Glossary of Characters

Daughter of Zeus. She is Odysseus’s divine patron and protector, and now extends that protection to his son. She appears in disguise throughout the poem — as Mentes, as Mentor, as a dream-friend — nudging events from behind mortal faces. In Book VI she sends Nausicaä to the river, puts courage in the girl’s heart, and transforms Odysseus’s appearance after he bathes — thickening his hair like hyacinth clusters.

Ruler of Olympus, god of the sky and thunder. Father of Athena. He oversees the fates of mortals and sends omens — the two eagles in Book II were his message. He decrees that Odysseus must be released from Calypso’s island and sends Hermes to deliver the command.

Brother of Zeus and lord of the oceans. He is Odysseus’s great enemy — furious that the hero blinded his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. He drowned Ajax the Lesser for his boasting, and in Book V unleashes a storm that nearly kills Odysseus when he finally sails from Calypso’s island.

The swift messenger who carries the will of Zeus to gods and mortals alike. In Book V he flies on golden sandals to Calypso’s island and delivers the command to release Odysseus. Even he pauses to admire the beauty of Ogygia before speaking.

A divine nymph, daughter of Atlas, who holds Odysseus captive on her hidden island for seven years. She loves him genuinely and offers him immortality. When Hermes delivers Zeus’s command, she protests the gods’ hypocrisy — male gods take mortal lovers freely, but goddesses are punished. She obeys, but lets them know what she thinks.

The hero of the poem. After four books heard only in other people’s mouths, we finally see him in Book V — weeping on a rock, staring at a sea he cannot cross. He refuses immortality, survives Poseidon’s storm, and washes up naked on Phaeacia. In Book VI he emerges from the bushes like a mountain lion, terrifies a group of girls, and wins help from Nausicaä with nothing but the most beautiful speech in the poem.

Wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachus. Famous for her loyalty and cunning — she kept the suitors at bay for three years by weaving a shroud by day and unravelling it by night. In Book IV she learns her son sailed without telling her and that the suitors plan to kill him. Athena sends a dream-phantom to comfort her. In Book V, she is the reason Odysseus refuses immortality.

Son of Odysseus and Penelope. About twenty years old, he has grown up without a father and surrounded by the suitors who infest his house. Books I–IV follow his journey from uncertain boy to young man of action. In Sparta, his resemblance to his father moves Menelaus to tears and confirms his identity to Helen.

The old king, Odysseus’s father. Once a great warrior, he has withdrawn from the palace to work his farm in grief. Penelope’s shroud ruse used him as its pretext — she told the suitors she must finish weaving his burial shroud before choosing a new husband.

The old nurse who raised both Odysseus and Telemachus. She is the only mortal Telemachus trusts with his departure plan. When Penelope confronts her in Book IV, she confesses — she swore an oath to the boy. Her loyalty is always to the family, even when it means keeping secrets from its queen.

The most arrogant and dangerous of Penelope’s suitors. In Book IV he proposes murdering Telemachus on his way home from Sparta: give me a ship and twenty men. He is not bluffing. The ambush ship is readied and waits in the strait.

The smoothest-spoken of the suitors — where Antinous uses force, Eurymachus uses charm. He mocks Halitherses after the eagle omen, dismissing prophecy entirely. He is the second suitor Odysseus kills in Book XXII, moments after Antinous falls.

A nobleman of Ithaca whom Odysseus trusted to watch over his household. Athena frequently borrows his appearance. His name has become the English word “mentor” — an older guide — because of this poem.

Athena’s first disguise in the poem. She appears as Mentes, a foreign trader and old friend of Odysseus, to plant the idea of the voyage in Telemachus’s mind. The boy recognises a guest, not a god.

An old man renowned as the finest reader of birds on Ithaca. He saw Odysseus off to Troy twenty years ago and predicted his long absence. Now he reads Zeus’s eagle omen and warns the suitors that Odysseus is near and their deaths are certain. They laugh at him.

A bent old man who opens the assembly. He has four sons — one sailed with Odysseus and was eaten by the Cyclops, though he does not know this. He blesses whoever called this meeting, hoping it means news of the fleet.

The singer in Odysseus’s palace, forced to perform for the suitors. When he sings of the Greeks’ return from Troy, Penelope weeps and begs him to stop. Telemachus defends the bard’s right to sing what the Muse gives him — one of his first acts of authority.

The oldest and wisest of the Greek warriors at Troy. He fought alongside Odysseus and survived the war and the voyage home. Famous for his long, digressive speeches and his unfailing piety toward the gods. He rules Pylos with his many sons around him.

Nestor’s youngest son, about the same age as Telemachus. Steady, tactful, and brave, he drives the chariot to Sparta and becomes Telemachus’s first real companion. At Menelaus’s table, when the weeping starts, his grief for his own dead brother Antilochus is as real as anyone’s.

Brother of Agamemnon and husband of Helen. Rich beyond measure after his long voyage home from Troy, but haunted — he would trade it all to have the dead alive. He wrestled the shape-shifting Proteus on the beach of Pharos and learned that Odysseus is alive but trapped on Calypso’s island.

Wife of Menelaus and the most beautiful woman in the Greek world. Now restored to Sparta, she controls the room — she drops the drug nepenthe into the wine, tells the first war story, and identifies Telemachus before anyone else by his resemblance to Odysseus. Homer never condemns her. He lets you decide.

Commander of the Greek army at Troy and brother of Menelaus. He returned home victorious — only to be murdered at his own feast by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Proteus reveals his fate in Book IV. His story is the poem’s dark mirror for Odysseus’s homecoming.

Cousin of Agamemnon. While the king was at Troy, Aegisthus seduced his wife Clytemnestra and together they plotted his murder. Named by Proteus as the killer. He ruled Mycenae for seven years before Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, returned and killed him.

Not the famous Ajax son of Telamon, but the smaller Ajax, son of Oileus. Proteus tells Menelaus that Poseidon drowned him after Ajax boasted he had survived the sea against the gods’ will.

A shape-shifting sea god who tends his flock of seals on the island of Pharos. To get answers from him, Menelaus must catch him asleep and hold on through every transformation — lion, serpent, panther, boar, running water, and tree. He reveals the fates of Ajax, Agamemnon, and Odysseus.

She takes pity on Menelaus starving on the beach of Pharos and teaches him how to ambush her own father. She provides the sealskins and the ambrosia to mask the stench. Without her betrayal, Menelaus would never have learned the truth about Odysseus.

Being sent to marry Neoptolemus, son of Achilles — a match promised during the war. She appears at the double wedding feast that is underway when Telemachus arrives in Sparta. A reminder that the war’s consequences are still unfolding a generation later.

A woman of Thebes who became a sea-goddess. She surfaces during Poseidon’s storm in Book V and gives Odysseus her immortal veil — the only thing that keeps him from drowning. She understands mortal suffering because she lived it.

The man at the gate who hesitates when Telemachus arrives. Should he turn the strangers away? Menelaus rebukes him sharply: we have eaten other men’s bread. A small character, but he triggers one of the poem’s key statements on hospitality.

Daughter of Alcinous and Arete. Young, brave, practical, and perceptive. Athena sends her to the river mouth in a dream. When Odysseus emerges from the bushes, naked and terrifying, every other girl runs. Nausicaä stands her ground. She feeds and clothes him, then gives him precise instructions for entering the city — while being careful about her own reputation. Homer compares her to Artemis among her nymphs.

King of Scheria and father of Nausicaä. When she asks for a wagon to wash clothes, he smiles — he understands what she is really thinking about. He will play a larger role in the books to come: it is in his palace that Odysseus will finally tell his whole story.

Queen of Scheria, wife of Alcinous. Nausicaä tells Odysseus to go straight to her — not the king — and clasp her knees. If the queen looks on him with favour, he will get home. In Phaeacia, the queen’s judgement carries the real weight.