- Related Topics:
- Greek mythology
- Homeric epics
Gods and Monsters in Homer’s Odyssey
The gods are ubiquitous in Greek mythology, causing chaos as well as restoring order in human lives. In Homer’s Odyssey divine intervention powers Odysseus’s picaresque adventures, variously enabling and impeding his progress home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Monsters, too, abound, stretching a voyage that ought to have taken some weeks into a 10-year ordeal. The supernatural forces that Odysseus encounters transform a travelogue into a tale of human endurance, presenting a world where physical hazards must be navigated by making moral choices that shape identity and influence fate.
Active divinities: Guardians and adversaries
Gods and goddesses of varying stature play different roles in the Odyssey. Some are directly involved in the narrative; others are only referenced.
Athena
- Goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare
- Role: protector
As Odysseus’s divine patron, Athena provides him counsel and also intervenes on his behalf on occasion. When he is held captive by the nymph Calypso, Athena persuades Zeus to secure Odysseus’s release. She disguises him as an elderly beggar on his return to Ithaca, allowing him to pass unrecognized among the men who had taken over his home and were courting his wife Penelope. Athena extends her protection to Odysseus’s son Telemachus—in the guise of the adviser Mentor—as she accompanies him on his mission to seek news of his father.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
Poseidon
- God of the sea
- Role: antagonist
Odysseus’s voyage is prolonged by the consequences of his blinding of the Cyclops Polyphemus, a son of Poseidon. The sea god’s curse causes Odysseus to be relentlessly pursued across the ocean by misfortune and calamity, right up to when Odysseus’s raft is wrecked just before he reaches his last destination before returning home, the land of the Phaeacians. Such is Poseidon’s power that even Zeus, chief of the deities, waits till Poseidon is away in Ethiopia before having Odysseus released from Calypso. Post-Homeric legends relate that after returning to Ithaca Odysseus traveled to northern Greece to appease Poseidon, having descended to the underworld in the Odyssey to consult the seer Tiresias on the manner of expiation.
Zeus
- God of the sky and weather; supreme divine authority
- Role: dispenser of justice
Chief among the Greek pantheon, Zeus is invoked numerous times throughout the Odyssey. For instance, when Penelope rebukes the bard Phemius for singing of the Greeks returning from Troy, Telemachus tells her that it is Zeus who determines the fate of men, no matter how tragic. Zeus also takes an active part when called upon to do so by other gods, and Odysseus both suffers and benefits because of Zeus’s intervention. When Odysseus’s men eat Helios’s cattle, the sun god appeals to Zeus, who sends such a calamitous storm that Odysseus alone survives. On Athena’s request, however, Zeus sends Hermes to end Odysseus’s captivity by Calypso.
Hermes
- God of commerce and trade; divine messenger
- Role: facilitator
Hermes is pivotal in two situations of crisis. When Odysseus goes in search of his men on the island of Aeaea, unaware that the sorceress Circe has turned them into swine, he meets Hermes, who advises him to consume the herb moly. Thus protected, Odysseus is immune to Circe’s magic and forces her to restore his companions to their original form. Hermes is later dispatched by Zeus to mediate with Calypso, which he does successfully.
The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.
SUBSCRIBE
Helios
- Sun god
- Role: avenger
Odysseus gradually loses his 12 ships (11 to the Laestrygones) and his crew to the dangers he encounters during his voyage back to Ithaca, but it is the deity Helios who engineers the final blow that leaves him alone and adrift at sea. After sailing past Scylla and Charybdis (and losing six men), Odysseus lands in Thrinacia, where his companions plunder the Cattle of the Sun. The aggrieved Helios approaches Zeus for retribution, and the ensuing storm that Zeus sends drives Odysseus back to Charybdis, who claims his last ship and his crew. He alone survives.
Ino (Leucothea)
- Sea goddess
- Role: rescuer
A mortal who was transformed into a deity, Ino, or Leucothea, emerges from the sea when Poseidon destroys the raft on which Odysseus sails from Calypso’s island. Odysseus is able to swim to land with the help of a veil that Ino gives him. On shore he is found by the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa and finally reaches Ithaca in a ship furnished by her father, Alcinous.
Passive divinities: Distant powers
Several deities do not appear in the narrative but are referenced or play symbolic roles:
- Apollo, the god of archery, is frequently invoked, such as during the archery contest that Penelope sets her suitors and which Odysseus wins.
- Eos, the goddess of dawn, functions as a poetic device denoting the passage of time. The description “rosy-fingered Dawn” is used to signal the start of a new day.
- Hades and Persephone, who rule over the underworld, are referenced occasionally, such as when Odysseus descends into their realm to consult Tiresias.
- Aphrodite (goddess of love), Ares (god of war), and Hephaestus (god of fire; divine smith) appear in one of the songs of Demodocus, a bard who visits the Phaeacian court. He sings of Hephaestus’s exposure of his wife Aphrodite’s infidelity with Ares.
Other immortals: Islands of enchantment
Not strictly deities, these beings occupy their own domains at the margins of the divine world:
Aeolus
- Lord of the winds and of the island of Aeolia
Odysseus and his crew stop at Aeolia after escaping from Polyphemus. Not only does Aeolus provide them with a safe haven, but he also gives Odysseus a bag of favorable winds to facilitate his voyage home. However, he reckons without Poseidon’s curse; Odysseus’s men, distrustful of what was in the bag, open it and release the winds before time. The ships are blown off course with disastrous consequences—their next encounter is with the Laestrygones.
Circe
- Sorceress who lives on the island of Aeaea
The formidable Circe is, at first, an antagonist, turning Odysseus’s men into swine and attempting to enchant Odysseus as well. When her magic fails, she falls in love with him. Odysseus spends a year on Aeaea (and in non-Homeric accounts Circe bears him a son named Telegonus). When he finally departs, she proves herself a crucial ally, advising him on how to reach the underworld and also how to survive the Sirens and Scylla and Charybdis.
Calypso
- Nymph who lives on the island of Ogygia
The Odyssey opens in medias res with the gods deliberating on Odysseus’s seven-year captivity by Calypso. When his detention is finally brought to an end by the gods, Calypso offers Odysseus the chance of staying on the island as her immortal husband but fails to persuade him as he longs for home. Resigned to her loss, Calypso facilitates Odysseus’s departure by giving him tools to build a raft (later destroyed by Poseidon) and granting him a favorable wind.
Monsters: Fear and temptation
A series of grotesque confrontations gradually reduce Odysseus’s companions:
Polyphemus
- Cyclops, a son of Poseidon
The fateful encounter with Polyphemus is the source of Odysseus’s eventual suffering. Six men are eaten by the Cyclops before Odysseus devises a plan to escape from the cave they are trapped in. After blinding Polyphemus, the men flee by clinging to the bellies of his monstrous sheep. As they sail away, however, Odysseus cannot resist revealing his identity to the hapless Polyphemus, to whom he had introduced himself as “No one.” Armed with a name, Polyphemus is able to call down his father’s wrath on Odysseus.
Laestrygones
- Giant cannibals who live in a strange land
In the most disastrous of Odysseus’s detours, he loses all his ships but one and most of his companions to the man-eating giants.
Sirens
- Bird-woman hybrids with irresistible and deadly song
Odysseus and his men take the precautionary measure suggested by Circe and sail past the Sirens without losing their lives. He prevents the crew from hearing the Sirens’ song by plugging their ears with wax. He has himself tied to the mast, so that though he is able to hear the song he is perforce able to resist it.
Scylla and Charybdis
- A six-headed creature and a whirlpool situated on either side of a strait
The narrowness of the strait between Scylla and Charybdis makes it impossible for travelers to avoid both. Odysseus sails closer to Scylla on the advice of Circe, who had identified Charybdis as more dangerous. Scylla snatches up six of his men, but the rest make it to Thrinacia. However, the ensuing storm drives them back to Charybdis, who claims Odysseus’s remaining ship and men.