Curated category
Characters in the Odyssey
- HeraHera is the goddess of marriage, women, and family in ancient Greek religion, and the protector of women during childbirth.
- AphroditeAphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love, has two birth stories that contradict each other, and the people who told them knew it.
- Menelaus"Of moderate stature, auburn-haired, and handsome," with "a pleasing personality": that is how the writer Dares the Phrygian once described Menelaus, a king…
- OdysseusOdysseus, the legendary king of Ithaca, spent ten years trying to get home after a war that had already lasted a decade.
- ApolloApollo carries more names than any other Olympian. He is the archer god, the healer, the prophet, the musician, the shepherd's patron, the founder of cities…
- HadesHades is the god of the dead and the King of the underworld in ancient Greek religion and mythology. His name became so feared that by around the 5th century…
- AthenaAthena leaped from the forehead of her father Zeus, fully grown and armed, and the gods stood awestruck. Helios, the god of the sun, stopped his chariot in…
- HephaestusHephaestus refused to come home. The Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, and fire had been thrown out of heaven by his own mother, Hera, and his answer was…
- AchillesAchilles, the central figure of Homer's Iliad, carried a name that meant something like 'he who has the people distressed' - a striking label for a warrior…
- PersephonePersephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, holds two thrones in ancient Greek mythology: one in the sunlit world of the living, and one in the darkness…
- AresAres, the Greek god of war, was one of the most feared and least loved of the Twelve Olympians. Son of Zeus and Hera, he embodied something that made even…
- AgamemnonAgamemnon, king of Mycenae, led the greatest military coalition the ancient Greek world had ever seen to the shores of Troy.
- EosEos, the Greek goddess of the dawn, rose every morning from the edge of the river Oceanus and scattered light across the sky before her brother Helios, the…
- ScyllaScylla is a man-eating sea monster from Greek mythology, stationed on one side of a narrow channel of water so close to the opposite shore that an arrow…
- TelemachusA young man stands on the shore of Ithaca, watching waves crash against rocks that have seen no father for twenty years.
- ErinyesThe Erinyes live in Erebus, older than any Olympian god, and their job is to make sure no oath goes unpunished. A formulaic curse in the Iliad names them…
- OceanusOceanus once heard himself mocked by his own kin: "How did you summon courage to quit the stream that bears your name and the rock-roofed caves you yourself…
- Helen of TroyHelen of Troy was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Around the year 1604, the playwright Christopher Marlowe gave her the line most people…
- MemnonMemnon, the king of Aethiopia, arrived at Troy with an army so vast that ancient sources described it as too large to be counted. He was no ordinary ally.
- Nestor (mythology)Nestor of Gerenia was the son of King Neleus and Chloris, daughter of King Amphion. Some accounts name his mother Polymede instead.