The Odyssey Retold By Teilo Berquier

People

Mortals — Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, the suitors, the kings.

  1. Eumaeus The swineherd. Twenty years he's tended the herds of a king he believes will return. Feeds a beggar and tells him stories about the missing master.
  2. Laertes Odysseus's father. The old king who walked away from the palace when his wife died and his son did not return. Sleeps in dirt now, near his vines.
  3. Odysseus / oh-DISS-yoos / King of Ithaca. Sacker of cities. The trickster the gods allowed home, eventually. Comes back in rags and waits in his own house for the moment to break.
  4. Penelope / pen-EL-oh-pee / Queen of Ithaca. Holds a hundred suitors at arm's length with a loom and a maybe. Grew older alone, learning that hope is a thing you ration.
  5. Telemachus / tel-EM-a-kus / Odysseus's son. A boy when his father sailed, a man by the time he returns. Watches the suitors devour his birthright and learns to act anyway.
  6. Tiresias The blind Theban prophet. Walks among the dead with his mind intact while every other shade hungers for the blood. Speaks the great prophecy.
  7. Achilles The greatest of the Greeks at Troy. Cut down at the peak of his strength. In the Underworld, would rather be a poor laborer alive than king of the dead.
  8. Aegisthus Clytemnestra's lover. Killed Agamemnon at the welcome feast. Killed in turn by Orestes. The model for what Antinous might have become.
  9. Aegyptius Canonical Homer. The eldest Ithacan elder, opens the assembly Telemachus calls. Cut from the retelling.
  10. Aeolus Keeper of the winds for Zeus. Lives on a floating bronze-walled island with twelve children. Gives Odysseus the bag. Refuses to help twice.
  11. Agamemnon King of Mycenae. Commander of the Greek army at Troy. Came home and was murdered in his own bath. Now a shade, still bleeding the betrayal.
  12. Agelaus Homer's rallying suitor. Once the doors are locked he tries to organize the resistance. Cut from the retelling.
  13. Ajax The great Telamonian Ajax. Second only to Achilles. Broken by losing the contest for Achilles's god-forged armor. Fell on his own sword.
  14. Alcinous King of Phaeacia. Lifts a stranger from his hearth-ashes, feeds him, asks his name only when the bard's song has cracked him open.
  15. Amphinomus One of the suitors. Named only as a body being dragged from the hall. In Homer, the decent one Odysseus tried to spare.
  16. Anticleia Odysseus's mother. Alive when he sailed for Troy. Dead by the time he reaches the Underworld. The not-knowing wore through her.
  17. Antilochus Nestor's son. Killed at Troy. A name in Demodocus's song that lands like a stone in Odysseus's chest, one of the dead he fought beside.
  18. Antinous The worst of the suitors. Tall, dark-eyed, careless cruelty of someone never told no. Throws a footstool at the beggar. Dies first.
  19. Arete Queen of Phaeacia. Wife and niece of Alcinous. Studies the cloak on the stranger's back and recognizes her own household weave.
  20. Autolycus Odysseus's grandfather. Master thief and liar, the best of both. Son of Hermes. Named the boy and taught him cunning.
  21. Cassandra Trojan princess and prophetess. Dragged from Athena's temple by Ajax. Brought home to Mycenae as Agamemnon's prize. Killed beside him at the dinner table.
  22. Clytemnestra Agamemnon's wife. Took a lover while he was at Troy. Helped murder him in his bath. The dark mirror Penelope is measured against.
  23. Ctesippus A suitor, named once on the body pile after the slaughter. In Homer, the one who threw an ox-hoof at the disguised Odysseus.
  24. Demodocus Blind Phaeacian bard. Sings of Troy at Alcinous's feast, naming the dead Odysseus loved. The song that pulls the cloak over the king's face.
  25. Dolius Canonical Homer. Laertes's old servant on the farm. Father of Melantho and Melanthius. Cut from the retelling.
  26. Elpenor The youngest crewman. Drank too much, slept on Circe's roof, fell, broke his neck. The only crewman Odysseus meets in the Underworld.
  27. Eupeithes Antinous's father. Leads the avenging fathers up from town for blood-price. Dies on Laertes's spear in the courtyard.
  28. Euryalus Phaeacian noble at the games. Sneers at the stranger, says he doesn't look like an athlete. Watches the discus sing past every mark.
  29. Eurycleia The old nurse. Raised Odysseus from a baby. Washes the beggar's feet and finds the boar scar on his thigh. Knows him before he wants to be known.
  30. Eurylochus Odysseus's wary second-in-command. The man who refuses to enter Circe's house. The one who finally argues for the cattle of Helios.
  31. Eurymachus Homer's second-ranking suitor, smooth-tongued and false. Cut from the retelling. The threat collapses into Antinous's single face.
  32. Halitherses Canonical Homer. Old Ithacan seer. Reads the eagle-omen at the assembly. Warns the suitors' fathers at the end. Cut from the retelling.
  33. Helen Queen of Sparta. Left with Paris. The face that launched ten years of war. Now home, pouring wine as if none of it had happened.
  34. Icarius Canonical Homer. Penelope's father. The Spartan whose daughter married Odysseus and who never gets her back. Cut from the retelling.
  35. Idomeneus King of Crete, named only in passing. The lord of the false story Odysseus tells his father in the vineyard before revealing himself.
  36. Irus The local beggar. Drunk, swaggering, sure he can take the new ragged stranger at the gate. Gets one punch from another life and crumples.
  37. King Antiphates Canonical Homer. King of the Laestrygonian giants who destroyed eleven of Odysseus's twelve ships. Unnamed in the retelling.
  38. King Ctesius of Syrie Canonical Homer. Eumaeus's father, the king of the island of Syrie, from whom Eumaeus was stolen as a child. Cut from the retelling.
  39. Lampetia Canonical Homer. Daughter of Helios. Tends the sacred cattle on Thrinacia. Runs to tell her father when the men kill them.
  40. Leiodes The soothsayer-suitor. The only one who never touched Penelope or insulted the house. Killed anyway. Cut from the retelling.
  41. Medon Canonical Homer. The herald in Odysseus's house. Spared in the slaughter for once warning Telemachus. Cut from the retelling.
  42. Melanthius Canonical Homer. The disloyal goatherd, brother to Melantho. Sides with the suitors. Cut from the retelling.
  43. Melantho One of Penelope's handmaidens. Sleeps with the suitors. Sells out the loom secret. The one who broke the trick that bought three years.
  44. Menelaus King of Sparta. Helen's husband. Came home eventually and brought her with him. Sits like a man wearing a crown of lead.
  45. Mentes An old sea merchant who comes through the hall at dusk and tells Telemachus his father is alive. Athena, wearing a borrowed face.
  46. Mentor A real Ithacan elder, an old friend of Odysseus, whose face Athena borrows when she returns to push Telemachus into the boat at dusk.
  47. Nausicaa Phaeacian princess. Found Odysseus naked and feral at the river. The only one who didn't run. Saw the king under the salt and beard.
  48. Neoptolemus Achilles's son. Came to Troy as a young man and fought without fear. The pride Odysseus brings down to the Underworld.
  49. Nestor Old king of Pylos. Came home from Troy and prospered. The first father-figure Telemachus meets on the road.
  50. Noemon Canonical Homer. The Ithacan who lent Telemachus the ship for the secret voyage. Cut from the retelling.
  51. Orestes Agamemnon's son. Avenged his father's murder. The model held up to Telemachus: the son who acts.
  52. Paris The young Trojan prince Helen left Sparta with. The reason a thousand ships sailed. Mentioned in passing when she comes down the stairs.
  53. Patroclus Achilles's beloved. Died at Troy wearing another man's armor. The death that set Achilles back into the war.
  54. Peiraus Young man from Ithaca's east shore. One of the few who still believed. Joined Telemachus's secret crew the night they sailed.
  55. Peisistratus An old friend of Odysseus on Ithaca. Joins Telemachus's secret voyage at dusk, no questions asked. Distinct from Nestor's son.
  56. Perimedes One of Odysseus's crew. Named only as he goes under when Zeus's bolt splits the ship.
  57. Phaethusa Canonical Homer. The other daughter of Helios on Thrinacia. Tends the cattle with her sister Lampetia. Cut from the retelling.
  58. Phemius Canonical Homer. The bard at Ithaca, forced to sing for the suitors. Spared by Odysseus during the slaughter. Cut from the retelling.
  59. Philoetius The loyal cowherd. Stands beside Eumaeus and Telemachus when the doors lock. One of the three men who fought for the king at the door.
  60. Pisistratus Nestor's son. Drives the chariot to Sparta with Telemachus. The companion the boy needs on the road from Pylos.
  61. The Phaeacian Crew Canonical Homer. The 52 oarsmen who row Odysseus home asleep in the magic ship. Unnamed in the retelling.
  62. The Priest of Apollo at Ismarus The priest Odysseus spared in the sack of Ismarus. Gave him jars of undiluted wine in thanks. Wine that would later blind a Cyclops.
  63. The Six Taken by Scylla Six unnamed crewmen torn from the oar benches by the six heads of Scylla. Screamed his name as they were lifted. The cold sacrifice.
  64. The Suitors A hundred-odd noblemen camped in another man's house, eating his meat, courting his wife, hunting his son. The siege from inside.
  65. The Three Lotus Scouts Three unnamed crewmen sent inland on the lotus shore. Came back gone. Lashed to the benches and rowed away weeping into the night.
  66. The Twelve Disloyal Handmaidens The maids who slept with the suitors. Hanged in the storeroom from a beam. Telemachus did the work himself. The most uncomfortable scene in the book.
  67. Theoclymenus Canonical Homer. A fugitive seer who hitches a ride home with Telemachus. Sees blood-omens in the hall. Cut from the retelling.