The Odyssey Study Guide

Odysseus

• The protagonist of The Odyssey

• Fought among the other Greek heroes at Troy and now struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca

• The husband of Queen Penelope and the father of Prince Telemachus

• Though a strong and courageous warrior, he is most renowned for his cunningness

• A favorite of the goddess Athena, who often sends him divine aid, but a bitter enemy of Poseidon, who frustrates his journey at every turn

Telemachus

• Odysseus’s son

• An infant when Odysseus left for Troy, he is about twenty at the beginning of the story

• A natural obstacle to the suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite his courage and good heart, he initially lacks the poise and confidence to oppose them.

• His maturation, especially during his trip to Pylos and Sparta in Books 3 and 4, provides a subplot to the epic

• Athena often assists him

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

• Homer portrays her as sometimes flighty and excitable but also clever and steadfastly true to her husband

Athena

• Daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom, purposeful battle, and the womanly arts

• 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

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

• Ironically, he is the patron of the seafaring Phaeacians, who ultimately help to return Odysseus to Ithaca

Zeus

• King of gods and men, who mediates the disputes of the gods on Mount Olympus

• Occasionally depicted as weighing men’s fates in his scales

• He sometimes helps Odysseus or permits Athena to do the same

Antinous

• The most arrogant of Penelope’s suitors

• Leads the campaign to have Telemachus killed

• Unlike the other suitors, he is never portrayed sympathetically, and he is the first to die when Odysseus returns

Eurycleia

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

• Is well informed about palace intrigues and serves as confidante to her masters

• She keeps Telemachus’s journey secret from Penelope, and she later keeps Odysseus’s identity a secret after she recognizes a scar on his leg

Nestor

• King of Pylos and a former warrior in the Trojan War

• Like Odysseus, he is known as a clever speaker

• Telemachus visits him in Book 3 to ask about his father, but he knows little of Odysseus’s whereabouts

Menelaus

• King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen, he helped lead the Greeks in the Trojan War

• He offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find Odysseus when Telemachus visits him in Book 4

Helen

• Wife of Menelaus and queen of Sparta

• Her abduction from Sparta by the Trojans sparked the Trojan War

• Her beauty is without parallel, but she is criticized for giving in to her Trojan captors and thereby costing many Greek men their lives

• She offers Telemachus assistance in his quest to find his father

Agamemnon

• Former king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus, and commander of the Achaean forces at Troy

• Odysseus encounters his spirit in Hades

• He was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, upon his return from the war.

• He was later avenged by his son Orestes

• Their story is constantly repeated in The Odyssey to offer an inverted image of the fortunes of Odysseus and Telemachus

Achilles

• The most powerful soldier in all of Greece who fought alongside Odysseus in the Trojan War

• He is one of the spirits that Odysseus speaks with when he travels to the underworld

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

Nausicaa

• The beautiful daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians

• She discovers Odysseus on the beach at Scheria and, out of budding affection for him, ensures his warm reception at her parents’ palace

Alcinous

• King of the Phaeacians, who offers Odysseus hospitality in his island kingdom of Scheria

• He hears the story of Odysseus’s wanderings and provides him with safe passage back to Ithaca

Arete

• Queen of the Phaeacians, wife of Alcinous, and mother of Nausicaa

• She is intelligent and influential

• Nausicaa tells Odysseus to make his appeal for assistance to her

Polyphemus

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

• He imprisons Odysseus and his crew and tries to eat them, but Odysseus blinds him through a clever ruse and manages to escape

• In doing so, however, Odysseus angers his father, Poseidon

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