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| (main character) Son of Laertes and Anticleia, husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus. |
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| He was just an infant when his father left home to fight the Trojan War. Spends books 1-4 searching for his father or word of his fathers fate. |
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| Daughter of Icarius and the naiad Periboea, faithful and devoted wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachus. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| King of gods and men, who mediates the disputes of the gods on Mount Olympus. |
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| The most arrogant of Penelope’s suitors. Leads the campaign to kill Telemachus. |
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| Manipulative, deceitful suitor. Second in command of the suitors. "The snake in the grass" |
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| Among the dozens of suitors, the only decent man seeking Penelope’s hand in marriage. |
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| Pig herd who helps Odysseus reclaim his throne at the end of the story. |
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| The cowherd that helps Odysseus reclaim his throne |
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| The aged and loyal servant who nursed Odysseus and Telemachus when they were babies. Second one to find out about Odysseus when she is washing his feet. |
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| Brother of Melantho. The evil goatherd that picks on Odysseus and supports the suitors. |
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| Sister of Melanthius and maidservant in Odysseus’s palace. Abuses Odysseus. Having an affair with Eurymachus. |
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| The beautiful nymph who falls in love with Odysseus when he lands on her island-home of Ogygia. She holds Odysseus captive for seven years. |
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| A cyclops whose island Odysseus comes to 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. |
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| The beautiful witch-goddess who transforms Odysseus’s crew into swine when he lands on her island, Aeaea. |
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| A Theban prophet who inhabits the underworld. He meets Odysseus when Odysseus journeys to the underworld in Book 11. |
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| King of Pylos and a former warrior in the Trojan War. First person Telemachus visits to learn of his father, but he knows little. |
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| King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen, he helped lead the Greeks in the Trojan War. |
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| Wife of Menelaus and queen of Sparta. Her abduction from Sparta by the Trojans sparked the Trojan War. |
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| 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 and her lover when he returned from Troy. |
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| The beautiful daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. She is the first one to find Odysseus on the beach at Scheria. |
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| King of the Phaeacians, who offers Odysseus hospitality in his island kingdom of Scheria. |
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| Queen of the Phaeacians, wife of Alcinous, and mother of Nausicaa. |
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| He was one of the greatest heroes of the Trojan War, and the principal hero of the Iliad. Died in battle. Odysseus met him in Hades, where he said he would rather be alive and unknown than dead and famous. |
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| Mother of Odysseus. He encounters her in the underworld, she died of grief for her son. |
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| God of Archery. The suitors decide to pray to him so that they will have better luck with the trial of the bow. |
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| Odysseus's old dog who dies when he sees his master had returned. |
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| The whirlpool who gulps water three times a day and belches them out again. |
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| Blind bard of the Phaeacians |
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| The man in Odysseus's crew who falls from Circe's rooftop and dies. Odysseus meets him in Hades and gives him a proper burial when he returns to Aeaea. |
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| Sun god, Odysseus' crew ate his cattle and were all granted with death. |
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| Messenger of the Gods who tells Calypso to let Odysseus leave, and also gives Odysseus the root that protects him from Circe's spells. |
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| Nestor's youngest son, who befriends Telemachus when he lands on the shore of Pylos, and accompanies him to Sparta. |
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| A six-headed creature that is across from the whirlpool Charybdis |
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| Ruler of the Winds who gives Odysseus a sack of winds |
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| King of the Laestrygonians, aka cannibals |
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| Odysseus's crew member who persuades his crew mates to slaughter the cattle of the Sun God |
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| Young man who joined Telemachus on his journey home because he had murdered someone. |
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| A man from Telemachus's crew who stayed with Theoclymenus |
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| A beggar who fights with disguised Odysseus in his palace. |
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