The Odyssey
Characters in The Odyssey
15 characters, main characters first.Main characters
Odysseus
King of Ithaca, famed for cunning rather than strength; ten years lost at sea returning from Troy.
Antagonists
Poseidon
God of the sea, who hounds Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus.
Polyphemus
The Cyclops who devours Odysseus's men in his cave and is blinded by the trick of the name Nobody.
Antinous (The Odyssey)
The most insolent of Penelope's suitors and the first Odysseus kills in the hall.
Supporting characters
Calypso
The nymph who keeps Odysseus on Ogygia for seven years before the gods order his release.
Telemachus
Odysseus's son, who comes of age in books 1-4 travelling to Pylos and Sparta for word of his father.
Penelope (The Odyssey)
Queen of Ithaca and Odysseus's wife, who holds off over a hundred suitors by unweaving each night the shroud she weaves by day.
Athena
Goddess of wisdom and Odysseus's patron, who guides him and Telemachus, often in disguise.
Circe
Enchantress of Aeaea who turns Odysseus's men into swine, then becomes his host and counsellor.
Eumaeus
The loyal swineherd who shelters the disguised Odysseus and helps him retake his house.
Penelope (wife of Odysseus)
Minerva
Achilles
Agamemnon
Helen of Troy