Students were given Odyssey Introductory notes and the list of characters from The Odyssey.
Students will be watching a film version of The Odyssey in class and be completing an Odyssey Movie Episode Chart this week. Information from notes and the film will be on the final exam.
Students can also check out information on the Mythweb to supplement their understanding.
Main Players:
- Odysseus: Odysseus is the main character of the Odyssey, a tale which chronicles his homecoming and his journeys since his departure from Troy. The story focus on his trials at sea and on land and how, once he gets home, he must avenge his family’s honor from the suitors ravaging his home. He is aided by Athena in his journeys but thwarted by Poseidon.
- Telemachus: Son of Odysseus and Penelope. The story begins with his anger at the suitors who are wasting away his estate. At the encouragement of Athena, he begins a journey to search for news of his father. When he returns to Ithaca, he helps his father overcome the suitors and regain his power.
- Penelope: Odysseus’ wife and mother of Telemachus. She remains loyal to Odysseus even after he is gone for twenty years. She constructs elaborate ruses such as weaving and unweaving at a loom. She has trouble believing that her husband has returned when she first sees him and is very cold until she gets undeniable proof of his identity.
- Zeus: Father of Athena and King of the gods. Zeus appears frequently in this poem but mostly to give assent to another god who either wants to help Odysseus or hinder him. He gives Athena license to help Odysseus but also strikes Odysseus’ ship with lightning after he has committed wrongs against the gods.
- Poseidon: Zeus’ brother and the god of the sea, he is upset with Odysseus first for not offering sufficient sacrifices to him. He is even more unhappy after Odysseus blinds his son Polyphemus. It is Poseidon that Odysseus still must appease at the end of the poem. Poseidon keeps Odysseus from making it home on multiple occasions.
- Athena: Daughter of Zeus and the goddess of Wisdom. She guides Odysseus and Telemachus throughout the poem helping them find their way from place to place and defeat their adversaries. On several occasions she directly intervenes and enters battle or conflict in the form of a human.
From The Iliad and the Trojan War:
- Agamemnon: King of Argos who led the Greeks to Troy to retrieve his brother Menelaus’ wife Helen.
- Menelaus: King of Sparta and husband of Helen for whom the Trojan War was fought. In this tale, Menelaus entertains Telemachus and gives him news of his father. He also tells the tale of his own journey back from Troy.
- Helen: Wife of Menelaus and reason the Trojan war was fought. In this tale, she drugs the wine of Menelaus and Telemachus so that they will forget their sorrow.
- Paris: Son of Priam, Prince of Troy who steals Helen from Agamemnon.
- Hector: Eldest son of Priam, Prince of Troy who fights and dies to protect his brother Paris. Achilles kills Hector then drags his body away on his chariot – this is the worst punishment to Menelaus because without preparing the body, Hector’s soul will wander the earth forever, unable to enter the land of the dead and go to ‘heaven.’
- Ajax: The greater Ajax of the Iliad. He dies an early death after the war and is mentioned when Menelaus asks Proteus about his companions and when Odysseus goes to the land of the dead.
- Achilles: Hero of the Iliad. He dies before the end of the Trojan war and is shown in the land of the dead regretting his fate.
- Hercules: Legendary hero who compares his labors to those of Odysseus in the land of the dead.
Some of Odysseus’s Crew:
- Eurylochus: 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 is also the man who convinces them to eat the cattle.
- Elpenor: Young sailor who dies on the island of Circe from falling from her roof. He appears to Odysseus in the land of the dead and asks him to come bury him.
Gods & Immortals:
- Calypso: Nymph who kept Odysseus on her island for many years by means of enchantment. Hermes orders her to release him by the authority of Zeus at the request of Athena. She has him make a raft to journey on.
- Polyphemus: Cyclops son of Poseidon who is blinded by Odysseus. Polyphemus is a shepherd who refuses to be a host to Odysseus and eats some of his men. He curses Odysseus and asks his father for revenge. He is a Cyclops, a one-eyed giant.
- Circe: Witch-like woman who at first turns Odysseus’ men into pigs but is impressed when she cannot affect Odysseus. She lusts after him and he stays with her for a year. She tells him to go to the land of the dead and advises him to avoid the cattle of the sun.
- Aeolus: King of the winds who entertained Odysseus at an early part of his journey. He presents Odysseus with a bag of the winds so that he may get home safely. When Odysseus’ men release the winds and the ship is blown back, Aeolus has no pity.
- Scylla: female monster with six serpent heads, each having a triple row of fangs.
- Charybdis: female monster who sucks in water three times a day to form a deadly whirlpool.
- Sirens: sea nymphs whose beautiful songs lure sailors to steer their ships toward dangerous rocks.
- Hermes: messenger of the gods, he delivers the edicts of Zeus to gods and mortals. He instructs Calypso to release Odysseus. He also accompanies souls to the land of the dead.
- Tiresias: Blind prophet who Odysseus goes to find in the land of the dead. He tells Odysseus how to get home and that he must appease Poseidon once he gets there.
Ithaca: Odysseus’ Kingdom & the Suitors:
- Antinous: The head suitor, son of a man Odysseus saved from death. He is the first of the suitors to speak at all times and plans to kill Telemachus.
- Eurymachus: The second suitor, Eurymachus always speaks after Antinous or in place of him.
- Mentor: An older man of Ithaca whose form Athena takes first to help Telemachus travel to Pylos and then to help Telemachus and Odysseus fight the suitors.
- Nestor: Old king of Pylos who entertains Telemachus and advises him to go seek news for his father from Menelaus.
- Eurycleia: Odysseus nurse as a child and a servant in his house. She hides Telemachus’ journey to Pylos and is the first woman to recognize Odysseus. She helps Odysseus sort out the good handmaidens from the bad ones.
- Melanthe: Another hand-maiden, the sister of Melanthius. She taunts Odysseus when he is disguised as a beggar.
- Laertes: Odysseus’ father. He appears only at the end of the poem and prepares to stand with his son against the Ithacan mob.
- Eumaius: Swineherd who takes in the disguised Odysseus and gives him shelter and food. He helps Odysseus and Telemachus defeat the suitors.
- Philoitius: Cowherd who helps Odysseus and Telemachus defeat the suitors.
Borger: Literature & Language 1 