EVERY IMPORTANT ODYSSEY CHARACTER
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45 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Paris | Selected by Zeus to settle the arguement b/t Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera @ the golden apple |
| 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. |
| Helen | immediatly recognises that Telemakhos is O's son |
| Eris | aka Strife, throws the golden apple into the wedding to create chaos |
| to the fairest | what the golden apple was enscribed |
| Agamemnon | Brother of Menelaus, fought in the Trojan War--while he was away his wife got a boy toy/manstress. When _____ got home, the boy toy murdered him (with his wife's permission). Who was this guy? |
| Clytemnestra | Faithless wife of Agamemnon. Half-sister of Helen, became the lover of Aegisthus and together they plotted her husbands death. She had no respect and did not close his eyes or mouth in death. Was ultimately killed by her son Orestes when he avenged his father. |
| Aigisthos | Clytemnestra's boy toy/manstress; killed Agamemnon when he returned to Mycenae; killed by Orestes |
| Achilles | dresses up as a woman b/c he didn't want to fight, Odysseus convinces him to fight (finds out he was a woman because instead of being drawn to trinkets at the fair, Achilles was drawn to the weapons). Later on, at the end of the Trojan War (and the end of the illiad) Achilles kills Hector, the trojan prince. |
| Odysseus | (main character) Son of Laertes and Anticleia, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus. A cunning, shrewd and eloquent hero. Came up with the idea of the Trojan horse which led the Greeks to victory against Troy. "Man of many wiles". |
| 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. He is the husband of Queen Penelope and the father of Prince Telemachus. Though a strong and courageous warrior, he is most renowned for his cunning. He is 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. |
| Zeus | King of gods and men, who mediates the disputes of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is occasionally depicted as weighing men's fates in his scales. He sometimes helps Odysseus or permits Athena to do the same. |
| Nausikaa | The beautiful daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians.=Phaecian princess. Nausicaa discovers Odysseus on the beach at Scheria and, out of budding affection for him, ensures his warm reception at her parents' palace. |
| Alkinoos | King of the Phaeacians, who offers Odysseus hospitality in his island kingdom of Scheria. Father of Nausikaa |
| Phaecians | under the authority of king Alkinoos, live in skheria, brought odysseus home +their ship's turned into stone. Odysseus told him his story and they showered him with gifts and had a feast/game day for him (even though he didn't tell them his name until he was about to leave) |
| Hector | prince of Troy, is killed by Achilles at the end of the Illiad |
| Homer | ancient Greek epic poet who is believed to have written the Iliad and the Odyssey (c. 800 BC) |
| Kikones | Odysseus's men raided the island of Ismaros, plundered, raped them-- this tribe's reinforcements attacked O's men and killed many of them. |
| Ismaros | Where the Kikones live-- O's men plundered them, but then they retalliated and killed 6 men per boat |
| Maron | Priest of Apollo at Ismaros who gives Odysseus the magic wine that is used to intoxicate the Cyclops |
| Lotus Eaters | friendly people visited by Odysseus, they live on plants whose fruit induces stupor and forgetfulness of home. |
| Polyphemus | One of the Cyclopes (uncivilized one-eyed giants) whose island Odysseus comes to soon after leaving Troy. ________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 Polyphemus's father, Poseidon. |
| Nohbdy | clever name O uses to escape from Polyphemus |
| Aiolus | from island of Ailous, gives Odysseus a bag of winds to help him on his journey home, won't help them a second time b/c he refuses to go against the other gods, who are surely against O |
| Laestrygonians | Monstrous cannibal/vampire giants. They destroy all of Odysseus' fleet except his own ship and eat all of his men except his crew. |
| Antiphates | King of the giant cannibals, his queen is like a mountain crag |
| 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. |
| Hermes | messenger to the gods, guides souls to hades, gives odysseus a potion on circe's island. Athena and Zeus send him to tell Calypso to let O go |
| Teiresias | wise man; reveals that to Odysseus that: Poseidon hates him, he and his men shouldn't eat the cattle of Lord Helios because all of his men will die, he will go hom and regulate/kill the suitors, and when he is home he must take an oar inland and plant it in the ground and make a hekatomb to Poseidon |
| Elpenor | the youngest member of O's crew, during the last night at Circe's he falls off the roof while drunk and breaks his neck. O later meets his soul in Hades, who begs him to give his body a proper burial. This is fortunate, because if O hadn't gone back to Aiaia, they would have never gotten valuable info from Circe |
| Antiklea | O's mother, he meets her soul in hades who tells him that she committed suicide from lonliness while O was away :( he tries to hug her 3 times but he can't |
| Seirenes | half bird half women monsters; they sing and make you go mad and crash into rocks; Odysseus hears the song because he ordered his men to tie him to the ship mast; they have their ears plugged with beeswax |
| Skylla | A 6 headed monster who will kill only six men. Odysseus decides to travel this direction |
| kharybdis | giant whirl pool; Odysseus avoids it by going towards the Skylla |
| Helios | sun god, his prize cattle live on Thrinakia and he will get angry at whoever touches them. When o's men are stranded there, they nearly starve and finally eat _____'s cattle, resulting in that god's anger and he convinces Zeus to kill all the men except odysseus by striking their boat with a lightning bolt |
| Eurylokhos | One of Odysseus men. He is the man who does not drink from Circe's cup and warns Odysseus. He is also the one who convinces the Odysseus' men to stop at the Island of the cattle of the sun and convinces them to eat the cattle. |
| 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. |
| Laertes | Odysseus's father, who resides on a farm in Ithaca. In despair and physical decline, Laertes regains his spirit when Odysseus returns and eventually kills Antinous's father. |
| Telemakhos | Son of Odysseus and Penelope, the prince struggles to gain his own maturity while attempting to deal with the problems of the palace. |
| Eumaios | O my swineherd!, The loyal swineherd who, along with the cowherd Philoetius, helps Odysseus reclaim his throne after his return to Ithaca |
| 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. |
| Eurykleia | The aged and loyal servant who nursed Odysseus and Telemachus when they were babies. She 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. |
| Antinoos | the most arrogant of penelope's suitors. antinoos leads the compaign to have telemachos killed. unlike the other suitors, he is never portrayed sympathetically, and he is the first to die when odysseus returns. He hits Odysseus over the head with a stool |
| Argos | O's sad, dying old dog :((((( |
| Cowherd | philotius, helps Eumaios assist O in retaking his house and killing the suitors |
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