People.
Mortals — Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, the suitors, the kings.
- Odysseus / oh-DISS-yoos / King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, the man who survives. Wily, patient, and willing to lie his way home. ★
- Penelope / pen-EL-oh-pee / Wife of Odysseus and queen of Ithaca. Holds the household together for twenty years against a hundred suitors with patience and a loom. ★
- Telemachus / tel-EM-a-kus / Son of Odysseus and Penelope. Grew up without his father; the first four books of the Odyssey are his story of becoming a man. ★