Poseidon: The God of the Sea Who May Have Started as a God of Horses
Poseidon is the reason the Odyssey exists. Without his sustained, implacable opposition to Odysseus’s return, Homer’s poem would be a […]
Hermes: The God Who Could Go Anywhere and Was Trusted by Everyone, Including the Thieves
On the day Hermes was born, he climbed out of his cradle, walked to the nearby fields, stole fifty cattle
Antinous and the Suitors: The Most Dangerous Man in Ithaca and Why Odysseus Killed Him First
Antinous is the first suitor Odysseus kills when he returns to Ithaca and reveals himself in Book Twenty-Two of the
Telemachus: Odysseus’s Son, His Age in the Odyssey, and Why He Is the Character Homer Trusts Most
Telemachus is one of the most underrated figures in classical literature. He appears in the shadow of his famous father,
Athena: The Goddess Who Chose Odysseus Because They Were the Same
At one point in the Odyssey, Athena drops her disguise and speaks to Odysseus directly. She has been appearing to
Penelope: The Woman Who Outwitted Everyone in the Odyssey, Including Her Husband
While Odysseus was away for twenty years, fighting at Troy and then wandering the Mediterranean getting home, Penelope ran Ithaca.
The Wild Hunt: The Spectral Riders Who Cross the Winter Sky and the Traditions Behind Them
In the winter of 1127, according to the Peterborough Chronicle, several reliable witnesses including monks reported seeing something extraordinary in
Rawhead Rex: The English Bogeyman Whose Name Survived When Everything Else Was Lost
In 1659, the Oxford English Dictionary records the following observation about the English public: “Most People are agast at them,
Tiresias: The Blind Prophet Who Knew Everything and Could Change Nothing
At some point in the mythological history of Thebes, a young man named Tiresias was walking on Mount Cithaeron and
The Laestrygonians: The Giants Who Destroyed Odysseus’s Fleet in a Single Attack
After leaving the island of Aeolus for the second time, his bag of winds opened and his fleet blown back