A Guide to the Odyssey: A Commentary on the English Translation of Robert Fitzgerald (57 page)

Dymas: Phaiákian shipman, in the shape of whose daughter Athena appears to Nausikaa at night.

Eidothea: daughter of Proteus, she gives the advice to Meneláos that is necessary for him to force her father to answer the Greek’s questions.

Eileithuía: goddess of childbirth; the “Kretan,” speaking to Penélopê, claims that Odysseus, bound for Troy, dropped anchor in a cave holy to her.

Ekhenêos: eldest of the Phaiákians, he speaks first in Alkínoös’ hall after Odysseus has made his supplication to Arêtê.

Ekhéphron: one of Nestor’s sons.

Ékhetos: fierce king of Epeiros, he flays all strangers who come to his kingdom alive.

Élatos: suitor, killed by the swineherd.

Elis: coastal region in the northwestern Peloponnesos rich in pasture, where Ithakans such as Noêmon kept horses.

Elpênor: Ithakan, companion of Odysseus, who dies by falling from the roof of Kirkê’s house; unnoticed, he receives no burial rites; his shade appears to Odysseus.

Elysion: location in, or aspect of, the world of the dead; it was conceived as a pleasant meadow (see also note on IV.599ff.).

Enipeus: river in Thessaly or the northern Peloponnesos; equally, the river god, beloved of Tyro.

Epeioi: inhabitants of Elis.

Epeios: builder of the wooden horse.

Epeiros: northwestern region of mainland Greece, with the Ionian Sea on its west and Macedonia and Thessaly to the east. See also Thesprótia, below.

Ephialtês: giant, son of Iphimedeia and Poseidon; with his brother, Otos, he constituted a threat to the Olympian gods, so while still young, he was slain by Apollo.

Ephyra: site of indeterminate location (some scholars claim the Ephyra in Thesprótia is meant, others, an Ephyra in northern Elis); all that can be said with certainty is that it was known as a source of poisonous plants. Odysseus once stopped here.

Epikastê: mother of Oidipous, whom she unwittingly married; her shade appeared to Odysseus. Later tradition knows her as Jocasta.

Érebos: a name for Hades or a particularly dark place within Hades.

Erekhtheus: legendary hero and early king of Athens, son of the earth and foster son of Athena.

Eríphylê: treacherous wife of Amphiaraos, who betrayed her lord for gold; her shade appeared to Odysseus.

Erymanthos: large mountainous massif in the northern Peloponnèse, one of Artemis’ favorite hunting grounds.

Eteóneus: companion in arms to Meneláos.

Euboia: longish island off the east coast of Greece, separated from mainland Greece by a narrow strait.

Eumaios: born free but captured by slave traders, raised by Odysseus’ family, now Odysseus’ loyal swineherd, who hosts the disguised Odysseus on his first night back in Ithaka; one of the four who slay the suitors.

Eupeithês: father of Antínoös; mustered others to avenge the death of his son and all the suitors.

Eurýadês: suitor, killed by Telémakhos.

Eurýbâtes: according to the “Kretan,” Odysseus’ herald (see also note on XIX.290–91).

Eurýdamas: suitor, struck down by Odysseus.

Eurydíkê: wife of Nestor, eldest daughter of Klyménos.

Eurýkleia: daughter of Ops, granddaughter of Peisênor 2; while still a girl purchased by Laërtês, who kept her as a wife but never touched her; nurse to Odysseus and later Telémakhos. It is she who gives the “Kretan” a footbath and recognizes Odysseus by the scar on his thigh. As ordered, and on pain of death, she keeps the news to herself.

Eurýlokhos: relative of Odysseus, he stands out among Odysseus’ companions through his important role in several episodes (the approach to Kirkê’s house, the sacrifices before the first nekuia, the safe passage by the Sêirênes, and the slaughter of Hêlios’ cattle). See also note on XII.357.

Eurýmakhos: suitor, son of Pólybos 3.

Eurymedon: father of Periboia 1, grandfather of Nausíthoös, king of the Gigantês.

Eurymedousa: Nausikaa’s nurse.

Eurymos: one of the Kyklopês, father of Telemos.

Eurýnomê: housekeeper of Penélopê.

Eurýnomos: a suitor, son of Ántiphos.

Eurýpulos: son of Télephos, Keteian (q.v.) ally of the Trojans, killed by Neoptólemos.

Eurýtion: Thessalian centaur who, wine-crazed, initiated the rape and battle in Peiríthoös’ hall among the Lapíthai.

Eurytos: father of Íphitos of Oikhalía; vied with the gods in bowmanship but was killed by Apollo.

Gaia: the goddess Earth.

Gerênia: Spartan locale associated with Nestor (although the connection is probably bogus, Nestor’s epithet “Gerênios” originally having nothing to do with Gerênia).

Gigantês: giants, unsuccessful rebels against the Olympian gods.

Gortyn: Kretan city, about ten miles inland from the southern coast.

Gyrai: rocky outcropping in the Aegean Sea near Naxos, on which Aias, son of Oileus (see Aias 1, above), was shipwrecked, while Poseidon made it a safe haven for Agamémnon.

Halios: Phaiákian prince, one of the sons of Alkínoös and Arête.

Halithérsês: son of Mastor (hence the patronymic Mastóridês), soothsayer, friend of the house of Odysseus.

Hêbê: daughter of Zeus and Hêra, goddess of youth; Odysseus sees her with Heraklês’ phantom in the underworld.

Hektor: Trojan prince, son of Priam, greatest of Trojan warriors; as
The Iliad
reports, after slaying Akhilleus’ friend Patróklos, he is killed by Akhilleus, who drags his body around the citadel. In the final book of
The Iliad
, Priam comes to Akhilleus to ransom his corpse.

Helen: daughter of Lêda and Zeus or Tyndareus (the latter is her human foster-father if not her real father), wife of Meneláos, mother of Hermionê; as the most beautiful woman, she is Aphroditê’s gift to Paris of Troy, whence the Trojan War.

Hêlios: the sun as divine being, son of Hyperion, consort of the Oceanid Persê, who bore him Aiêtês and Kirkê; owner of sacred cattle which he grazes on the island Thrinákia, some of which Odysseus’ companions, in contravention of their captain’s strictest orders, slay and eat.

Hellas: from the time of Hesiod, immediately after Homer, the name for all of Greece (as it is in modern Greek). In
The Odyssey
it appears most frequently paired with “the Argive midlands” (e.g., I.395, IV.777, 869, XV. 106), so that in these instances Hellas would seem to refer to central Greece. The pairing “Hellas and Phthia” appears frequently in
The Iliad
to denote the kingdom of Pêleus, Akhilleus’ father, and so once in
The Odyssey
(XI.587, where in fact it is the shade of Akhilleus speaking about his father).

Hephaistos: son of Zeus and Hêra, divine smith, husband of Aphroditê, cuckolded by Arês—but he gets his revenge.

Hêra: Olympian goddess, daughter of Kronos, at once Zeus’ sister and consort; implacable enemy of the Trojans and supporter of the besieging Akhaians, she saved Agamémnon from the storm on the ocean which ravaged Aias.

Heraklês: hero, son of Zeus and Alkmênê, foster-son of Amphitrion, husband of Megarê.

Hermês: Olympian god, son of Zeus and Maia, divine messenger and escort of the souls of the dead to the underworld. Hermês frequently is given the epithet “Argeiphontês,” the original sense of which is uncertain: traditionally explained as “killer of [the monster] Argos,” that exploit may well have been invented to
make sense of the epithet; other scholars interpret it as “brilliant” or “shining.”

Hermionê: daughter of Helen and Meneláos, bride of Neoptólemos. (Later tradition has her marry Orestês, and out of this contradiction it seems poets and other mythographers created a fierce rivalry between the sons of Akhilleus and Agamémnon for Hermionê, which continues the fierce rivalry between the fathers celebrated in
The Iliad.
)

Hippodameía: female attendant of Penélopê.

Hippotadês: patronymic of Aiolos (q.v.).

Hypereia: previous homeland of the Phaiákians, whence, after being driven out by the Kyklopês, they migrated under the command of Nausíthoös.

lardanos: a river in western Krete, now called the Platanias.

Iasion: mortal briefly united with the goddess Dêmêtêr until Zeus blasted him with a thunderbolt.

lasos: father of Amphion and Dmêtor, grandfather of Khloris; in
The Iliad
, commander of the Athenians at the siege of Troy.

Idómeneus: Kretan king who fought at Troy, son of Deukálion, grandson of Minos, brother to “Aithôn.”

Iêson: Jason, commander of the
Argo
and leader of the Argonauts. See also under Aiêtês, above.

Ikários: descendant of the royal family in Sparta, father of Penélopê.

Ikmálios: famed craftsman, maker of a chair and footrest in Odysseus’ home; not otherwise known.

Ilos: son of Mérmeris, who (according to Athena/Mentês) refused Odysseus’ request for poison for his arrows when he visited him in Ephyra.

Ino: daughter of Kadmos, once mortal, now a nereid with the name Leukothea, q.v.

Iolkos: home to Pelias.

Íphiklos: son of Phylakos, giant; with his steers he infested the land of Phylakê; Pêro’s father, Neleus, set the removal of these steers as a task for her suitors.

Iphimedeia: wife of Aloeus, mother of Otos and Ephialtês by Poseidon; her shade appears to Odysseus.

Íphitos: son of Eurytos, king of Oikhalía, who gives Odysseus his famous bow; he is killed by Heraklês (compare XXI. 15–37).

Iphthimê: daughter of Ikários and sister of Penélopê, wife of Eumêlos of Phêrai.

Iros: nickname for Arnaios, q.v.

Ismaros: city in the land of the Kikonês.

Ithaka: island home of Odysseus in the Ionian Sea off the west coast of mainland Greece, most likely present-day Thiaki.

lthakos: one of Ithaka’s early residents; he built a spring house on Ithaka near Clearwater with Nêritos and Polýktor.

Itylos: son of Zêthos, killed by his mother, Aedon (whose name is the same as the word for “nightingale”).

Kadmos: founder of Thebes, father of Ino.

Kalypso: lesser goddess, daughter of Adas, detained Odysseus on her island, Ogýgia, for seven years in the vain hope he would renounce Penélopê and a homecoming in Ithaka for immortal life
with her. Her name plays on the Greek for “to hide” (see note on V.16, above).

Kassandra: Trojan princess, daughter of Priam and Hekabê, brought home as concubine by Agamémnon, murdered with her master by Klytaimnéstra. (Homer does not mention the prophetic abilities given her by her ravisher Apollo, which are so important in subsequent representations.)

Kastor: famous horseman, son of Tyndáreus and Lêda, brother of Helen and Klytaimnéstra, he shares immortality with his brother Polydeukês. Later it was believed that one or both of Kastor and Polydeukês (also known as Pollux) had Zeus for father; as a pair, they were known and worshiped as the Dioskouroi, “sons of Zeus.”

Kaukonians: people inhabiting a portion of western Peloponnese.

Kephallênia: island near Ithaka, also called Samos and Samê, the latter the name of the island’s largest settlement. Largest of all the Ionian islands and much larger than Ithaka, Homer refers to all those under command of the house of Odysseus as “Kephallênians” (XXIV.415 [and elsewhere in the Greek]).

Keteians: allies of the Trojans, their home was in Mysia in northwest Asia Minor.

Kharybdis: whirlpool opposite Skylla, q.v. Later mythology makes her the daughter of Poseidon and Gê whom Zeus blasted with a thunderbolt to punish her gluttony.

Khloris: youngest daughter of Amphion, wife of Neleus, queen of Pylos, mother of Nestor and Pêro, among other children; her shade appears to Odysseus.

Khromios: son of Neleus and Khloris.

Kikonês: allies of the Trojans, they lived on the Aegean coast of
Thrace; a raid on their territory was, according to Odysseus (IX.44–73), the first incident on his homeward journey from Troy.

Kirkê: goddess, daughter of Hêlios and Persê, sister of Aiêtês. Initially malign—she turns a good number of Odysseus’ companions into swine—Odysseus is able to counter her magic thanks to Hermês’ advice and the herb
molü
. After that she offers rich hospitality, and Odysseus remains one year on her island, Aiaia, sharing her bed and board, and receiving important instructions before he sails on. (The epic cycle introduces children born of their union, a son—Telegonos, and a daughter, Kassiphonê. As an example of the un-Odysseyan nature of subsequent plots, note that Telegonos kills Odysseus, Kirkê resurrects Odysseus, and Kassiphonê marries her half-brother Telémakhos.)