Great Books Reviewer: Week 7 – 4th Reporter ▫ Eurymachus - A manipulative, deceitful suitor.

Eurymachus’s charisma and duplicity allow him to exert

 THE ODYSSEY – written by Homer some influence over the other suitors.
- Has 24 books
▫ Amphinomus - Among the dozens of suitors, the only
Characters: decent man seeking Penelope’s hand in marriage.
Amphinomus sometimes speaks up for Odysseus and
▫ Odysseus - The protagonist of The Odyssey. Odysseus Telemachus, but he is killed like the rest of the suitors in
fought among the other Greek heroes at Troy and now the final fight.
struggles to return to his kingdom in Ithaca. Odysseus is
the husband of Queen Penelope and the father of Prince
Telemachus. Though a strong and courageous warrior, ▫ Eumaeus - The loyal shepherd who, along with the
he is most renowned for his cunning. He is a favorite of cowherd Philoetius, helps Odysseus reclaim his throne
the goddess Athena, who often sends him divine aid, but after his return to Ithaca. Even though he does not know
a bitter enemy of Poseidon, who frustrates his journey that the vagabond who appears at his hut is Odysseus,
at every turn. Eumaeus gives the man food and shelter.

▫ Penelope - Wife of Odysseus and mother of ▫ Eurycleia - The aged and loyal servant who nursed
Telemachus. Penelope spends her days in the palace Odysseus and Telemachus when they were babies.
pining for the husband who left for Troy twenty years Eurycleia is well informed about palace intrigues and
earlier and never returned. Homer portrays her as serves as confidante to her masters. She keeps
sometimes flighty and excitable but also clever and Telemachus’s journey secret from Penelope, and she
steadfastly true to her husband. later keeps Odysseus’s identity a secret after she
recognizes a scar on his leg.
▫ Telemachus - Odysseus’s son. An infant when Odysseus
left for Troy, Telemachus is about twenty at the ▫ Melanthius - The brother of Melantho. Melanthius is a
beginning of the story. He is a natural obstacle to the treacherous and opportunistic goatherd who supports
suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite his the suitors, especially Eurymachus, and abuses the
courage and good heart, he initially lacks the poise and beggar who appears in Odysseus’s palace, not realizing
confidence to oppose them. His maturation, especially that the man is Odysseus himself.
during his trip to Pylos and Sparta in Books 3 and 4,
provides a subplot to the epic. Athena often assists him. ▫ Melantho - Sister of Melanthius and maidservant in
Odysseus’s palace. Like her brother, Melantho abuses
▫ Athena - Daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom, the beggar in the palace, not knowing that the man is
purposeful battle, and the womanly arts. Athena assists Odysseus. She is having an affair with Eurymachus.
Odysseus and Telemachus with divine powers
throughout the epic, and she speaks up for them in the ▫ Polyphemus - One of the Cyclops (uncivilized one-eyed
councils of the gods on Mount Olympus. She often giants) whose island Odysseus comes to soon after
appears in disguise as Mentor, an old friend of Odysseus. leaving Troy. Polyphemus imprisons Odysseus and his
crew and tries to eat them, but Odysseus blinds him
▫ Calypso - The beautiful nymph who falls in love with through a clever ruse and manages to escape. In doing
Odysseus when he lands on her island-home of Ogygia. so, however, Odysseus angers Polyphemus’s father,
Calypso holds him prisoner there for seven years until Poseidon.
Hermes, the messenger god, persuades her to let him go.
▫ Laertes - Odysseus’s aging father, who resides on a farm
▫ Circe - The beautiful witch-goddess who transforms in Ithaca. In despair and physical decline, Laertes
Odysseus’s crew into swine when he lands on her island. regains his spirit when Odysseus returns and eventually
With the help of Hermes, Odysseus resists Circe’s kills Antinous’s father.
powers and then becomes her lover, living in luxury at
her side for a year. ▫ Tiresias - A Theban prophet who inhabits the
underworld. Tiresias meets Odysseus when Odysseus
▫ Poseidon - God of the sea. As the suitors are Odysseus’s journeys to the underworld in Book 11. He shows
mortal antagonists, Poseidon is his divine antagonist. He Odysseus how to get back to Ithaca and allows Odysseus
despises Odysseus for blinding his son, the Cyclops to communicate with the other souls in Hades.
Polyphemus, and constantly hampers his journey home.
Ironically, Poseidon is the patron of the seafaring ▫ Nestor - King of Pylos and a former warrior in the
Phaeacians, who ultimately help to return Odysseus to Trojan War. Like Odysseus, Nestor is known as a clever
Ithaca. speaker. Telemachus visits him in Book 3 to ask about
his father, but Nestor knows little of Odysseus’s
▫ Zeus - King of gods and men, who mediates the disputes whereabouts.
of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is occasionally
depicted as weighing men’s fates in his scales. He ▫ Menelaus
sometimes helps Odysseus or permits Athena to do the King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of
same. Helen, he helped lead the Greeks in the Trojan War. He offers
Telemachus assistance in his quest to find Odysseus when
▫ Antinous - The most arrogant of Penelope’s suitors. Telemachus visits him in Book 4.
Antinous leads the campaign to have Telemachus killed.
Unlike the other suitors, he is never portrayed ▫ Helen - Wife of Menelaus and queen of Sparta. Helen’s
sympathetically, and he is the first to die when Odysseus abduction from Sparta by the Trojans sparked the
returns. Trojan War. Her beauty is without parallel, but she is
criticized for giving in to her Trojan captors and thereby
costing many Greek men their lives. She offers
Telemachus assistance in his quest to find his father.
▫ Agamemnon - Former king of Mycenae, brother of
Menelaus, and commander of the Achaean forces at
Troy. Odysseus encounters Agamemnon’s spirit in
Hades. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife,
Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, upon his return
from the war. He was later avenged by his son Orestes.
Their story is constantly repeated in The Odyssey to
offer an inverted image of the fortunes of Odysseus and
Telemachus.

▫ Nausicaa - The beautiful daughter of King Alcinous and

Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. Nausicaa discovers
Odysseus on the beach at Scheria and, out of budding
affection for him, ensures his warm reception at her
parents’ palace.

▫ Alcinous - King of the Phaeacians, who offers Odysseus

hospitality in his island kingdom of Scheria. Alcinous
hears the story of Odysseus’s wanderings and provides
him with safe passage back to Ithaca.

▫ Arete - Queen of the Phaeacians, wife of Alcinous, and

mother of Nausicaa. Arete is intelligent and influential.
Nausicaa tells Odysseus to make his appeal for
assistance to Arete.

The Odyssey: Book 1

- started in Mt. Olympus, where Zeus and Athena were
talking about whether they should help Odysseus to go back
to his family or not.
- Athena and Hermes will be the one to help Odysseus

Themes of Book 1:
- Hospitality - Justice - Loyalty
- Faith in gods - Father and son

Why Odysseus was trapped in the Island of Ogygia

for years?
- he was trapped by Calypso, the nymph because she likes
him.
- he was hiding to Poseidon because he blinded his son,
Polyphemus who is one eyed Cyclops that is uncivilized.

 Penelope
- has 108 suitors after Odysseus left for Trojan war
- while waiting for Odysseus, she was making/creating a
Death Shraud for Odysseus aging father.

 Telemachus
- in the story he was now 20 years old because his father left
when he was still a baby

2 Goals of Telemachus:
o To sent away his mother’s suitors
o To find his father and let their family unite once again.