene · father of Polyhymnia · father of Terpsichore · father of Thaleia · father of Urania · husband of Themis · husband of Eurynome · husband of Demeter · husband of Leto · father of Eunomia · father of Dike · father of Eirene · father of Clotho · father of Lachesis · father of Atropos · father of Aglaea · father of Euphrosyne · father of Thalia · father of Hebe · father of Eileithyia

Aphrodite

Also known as Venus

goddess of love and beauty

Relations wife of Hephaestus · mother of Eros · patron of Paris · born from Uranus · mother of Harmonia · mother of Aeneas

Polyphemus

the one-eyed giant, son of Poseidon. His name means 'the much-named one', and he was beaten by 'Nobody'

Relations son of Poseidon

the Sirens

the creatures on the shore who charmed sailors with a song. The bait was not beauty but the promise of knowing everything

Relations daughter of Achelous

Scylla

the six-headed monster in the cliff. She snatches one man for each head from every ship that passes

Relations daughter of Phorcys

Charybdis

the whirlpool that swallows the sea three times a day and spits it back. Anything caught goes down whole

Relations daughter of Gaia · daughter of Poseidon

Calypso

the nymph who kept Odysseus for seven years. She offered him a life without end and was refused

Relations daughter of Atlas

Proteus

the old man of the sea who changes shape at will. Only if you hold on does he return to his own form and give you a true answer

Relations son of Poseidon

Circe

the witch of the island of Aiaia. A daughter of Helios, she used drugs that turned people into animals

Relations daughter of Helios

Helios

Also known as Sol

the god who drives the sun across the sky. He looks down on everything that happens on earth

Relations father of Phaethon · ancestor of Medea · son of Hyperion · son of Theia · father of Circe · father of Pasiphae