Iliad/Odyssey Characters

Achilles

The son of the military man Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis. The most powerful warrior in The Iliad

Agamemnon

King of Mycenae and leader of the Achaean army; brother of King Menelaus of Sparta. Arrogant and often selfish

Patroclus

Achilles’ beloved friend, companion, and advisor

Odysseus

A fine warrior and the cleverest of the Achaean commanders. Along with Nestor, he is one of the Achaeans’ two best public speakers

Diomedes

The youngest of the Achaean commanders, he is bold and sometimes proves impetuous. After Achilles withdraws from combat, Athena inspires him with such courage that he actually wounds two gods, Aphrodite and Ares.

Great Ajax

An Achaean commander, he is the second mightiest Achaean warrior after Achilles

Little Ajax

An Achaean commander, he is the son of Oileus (to be distinguished from Great Ajax, the son of Telamon). He often fights alongside Great Ajax, whose stature and strength complement his small size and swift speed.

Nestor

King of Pylos and the oldest Achaean commander. Although age has taken much of his physical strength, it has left him with great wisdom. He often acts as an advisor to the military commanders, especially Agamemnon

Menelaus

King of Sparta; the younger brother of Agamemnon. While it is the abduction of his wife, Helen, by the Trojan prince Paris that sparks the Trojan War, he proves quieter, less imposing, and less arrogant than Agamemnon

Peleus

Achilles’ father and the grandson of Zeus

Hector

A son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, he is the mightiest warrior in the Trojan army

Priam

King of Troy and husband of Hecuba, he is the father of fifty Trojan warriors, including Hector and Paris.

Paris

A son of Priam and Hecuba and brother of Hector. His abduction of the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus, sparked the Trojan War.

Helen

Reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the ancient world, she was stolen from her husband, Menelaus, and taken to Troy by Paris

Aeneas

A Trojan nobleman, the son of Aphrodite, and a mighty warrior

Andromache

Hector’s loving wife

Astyanax

Hector and Andromache’s infant son

Briseis

A war prize of Achilles

Odysseus

The protagonist of The Odyssey. He fought among the other Greek heroes at Troy and now struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca.

Telemachus

Odysseus’s son. An infant when Odysseus left for Troy, He is about twenty at the beginning of the story

Penelope

Wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus. She spends her days in the palace pining for the husband who left for Troy twenty years earlier and never returned

Athena

Daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom, purposeful battle, and the womanly arts. She assists Odysseus and Telemachus with divine powers throughout the epic, and she speaks up for them in the councils of the gods on Mount Olympus. She often appears in disguise as Mentor, an old friend of Odysseus.

Calypso

The beautiful nymph who falls in love with Odysseus when he lands on her island-home of Ogygia. She holds him prisoner there for seven years until Hermes, the messenger god, persuades her to let him go.

Circe

The beautiful witch-goddess who transforms Odysseus’s crew into swine when he lands on her island. With the help of Hermes, Odysseus resists her powers and then becomes her lover, living in luxury at her side for a year.

Poseidon

God of the sea. As the suitors are Odysseus’s mortal antagonists, He is his divine antagonist. He despises Odysseus for blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and constantly hampers his journey home

Antinous

The most arrogant of Penelope’s suitors. He leads the campaign to have Telemachus killed

Eurymachus

A manipulative, deceitful suitor. His charisma and duplicity allow him to exert some influence over the other suitors

Amphinomus

Among the dozens of suitors, the only decent man seeking Penelope’s hand in marriage

Eurycleia

The aged and loyal servant who nursed Odysseus and Telemachus when they were babies

Polyphemus

One of the Cyclops (uncivilized one-eyed giants) whose island Odysseus comes to soon after leaving Troy

Laertes

Odysseus’s aging father, who resides on a farm in Ithaca. In despair and physical decline, he regains his spirit when Odysseus returns and eventually kills Antinous’s father

Tiresias

A Theban prophet who inhabits the underworld; He shows Odysseus how to get back to Ithaca and allows Odysseus to communicate with the other souls in Hades

Nestor

King of Pylos and a former warrior in the Trojan War. Like Odysseus, he is known as a clever speaker

Proteus

the old man of the sea, who tells telemachus of the deaths of the Locrian Ajax (“Ajax the lesser”) and of Agamemnon and his men at the hands of Clytemnestra’s lover Aegisthus, and finally informs him of Odysseus’ sojourn on the island of Calypso

Aegisthus

Clytemnestra’s lover

Arete

queen of the Phaeacians

Alcinous

king of the Phaeacians

Aeolus

ruler of the winds

Scylla

six-headed monster who, when ships pass, swallows one sailor for each head

Charybdis

enormous whirlpool that threatens to swallow the entire ship

Eumaeus

swineherd; gives Odysseus food and a blanket for the night