Curated playlist
Characters in the Odyssey
- HeraThe Greek goddess Hera renewed her virginity every year in a spring near Nauplia. The rites were not to be spoken of.
- AphroditeAphrodite has two birth stories that contradict each other. One makes her Zeus's daughter, the other has no mother.
- MenelausWhen Troy fell, did Menelaus kill Helen, the wife who left him? Ancient writers tell the moment four different ways.
- OdysseusWhen Odysseus finally reached home, only his dog Argos recognized him. He had been away twenty years.
- ApolloApollo killed the serpent Python with a single arrow at Delphi. Then he had to be purified for the blood crime.
- HadesBy around the 5th century BC, the Greeks had largely stopped saying Hades's name aloud.
- AthenaThe Greek goddess Athena won Athens by offering the first olive tree. Poseidon's gift was a spring of salty water.
- HephaestusHephaestus answered being thrown out of heaven by forging his mother a golden throne.
- AchillesAchilles's famous weak heel is not in Homer's Iliad. In Book 21, a thrown spear draws blood from his elbow.
- PersephonePersephone was gathering flowers when Hades burst through the earth and carried her off.
- AresZeus called his own son Ares, the war god, the most hateful of all the gods on Olympus.
- AgamemnonIn myth, King Agamemnon led Greece's greatest army to Troy, then his own wife killed him in his bath.
- EosEos got her lover Tithonus immortality but forgot eternal youth. In the end she turned him into a cicada.
- ScyllaSailors passing the sea monster Scylla had to choose between losing a few men or the whole ship.
- TelemachusTelemachus first met his father, Odysseus, in a swineherd's home. Odysseus was disguised as a beggar.
- Siren (mythology)The sirens of Greek mythology are female humanlike beings, and in the Odyssey they make a bold promise to a passing ship. They tell the listener that they know the pains the Greeks and Trojans endured on the plain of Troy. Their song…
- ErinyesIn Aeschylus's Oresteia, Athens put a man on trial for killing his mother. The Erinyes accused him.
- OceanusOceanus, a Titan, rode a winged steed to visit his chained nephew Prometheus. Prometheus mocked him anyway.
- PolyphemusPolyphemus is a one-eyed giant, the son of Poseidon and a mother named Thoosa. Greek myth counts him among the Cyclopes, and Homer's Odyssey is where he first appears. His name is a small puzzle. It can mean "abounding in songs and…
- Helen of TroyDid Helen of Troy go to Troy willingly, or at all? Ancient Greek writers gave conflicting answers.
- MemnonMemnon, king of Aethiopia, drew blood from Achilles at Troy. Achilles then killed him with a spear through the chest.
- Nestor (mythology)Nestor talked Patroclus into disguising himself as Achilles, and Patroclus died.