The Odyssey
The Characters
In The Odyssey, these characters define The Odyssey. They shape the story, give emotions, ideas, and cause conflict in the story. These are the most important characters in The Odyssey.
First off, this story wouldn't happen without the man, Odysseus. A very wise, strong, couragous warrior from the land of Ithaca. The story of The Odyssey is about Odysseus coming home from the ten year battle in Troy, also known as the Trojan War. While they were coming back to Ithaca. His son name is Telemachus and his wife name is Penelope. The goddess Athena favorites him because of his wisdom and Poseidon hates him because he blinded his son, Polyphemus.
Telemachus is the son of Odysseus. When Odysseus left for Troy, Telemachus was still a baby. But now as a young adult, Telemachus searches for his father after Athena told him about Odysseus. He dearly loves his mother and wishes for the suitors to leave. On his search for his father, he goes to Hector and Menelaus.
Penelope is wife of Odysseus. She is left alone in Ithaca for twenty years waiting for Odysseus to come back. She is very clever like her husband. Because Odysseus has been gone for such a long time. They have been a large number of suitors wishing to marry her. She is being cleven and smart, like her husband, and tells them that certian things need to take place first.
After Zeus struck Odysseus' boat, Odysseus was the only one to survive. He then washed up on Calypso's Island, or Ogygia, where he stayed for seven years as her slave. She is one of the most beautiful sea nympths in the world. Odysseus would of stayed there forever, but one day Hermes came down and told Calypso to let him go, and she followed Hermes orders and let him go.
Polyphemus is a cyclops and the son of Poseidon. Odysseus and his men go to Polyphemus' home and Polyphemus catches them and eats some of Odysseus' men. Odysseus tricks him by saying that my name is Nobody. After that he gets the Cyclops drunk with wine from a priest of Apollo. After Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk, they stabbed his eye with a burned stick, blinding him. He is important in the story because then Polyphemus prays to his father, Poseidon to kill him or make him feel like a great loss happened. For the rest of the story, Odysseus is attacked by Poseidon.
Athena is the goddess of wisdom and battle stradegy. She is important in this story because she adores Odysseus because of his wisdom. Throughout the story she visits Odysseus as his good friend Mentor. She tries to help Odysseus reach his goal, get home. She will do everything to help Odysseus. That even involves helping Odysseus' son try and gather information about what happened to Odysseus, by telling Telemachus to go to Pylos and Sparta, to talk to Nestor and Menelaus.
Poseidon is the god of the seas. And in this story, he plays a very important character. He is one of the atagonists towards Odysseus because Odysseus blinded his one eyed son, Polyphemus. Now throughout the story, Poseidon is trying to toturing, not kill, Odysseus for the deed that he did. He doesn't wont to kill him because he wants Odysseus to suffer like his son is.
Zeus is the king of the gods and men. His role in the story is to decide important things in the story. He gets to decide whether Odysseus gets to leave Calypso's Island and what Athena can do and cannot do to help Odysseus. Zeus also gives small messages in form of an eagle holding something. For example, he sent an eagle holding a goose. Helen intrupts it as that the king Odysseus has returned and is going to kill his pests, the suitors. He is also the reason Odysseus was on Calpyso's Island, he struck a lightning bolt at his ship because his men ate the Helio's cattle.
Circe is a pretty goddess/witch who has mastered the magic of metamorphosis, the power of illusion, and the dark art of necromancy. So when Odysseus and his men landed on her Island of Aeaea, she turned a large number of his crew into swine or pigs. With the help of Hermes, Odysseus overcame the spell and forced her to turn his men back into men. Later Odysseus became her lover and Odysseus and his crew stayed there for one year. Then Circe tells Odysseus to go to the underworld to talk to Tiresias.
Tiresias is a Theban prophet who lives in the underworld. When Odysseus goes to the underworld, he meets Tiresias and he tells Odysseus how to get back home to Ithaca and allows him at that time to talk to other spirits in the underworld. While there, Odysseus talks to his mother who had committed suicide.
Alcinous is a king of the Phaeacians. After Odysseus leaves Calpyso's Island, he finds himself on the land of Scheria. Alcinous' daughter, Nausicaa finds Odysseus on the beach and brings him to Alcinous and his wife. Odysseus tells his story to them and they give him a boat to go home to Ithaca.