Greek Deities:
Since many older translations of Homer use Latin names for the various Greek gods, instead of the Greek names, I have included the Latin names where relevant. The characters are the same, whichever names are being used. The only Greek mortal who regularly undergoes a name change is Odysseus, who is frequently referred to by his Latin name, Ulysses.
| Greek |
Latin |
Characteristics |
| Ares |
Mars |
god of war; lover of Aphrodite |
| Apollo |
|
god of plague for infractions of ritual; angry at Greeks for insulting his priest, Chryses |
| Aphrodite |
Venus |
goddess of love; married to Hephaestus; lover of Ares |
| Athena |
Minerva |
goddess of wisdom; born from Zeus' head; Odysseus' patron |
| Eris |
|
goddess of strife; threw golden apple which started quarrel between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite over which one was the most beautiful |
| Hephaestus |
Vulcan |
god of the forge; lame; spouse of Aphrodite |
| Hera |
Juno |
goddess of marriage; sister and wife of Zeus |
| Hermes |
Mercury |
messenger god, especially from gods to mortals |
| Polyphemus |
|
the man-eating Cyclops who trapped Odysseus and his men in his cave; blinded by Odysseus; son of Poseidon |
| Poseidon |
Neptune |
god of the sea, earthquakes and horses; brother of Zeus; father of Cyclops Polyphemus |
| Thetis |
|
a sea nymph; mother of Achilles; pleads with Zeus to let the Trojans overcome the Greek armies to placate Achilles honor |
| Zeus |
Jove/ Jupiter |
god of the sky and thunderbolts; chief deity; father of many half mortal children; final arbiter of law and order; initiator of the Trojan War |
Greek Mortals:
| Achilles |
son of Peleus, a mortal, and Thetis, a sea nymph; greatest Greek warrior at Troy; leader of Myrmidons; quarreled with Agamemnon over Briseis, a war-prize concubine |
| Agamemnon |
high king of Greece; king of Mycenae; led Greek armies against Troy; husband of Clytemnestra; sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to get favorable winds to sail to Troy; killed by Clytemnestra |
| Calchas |
Greek seer who advised Agamemnon to return Chryseis in order to stop the plague sent by Apollo |
| Clytemnestra |
murdered her husband Agamemnon when he returned from Troy; daughter of Zeus and Leda; sister to Helen |
| Diomedes |
brave, wise Greek warrior |
| Menelaus |
king of Sparta; brother of Agamemnon; husband of Helen |
| Helen |
the immediate cause of the war; wife of Menelaus; either seized by or ran away with Paris to Troy; daughter of Zeus and Leda |
| Nestor |
king of Pylos; wise counselor |
| Odysseus |
king of Ithaca; father of Telemachus; excellent counselor; devised Trojan Horse strategy; took ten years to return home after the war |
| Patroclus |
Achilles' dear friend; killed by Hector who thought he was Achilles because he wore Achilles' armor |
| Penelope |
faithful wife of Odysseus |
| Telemachus |
son of Odysseus and Penelope |
Trojans:
| Aeneas |
Trojan noble; not particularly important until Virgil's Aeneid |
| Andromache |
wife of Hector, mother of Astyanax |
| Astyanax |
young son of Andromache and Hector; killed by the Greeks to prevent his growing to up avenge Hector's death |
| Cassandra |
a Trojan princess, cursed by Apollo to always speak the truth and never be believed; carried off by Agamemnon as a war prize; probably murdered by Clytemnestra |
| Chryses |
priest of Apollo, whose daughter is wrongfully kept as a war-prize by Agamemnon |
| Hecuba |
wife of Priam; queen of Troy; mother of Hector |
| Hector |
son of Priam and Hecuba; father of Astyanax; Troy's finest hero; killed Patroclus; killed by Achilles |
| Laomedon |
king of Troy when Hercules and Jason conquered it; father of Priam |
| Paris |
love-obsessed son of Priam and Hecuba; judged goddesses' beauty; married Helen after bringing her to Troy; killed Achilles after the Iliad events |
| Priam |
king of Troy when Greek armies under Agamemnon destroyed it; father of Hector and forty-nine other children; some by Hecuba, others by concubines |
| Troilus |
Trojan prince; son of Hecuba and Priam |
Homer Study Guide
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