Characters and PlacesDIANA DINH AND ELYSIA SMITH

PERIOD 6

Phaeacia and Alcinous

•Phaeacia is an island kingdom ruled by King Alcinöus. The Phaeacians are shipbuilders and traders. Here, Odysseus tells the story of his adventures to Alcinous’s, the king of Phaeacia’s, court.

•Alcinöus is a good, sensible man who knows that his wife, Acrete, is wiser than he, so he always lets her decide anything important for him. The two of them have a daughter called Nausicaä.

Circe and Aeaea

•Aeaea is the island realm of Circe.

•Circe is a beautiful, but dangerous enchantress and goddess. Every man who approached her would change into a beast. She turns Odysseus’s men into swine, penning them in a sty and feeding them acorns.

Erebus and Teiresias

•Erebus is a dark area of the underworld where the dead pass through as soon as they die.

•Teiresias is a famous blind prophet and holy man from the city of Thebes. Odysseus meets him in the Land of the Dead, Erebus.

Cicones, Eurylochus, Thrinakia, and Lotus Eaters

•Cicones are people living on the south-western coast of Thrace. They battle Odysseus and his men on their journey.

•Eurylochus is a member of Odysseus’s loyal crew.

•Thrinakia is an island where Helios, the sun god, keeps his cattle.

•Lotus Eaters are people who fed Odysseus’s men lotus plants to make them forget about Ithaca. Forgetting of their longing for home, the men wanted only to dwell in the Lotus Land.

Cyclopes and Polyphemus•Cyclopes are a race of brutish one-eyed giants. They are gigantic children of Mother Earth and devastating in their power. They were wonderful workmen and forged Zeus’s thunderbolts. Some other Cyclopes had great flocks of sheep and goats, and lived at their ease, but they were still fierce and had bad tempers.

•Polyphemus is a son of Poseidon, a sea god, who was blinded by Odysseus. He is a Cyclops.

Calypso and Sirens

•Calypso is a nymph goddess who keeps Odysseus on her island for seven years. She had fallen in love with Odysseus and planned to never let him go.

•Sirens are sea nymphs who lived on an island in the sea. Their enchanting voices and beautiful mysterious music lures sailors to steer their ship towards dangerous rocks to their deaths. It is not known of what they look, because those who’ve seen them never returned.

Charybdis And Scylla

•Charybdis is a female monster who sucks in water three times a day to form a deadly whirlpool, guarding a perilous strait. Scholars believe that Charybdis is based on a real whirlpool in the Strait of Messina.

•Scylla is a female monster with six serpent head, with each head having a triple row of fangs. It is also believed that Scylla is based on a dangerous rock in the Strait of Messina.