The Sea
(Click the character infographic to download.)
Frankly, if we were Odysseus, we'd never get in a boat again. (If fact, we suspect he won't: Teiresias tells him that he's actually going to live out...
Odysseus' Bow
(Click the character infographic to download.)Sometimes a bow is just a bow—and sometimes it's a symbol of kingship and virility, like when Penelope sets up a content so that the man who can stri...
Argos
(Click the character infographic to download.)Odysseus' old dog becomes a tear-jerking symbol of loyalty. He's lying in a dung heap covered in ticks, when he perceived that Odysseus had come close...
Food and Banqueting
(Click the character infographic to download.)What isn't an occasion for a feast in the Odyssey? Whether they're feasting on poisoned witch-food, Helios' cattle, or lotus fruit, Odysseus' men are c...
Linens
(Click the character infographic to download.)If you can't just go to Target to pick up some 30% off extra-long sheets for your dorm room bed, cloth takes on whole new meaning. When you're carding,...
Home
(Click the character infographic to download.)All Odysseus wants it to go home. Sure, the goddess-sex is nice; yeah, Nausikaa is kind of cute; but he really just wants to go home. He tells us that...
The Bed
(Click the character infographic to download.)Odysseus and Penelope don't just sleep on some compressed particle board from Ikea. Nope. Not this ancient Greek power couple. They sleep on a bed carv...
Omens
(Click the character infographic to download.)It's a good thing that we don't put much stock in augury anymore, or we'd be freaking out every time we saw a pigeon. In ancient Greece, anything could...