The Odyssey Characters
About this set
Created by:
josephwilson on February 26, 2012
Subjects:
Classes:
Mr. Wilson's English Pre-AP Class 3B, Mr. Wilson's English Pre-AP Class 1B
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20 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Penelope | 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. |
| Telemachos | son of Odysseus and Penelope |
| Odysseus | King of Ithaca |
| Nestor | King of Pylos |
| 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. |
| Antinoos | leader of suitors |
| Scylla | 6-headed monster who eats six of Odysseus' men |
| Charybdis | a ship-devouring whirlpool lying on the other side of a narrow strait from Scylla |
| Calypso | the sea nymph who detained Odysseus for seven years |
| Poseidon | As the suitors are Odysseus's mortal antagonists, this character is his divine antagonist. He despises Odysseus for blinding his son. |
| Hermes | helps Odysseus by giving him a moly to resist Circe's magic |
| Circe | The beautiful witch-goddess who transforms Odysseus's crew into swine when he lands on her island. With Hermes' help, Odysseus resists Circe's powers and then becomes her lover, living in luxury at her side for a year. |
| Lastrygonians | Man-eating giants that sink all of the ships but Odysseus' |
| Aeolus | King of Winds. His gift nearly gets Odysseus and his crew home. |
| Phaeacians | People living on the island of Scheria whose king was Alcinoos. Odysseus was shipwrecked here after leaving Calypso's island of Ogygia |
| Agamemnon | Husband of Clytemnestra, and king of Mycenae. When Trojan war was over, he sailed home where he was murdered by Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. Odysseus speaks to his spirit in Hades. |
| Laertes | Odysseus's father |
| Lotus Eaters | people who feed Odysseus's men lotus plants to make them forget Ithaca |
| Nausicaa | The beautiful daughter of King Alcinoos and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. Discovers Odysseus on the beach at Scheria and, out of budding affection for him, ensures his warm reception at her parents' palace. |
| Polyphemus | a Cyclops who is the son of Poseidon. At one point he imprisons Odysseus |
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