The Odyssey
Charcters
in The Odyssey
Odysseus
He was named by
the Latin name Ulysses. He was a
legendary
Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer’s
epic poem the Odyssey. He played an important
role in
Homer’s Iliad.
Nausicaa
She was the
daughter of king Alcinous and Queen
Arete of Phaeacia. Her name, in
Greek, means burners
of ships. She discovered Odysseus on the beach.
Penelope
She was the
faithful wife of Odysseus, who kept her
suitor at bay in his long absence
and was eventually
reunited with him.
Telemachus
He was Odysseus’s
son. He was about 20
at the beginning of the story. He was a natural
obstacle
to the suitors desperately courting
his mother.
Eurycleia
The aged and loyal
servant who nursed Odysseus and
Telemachus when they were babies.
She kept Telemachus’ s
journey secret from Penelope. She also kept
Odysseus’s
identity a secret after she recognized a scar on his leg.
Antinous
The most arrogant
of Penelope’s suitors. Unlike the other
suitors, he was never portrayed sympathetically. He was
the
first to die when Odysseus returned.
Calypso
The beautiful
nymph who fell in love with Odysseus
when he landed on her island of Ogypia.
She held
the prisoners there for seven years until Hermes,
the messenger god,
persuaded her to let him go.
Polyphemus（one-eyed giant）
One of the
Cyclopes whose island Odysseus came to
soon after leaving Troy. Polyphemus
imprisoned Odysseus
and his crew and tried to eat them But Odysseus
blinded
him through a clever ruse and managed to escape. However,
Odysseus
angered Polyphemus’s father-Posedion.
Tiresias
He showed Odysseus
how to get back to Ithaca
and allowed Odysseus to communicate with
the other souls in Hades.
Zeus
He was the King of
gods and man, who medicated
the disputes of the god on Mount Olympus.
He
sometimes helped Odysseus or permitted Athena
To do the same.
Posedion
He despised
Odysseus for blinding his son, the Cyclops
Polyphemus. Ironically,
Posedion was the patron of the
seafaring Phaeacians, who ultimately helped to
return to
Ithaca.
Agamemnon
He was the former
king of Mycenae. Odysseus
encountered Agamemnon’s spirit in Hades.
He was
murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra.
Clytemnestra
She was the wife
of Agamemnon.
Orestes
He was the son of
Clytemnestra and Agamemnon.
Electra
She was the
daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon.
Plot of the Odyssey
It was connected
the Iliad story. After Trojan war, on the way home, Odysseus angered Odysseus.
So they encountered shipwreck. On the other hand, his wife did not know where Odysseus
was. She could just wait Odysseus. She also had to face the suitors. Finally,
under the help of gods, Odysseus returned home.
He killed all the
suitors.
plot: a secret plan or scheme to accomplish
some purpose
the story of the Odyssey
Penelope’s
weaving
She waited twenty
years of her husband. During those years, she devised various strategies to
delay marring one of the suitors.
Every nights for
three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful
serving woman, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors.
Archery
contest
Siren
They were
beautiful but dangerous creatures. They lured nearby sailors with their
enchanting music.
Argus
Panoptes
He was a 100-eyed
giant in the Greek mythology
Argus
was Hera’s servant. When he
slept, only a few of the eyes would sleep at a time : there will still eyes
awake. Hera’s defining task for Argus was to
guard the white heifer Io from Zeus, keeping
her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion. Hermes disguised as
a shepherd, put all of Argus’s eyes asleep with spoken charms with him. Hera
was sad for Argus’s death. She put all his eyes on peacock and sent a gadfly to
torment Io.
The
peacock’s tail
The peacock was
Hera's sacred animal. Once, Zeus, the king of the gods, fell in love with Io, a
priestess of Hera. Jealously, his wife Hera asked from Zeus to bring her the
young girl- and when he brought her, Hera immediately transformed Io into a
cow. Afterwards, Hera gave the transformed girl to her servant Argos, an
all-seing monster that had hundred eyes all over his body. His mission would be
to guard Io. Zeus felt sorry for Io and tried to help her. Therefore, he called
his messenger Hermes and gave him the order to kill Argos. Hermes approached
the monster and started playing the flute to hypnotize him. Soon the monster
fell into a deep sleep and Hermes took a stone and destroyed him. However, Hera
knew all about the plan and had already removed the eyes of Argos the day
before. So after Argos' death, Hera transferred all his eyes to the tail of a
peacock to thank and honor her servant.
Return to Ithaca
Odysseus meets Penelope
and tests her intentions by saying he once met Odysseus in Crete. Closely
questioned, he adds that he had recently been in Thesprotia and had learned
something there of Odysseus’s recent wanderings. Odysseus identity
is discovered by the housekeeper, when she recognizes an old scar as she is washing
his feet. She tries to tell Penelope about the beggar’s true identity, but
Athena makes sure that Penelope cannot hear her. Odysseus then swears Eurycleia
to secrecy.
Term explanation
Oedipus
complex
It talks about a
child’s desire that a child has sexual relations with the parents of the
opposite sex. It is viadynamic
repression, that concentrates upon a child’s desire to have sexual relations
with the parent of the opposite sex. Sigmund Freud, who coined the term Oedipus
Complex believed that the Oedipus complex is a desire for the parent in both
males and females
Electra
complex
It talks about a
girl’s psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father,denotes the emotions
and ideas that the mind keeps in unconscious, It is a girl’s psychosexual
competition with her mother for possession of her father. Electra was the
daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus princess of Argos.
She and her brother Orestes plotted revenge against their mother and stepfather
Aegisthus for the murder of their father.
Mephistopheles
It is a demon
featured in German folklore. It is the familiar spirit of the Devil in late
settings of the legend of Faust.
