The Odyssey

  TAPHOS, TAPHIANSMentioned only by H. in the Odyssey, these seagoing raiders and traders evidently ranged far and wide across the eastern and central Mediterranean, dealing in iron, copper, and, especially, slaves (14.449-52; 15.427-29). Their activities "read like a virtual primer for a new breed of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age entrepreneurs" (Papadopoulos in HE, 3: 839). No convincing location has been suggested for Taphos, though one of the islands of the Echinades (q.v.) is possible: a kind of ancient Hispaniola.

  TAYGETOSThe high, sheer, mountain range (6.103; BA, 58, C 3-5), running the entire length of the central southern peninsula of the Peloponnese, ending in the Tainaron promontory, and separating Lakedaimon from Messenia.

  TEIRESIASBlind Theban seer designated by Kirke (q.v.) as the key figure to be summoned by Odysseus in the Underworld, whom he must consult in order to learn all the details and obligations of his homeward journey (10.490-95; 11.90-99; 23.322-23). Teiresias also tells Odysseus what he must do to placate his angry nemesis, Poseidon (11.100-149; 23.248-53, 269-84). The audience of the Odyssey was clearly assumed to know the principal facts of Teiresias' extraordinary--and extraordinarily lengthy--life: in particular how he acquired his prophetic expertise, and how he came to be blinded. Apparently, when out walking on Mount Kyllene in Arkadia, he had attacked two copulating snakes with his stick and found himself turned (by an angry Here) into a woman. Some years later, he met these snakes again and the sex change was reversed. Because of this experience, Zeus and Here invited him to arbitrate their dispute: did men or women get greater pleasure from sex? Definitely women, Teiresias said: at which (to the modern reader's surprise) it was the furious Here who blinded him, and Zeus who compensated for this by granting him the gift of prophecy (see Gantz, 528-30).

  TELEMACHOSThe only son of Odysseus and Penelope (for the one-son pattern in the family, see Telemachos' own account, 16.113-20, though of course in his case Odysseus' absence at Troy was primarily responsible). He plays a major, and necessarily bildungsroman-style, part in the Odyssey, "with the narrative showing his development from a timid and unenterprising youth, quite unable to restrain the unruly suitors, to a self-reliant and resourceful young man who helps his father to kill them" (OCD4, 1436). In the process, aided by a sometimes impatient (1.252-55, 2.274-76) Athene, he occasionally overdoes his mood swings (e.g., in his behavior to his mother, 1.346-59, 17.46-56), at least once (17.48) with a detectable distaste for the effects of prolonged mourning--her unwashed person and dirty, unlaundered clothes. He finally proves he is his father's son in the bow test (21.120-30): he sets up the axes correctly despite "having never seen them before," and at his fourth attempt (stopped by a warning sign from Odysseus), he is on the point of stringing the great bow.

  TEMESEOn the Tyrrhenian coast of S. Italy, at the mouth of the Sabutus River (BA, 46, D 3): a well-known source of copper, in search of which H. has the Taphians (q.v.) put in there (1.184).

  TENEDOSA small Aegean island off the coast of the Troad (BA, 57, E 2), mentioned by Nestor (3.159) as where some homeward-bound Greeks stopped off to sacrifice, but better known both as where Philoktetes (q.v.) got his wound and where, after feigning to sail for home, the Greek fleet anchored until those who had penetrated Troy with the Wooden Horse signaled it to return and attack (Cypr., arg. 9; LI, arg. 5; SI, arg. 2; West 2003, 76-77, 122-25, 144-45) .

  THEBE/-AI (THEBES), THEBAN:With a single exception (4.126), emphasizing its wealth, H. does not mention Egyptian Thebe (modern Luxor) in the Odyssey: all references are to the seven-gated (11.263) Greek city of Boiotia (BA, 55, E 4) in the plain north of the Asopos River and the mountain ranges of Kithairon and Parnes that separate Boiotia from Attika. For H. it was Amphion and Zethos (qq.v.) who founded the city (11.262-65); though Kadmeians are mentioned by H. (e.g., at Il. 5.804 and 10.288; Od. 11.276), and the ancient citadel was known as the Kadmeia, Kadmos himself is mentioned only as the father of Ino (5.333). And though H. is familiar with the rich Theban cycle of myth, from Amphiaraos (15.244-47) to Oedipus (11.271-80), "Theban" in the Odyssey occurs almost exclusively as a formulaic title of Teiresias.

  THEMISAs a concept, the notion of proper and sanctioned conduct; when personified (as always for H.) a minor goddess representative of such conduct, and responsible in particular for the convening and dissolving of divine assemblies. As such she is invoked by Telemachos (2.68) in the Odyssey's sole reference to her.

  THEOKLYMENOSAn Argive prophet, son and descendant of seers, including Melampous (q.v.), who is given protection by Telemachos when on the run after killing a man, and, while a guest on Ithake, makes a series of correct interpretations and predictions about Odysseus: that Telemachos' line will continue to rule (15.525-38); that Odysseus is already in the neighborhood and planning his revenge on the suitors (17.151-61); and that the suitors will all be slaughtered (20.345-57), this last accompanied by a vision of blood-bedabbled walls and an outburst of wild hysteria among the suitors themselves, and reminiscent (so, rightly, Watson, HE, 3: 865) of Helios' dead cattle lowing while being spit-roasted and their skinned hides crawling (12.394-96).

  THESEUSLegendary son of Aigeus, king of Athens, by Aithra, he traditionally grew up in Troezen, on the Argolid peninsula, and came to Athens as a young man. After a series of adventures (including the killing of the Minotaur in the Kretan Labyrinth, and his subsequent escape with the aid of Ariadne), he became king, on a somewhat dubious claim. No matter: he "came to embody many of the qualities Athenians thought important about their city" (OCD4, 1464). As a result most of the few references to him in the Homeric poems (including the two in the Odyssey, 11.321-25, 630-31) have been questioned since antiquity, generally as Peisistratid insertions.

  THESPROTIA, -ANSA somewhat indeterminate mountainous region of NW Greece, roughly coterminous with historical SW Epiros (BA, 54, B-C 2-3), but for H. always including Dodone (q.v., BA, 54, C 3), Zeus' famous oak-tree Oracle of the Dead, alleged destination of Odysseus in a fictitious cover story told both to Eumaios (14.314-59) and to Penelope (19.269-99), and the chief reason for mentioning the Thesprotians at all.

  THETISA more than usually privileged sea nymph, daughter of Nereus (q.v.), married to, but mostly separate from, a mortal, Peleus, and by him the mother of Achilles. As Thetis well knows (Il. 18.88-96), her son's death is fated to follow close upon that of Hektor. It is not until the very end of the Odyssey, in Hades (24.35-94), that we finally get closure, when the shade of Agamemnon recounts Achilles' funeral, with Thetis, silver-footed and immortal, leading Muses and Nereids in the dirges, providing elegant prizes (including Achilles' armor) for the funeral games, and finally committing her son's ashes, mingled with those of Patroklos, to a golden urn (larnax).

  THRACEThe region dividing the SW corner of the Black Sea from the Propontis, narrowing eastward to form the western shore of the Bosporos, the channel dividing Europe from Asia (BA, 53, A-D 1-2). From H.'s time onward the often redheaded tribal inhabitants had a reputation for warlike primitivism and deep drinking: that Ares should find comfort there (8.361) after the public embarrassment caused by the exposure of his affair with Aphrodite is understandable.

  THRINAKIEThe island where Helios, the sun god, keeps and pastures his cattle. Despite the warnings of both Kirke and Teiresias not on any account to slaughter them for food, Odysseus' crew are driven by exhaustion (and encouraged by Eurylochos) to land on the island (12.279-93), and then kept there by contrary gales and bad weather till long after their food supplies are exhausted, when (again backed by Eurylochos) they kill and roast the cattle (12.327-65), with the inevitable consequences. The island is seemingly uninhabited (12.351), yet nymphs, daughters of Helios, and their dancing floors, are mentioned (12.131-33, 317-19), though never encountered. In antiquity the name of the island was often confused with--and sometimes emended to--Trinakria ("three-cornered"), an alternative name for Sicily, which fitted well with the Hellenistic tendency to locate Odysseus' off-the-map adventures in that part of the Mediterranean.

  THYESTESSon of
Pelops, brother of Atreus (q.v.) and father (4.517) of Aigisthos (q.v.). How far H. was cognizant of the bitter feud between the brothers is uncertain (see Il. 2.104-6).

  TITHONOSPriam's brother, descended from Zeus (Il. 20.215-37). In the Odyssey he is remembered only in a formulaic phrase (5.1) as the bedfellow of the Dawn (Eos), who leaves him at daybreak.

  TITYOSA giant son of Gaia (Earth). One of the famous sinners whom Odysseus observed as a shade in the Underworld (11.576-81), having his liver torn by vultures in punishment for his rape of Leto. He is also mentioned (7.320-24) as living in Euboia and being visited by Rhadamanthys.

  TROJANS, TROYOften mentioned in the Odyssey, but only in recollection, as the city that was the center of the Trojan War, and its inhabitants, particularly, the men who fought to defend it.

  TYDEUSThe short, fierce (Il. 5.801) father of Diomedes (q.v.): in the Odyssey mentioned only in a formulaic phrase (3.167, 181; 4.280) establishing Diomedes as his son.

  TYNDAREUSKing of Sparta, and the husband of Lede (q.v.). By her he is, for H., the father of Kastor and Polydeukes (11.298-99) and Klytaimnestra (24.199), though Helen's paternity is attributed to Zeus (4.184 and elsewhere).

  TYROThe first of the famous heroines of old whose shade Odysseus sees in the Underworld, and about whom, unusually, he then reports much of what we know of her (11.235-59), not least how she was in love with the river god Enipeus, whose likeness Poseidon assumed, coupled with her, and begot both Neleus (q.v.) and Pelias.

  UNDERWORLDAt the allocation by lot of the Olympian universe after the fall of Kronos, of his eligible sons, Zeus, was given the heavens, Poseidon (who reports the occasion, Il. 15.185-93) the sea, and Hades (q.v.) the eponymous realm, or house, or place, that bears his name, while all three shared Earth and Olympos. It is important, however, to distinguish the Underworld as a whole from the ill-defined domain over which Hades ruled. When Odysseus visits the Underworld to consult Teiresias, he never in fact reaches Hades: the ghosts come up out of Erebos (q.v., 11.36-37) to drink the blood he has ready for them. It is this procession that includes all the old-time heroines that he describes (11.235-332). It is by the blood trench, too--when Persephone has dispersed the women (11.385-86)--that he meets, and talks to, the shades of Agamemnon, Achilles (who incidentally reveals the presence of fields of asphodel, 11.338-40), Aias, and other dead fellow combatants from Troy (11.386-567). But there follows a sequence of famous shades (568-635)--Minos, Orion, Herakles, and, in particular, the three famous sinners, Tityos, Tantalos, and Sisyphos--whose location Odysseus does not mention, but whom it is patently impossible to visualize at the trench. Minos, indeed, he reports as sitting in judgment actually in Hades (11.571); Orion is herding game across the asphodel meadows (11.572-75); Tityos is spread out over nine acres being tormented (11.576-81); Tantalos is up to his chin in a pool surrounded by fruit trees (11.582-92); Sisyphos is rolling a monstrous boulder uphill (11.593-600). Only Herakles is just imaginable as parading with his bow at the ready by the trench (11.601-27). Odysseus, of course, is under no compulsion to explain his movements. Either we have to assume a quick tour of a wide and ill-defined park-like region, or else conclude that, once again, H.--well aware of the uncertainty of the Underworld's topography--has made Odysseus succumb to the temptation to add a few traditional items to his narrative to increase the entertainment of his all-too-willing audience.

  WOODEN HORSEThe famous episode of the Wooden Horse--created by an Achaian, Epeios (11.523-24) in the tenth year of the war, filled with chosen warriors, and left behind for the Trojans to consider while the main Greek expeditionary force hides out at the nearby island of Tenedos--goes back to earliest times, both iconically and in literature. Yet though it is the ruse that finally brings about the defeat and sack of Troy, there is not a word about it in the Iliad. On the other hand, it is several times referred to in the Odyssey. Menelaos mischievously reminds his wife of how she tried, by imitating the voices of their wives, to make the warriors she was sure were hidden inside betray their presence by crying out (4.271-89). Odysseus, who commands those in the Horse (8.492-515; 11.524-25) recalls how cool the young Neoptolemos was inside it (11.523-32). It is an integral part of the Trojan epic.

  ZAKYNTHOSThe southernmost of the main Ionian islands (BA, 54, A 5 inset), in the Odyssey grouped in a formulaic phrase with Doulichion and Same (1.246, 9.24, 16.123, 19.131). Unlike theirs, its identification--as modern Zante--is reasonably secure.

  ZETHOSAmphion (q.v.) and Zethos.

  ZEUSThe criticisms of the Iliadic gods by Xenophanes and others (see s.v. Olympos, Olympians) had clearly had an effect by the time the Odyssey in its present form was composed. The rampant spite and petty quarrelsomeness have been replaced by an emergent divine concord and sense of general moral awareness. Zeus' opening speech complaining that men make the gods responsible for things for which they only have themselves to blame (1.32-43)--while introducing a theme, the crime of Aigisthos, that will recur throughout the poem--is also a kind of answer to the critics. At the same time, though Zeus does not enjoy the prominence in the Odyssey that he did in the Iliad, he is still very much the original all-powerful Indo-European divine patriarch, who, as Strauss Clay's percipient survey reminds us (HE, 3: 952-54), "is equally crucial to the development of the plot." All major decisions are referred to him: he approves Athene's petition on behalf of Odysseus (1.63-79) but balances this, diplomatically, against satisfying the consequent complaints by Poseidon (still a fiercely Iliadic deity) about his diminished honor (13.128-64). It is Zeus who dispatches Hermes to tell Kalypso to release Odysseus (5.28-42), who grants Helios permission to destroy the crew members that have killed and eaten his cattle (12.375-88), who sends warning portents (e.g., thunder in a clear sky, 20.114) to the heedless suitors, and who brings the final fighting to an abrupt conclusion (24.539-40) by delivering a well-aimed thunderbolt smack in front of his not strictly obedient daughter Athene, who promptly takes the hint. There is, after all, a sizable Iliadic streak still left in this lord of gods and men.

  Select Bibliography

  NOTE: Basic texts apart, these titles, mostly in English, are chosen for beginners, the especially useful ones being marked with a star (*), and their bibliographies leading to further reading; but a few advanced studies of particular value are also included, and identified by a dagger (+).

  Albinus, L. The House of Hades: Studies in Ancient Greek Eschatology. Aarus, Denmark, 2000.

  Allen, T.W., ed. Homeri Opera. 2nd ed. Oxford Classical Texts, vol. 3: Odyssey Bks 1-12 (Oxford, 1917); vol. 4: Odyssey Bks 13-24 (Oxford, 1919).

  Austin, N. Archery at the Dark of the Moon. Berkeley, CA, 1975.

  ------. "Nausikaa and the Word that Must Not be Spoken: A Reading of Homer's Odyssey, Book Six." Arion (3rd ser.) 25.1 (2017): 5-36.

  *Barker, E., and J. Christensen. Homer: A Beginner's Guide. London, 2013.

  Bittlestone, R., with J. Diggle and J. Underhill. Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca. Cambridge, 2005.

  Brain, Peter, and D.D. Skinner. "Odysseus and the Axes: Homeric Ballistics Reconstructed." Greece & Rome 25, no. 1 (April 1978): 55-48.

  Burgess, J.S. The Death and Afterlife of Achilles. Baltimore, MD, 2009.

  Carpenter, R. Folk Tale, Fiction and Saga in the Homeric Epics. Berkeley, CA, 1946.

  Casson, L. Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Princeton, NJ, 1971.

  *Clay, J.S. The Wrath of Athena: Gods and Men in the Odyssey. Princeton, NJ, 1983. 2nd ed., 1997.

  Cook, A, trans. and ed. Homer: The Odyssey: A New Verse Translation; Backgrounds; The Odyssey in Antiquity; Criticism. New York, 1974.

  Cunliffe, R.J. A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect. London, 1924.

  Dalby, A. Rediscovering Homer: Inside the Origins of the Epic. New York, 2006.

  Dimock, George E. See below under Murray, A. T.

  Dodds, E.R. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley, CA, 1951.

  *Finkelberg, M., ed. The Homer Encyclopedia. 3 vols. Oxford, 2011.


  Finley, M.I. The World of Odysseus. 2nd rev. ed. Harmondsworth, England, 1979.

  Foley, J.M., ed. A Companion to Ancient Epic. Oxford, 2005.

  Fowler, R., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Homer. Cambridge, 2004.

  Frazer, J.G. Apollodorus: The Library. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA, 1921.

  *Gantz, T. Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Baltimore, MD, 1993.

  Green, P.M. From Ikaria to the Stars: Classical Mythification, Ancient and Modern. Austin, TX, 2004.

  ------, trans. Apollonios Rhodios: The Argonautika. Berkeley, CA, 2007.

  ------, trans. Homer: The Iliad. Berkeley, CA, 2015.

  *Griffin, J. Homer on Life and Death. Oxford, 1980.

  ------. Homer: The Odyssey. Cambridge, 1987.

  Guthrie, W. K. C. The Greeks and Their Gods. London, 1950.

  Heath, J. T"elemachus PEPNUMENOS: Growing into an Epithet." Mnemosyne, 4th ser., 54 (April 2001): 129-57.

  Heath, M., trans. and ed. Aristotle: Poetics. Harmondsworth, England, 1996.

  Heubeck, A., S. West, J.B. Hainsworth, et al., eds. A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey. Vol. 1: Introduction and Books i-viii. Oxford, 1988.