The Odyssey Character Guide: Who's Who In the Greek Myth

It’s not long until The Odyssey finally arrives in theatres. As an adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic, it is one of the most ambitious texts one could hope to adapt — but if there’s anyone who's up to the challenge, it’s Christopher Nolan.

Like Oppenheimer, it feels like The Odyssey has a never-ending cast list, with big names all across the industry banding together to make what is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious movies of 2026. Big names are all well and good, but it can be challenging when you don’t know the character they’re playing. To rectify this, allow us to take you through the main characters of the Odyssey poem. 

Odysseus (Matt Damon)

The King of Ithaca, Odysseus is at the centre of it all. He was the one behind the infamous Trojan Horse incident as he and the others fought in Troy. Now that the battle is over, Odysseus wants to return home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, whom he hasn’t seen since he was a baby. He has been away for 20 years.

In the original story, it is noted that he is a favourite of Athena, the goddess of goodness, who oftentimes sends him help when he needs it. He is also known for being cunning and strategic.

Penelope (Anne Hathaway)

Penelope is Odysseus’ long-suffering wife. As she waits for her husband’s return, she faces over 100 suitors. To get rid of them, she tells them to wait until she finishes weaving a burial shroud, but this is more of a trick/excuse she uses to avoid having to progress with any of these suitors. Conveniently, she never seems to finish it...

Telemachus (Tom Holland)

The son of Odysseus hasn’t seen his father since he was a baby. 20 years later, as suitors continue to invade his home and his father’s estate, he undergoes a voyage of his own, aiming to learn more about his father. By the time he returns home, his father has also come back. They do a little father-son bonding by killing the suitors together. 

Antinous (Robert Pattinson)

Antinous is one of the 108 suitors looking to marry Penelope and, in turn, ascend the Ithacan throne. He figures out her weaving ploy, tells the other suitors, and demands that Penelope’s father pick a husband for her. Of all the suitors, he is arguably the worst: he plots to kill Telemachus when he returns from Sparta, and also attacks Odysseus when he is dressed up as a beggar. 

Athena (Zendaya)

Athena, who was born out of Zeus’ forehead (no, really), is the goddess of wisdom and warfare. Naturally, she takes quite a liking to a warrior like Odysseus, and as a result helps him out of a lot of tight spots. She’s also known for being a master of disguise, and plays an instrumental role in helping Telemachus on his own journey.

Calypso (Charlize Theron)

Calypso is a nymph who entraps Odysseus for seven years on the island of Ogygia. During this time, she makes him become her lover. In love with Odysseus, she wants him to become immortal so that he can stay with her forever, and his captivity triggers an argument among the gods. There’s a lot of debate and different interpretations of her story in particular.

Circe (Samantha Morton)

Circe is another immortal goddess and nymph. By lacing a feast with a potion, she tricks and turns most of Odysseus’s men into pigs. She tries to do the same with Odysseus, but because he took the god Hermes' advice and consumed the herb moly, he was immune to the potion. Hermes also advised Odysseus on how to deal with Circe, which included sleeping with her. She ends up transforming the men back, but Odysseus has such a great time with her that he and the men stay for a year. 

Poseidon (Only Spoken Of In the Film)

Along with being the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon is also the god of earthquakes, storms, and, for some reason, horses. After Odysseus blinds his son, Polyphemus the Cyclops, he faces the deity’s wrath — and it’s pretty unrelenting. It is due to his repeated intervention that Odysseus has such a long and perilous journey home. This is because he specifically doesn’t want to kill him, but just wants to make his life significantly harder, which is the kind of pettiness I can get behind. 

Polyphemus the Cyclops (Bill Irwin)

As well as being a terrifying, man-eating cyclops, Polyphemus is actually the son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. When Polyphemus eats one of Odysseus’ men and holds the rest of them captive, Odysseus executes a plan to blind Polyphemus with a staff so that he and the rest of his men can escape. As you might expect, daddy Poseidon isn’t too happy about this. 

Helen and Clytemnestra (Lupita Nyong’o) 

Continuing a tradition she started with Us, Lupita Nyong’o is once again playing two characters in The Odyssey: Helen and Clytemnestra. Helen of Troy is famous for being known as the reason the Trojan War started, is a well-known figure in Greek mythology, also appearing in The Iliad. She ends up helping out Telemachus on his journey. Meanwhile, Clytemnestra, Helen’s sister, is the wife of Agamemnon. She ends up killing him with her new husband.

Menelaus (Jon Bernthal)

Menelaus is the King of Sparta and the husband of Helen of Troy. He plays a pretty pivotal role in the story. Not only does he recount his days fighting alongside Odysseus in the Trojan War, but he also helps Telemachus learn that his father is still alive. He tells him that Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, told him that Odysseus was being held captive by Calypso.

Agamemnon (Benny Safdie)

While he plays a pretty major role in The Iliad, Agamemnon is a fairly minor character in The Odyssey. He is the commander of the Greek army during the Trojan War and was married to Clytemnestra. He didn’t die in that war, however — he was actually murdered by his own wife and a man called Aegisthus, who had seduced and married Clytemnestra in his absence.

Eurylochus (Himesh Patel)

Eurylochus is Odysseus’ second-in-command, but despite this, he isn’t a big fan of the warrior. He is known for questioning, undermining, and mistrusting his every move, which ends up causing his fair share of problems. He was also Odysseus’ brother-in-law and married the hero’s sister, Ctimene. 

Sinon (Elliot Page)

Sinon is not mentioned in The Odyssey, but he is mentioned in Virgil's Aeneid. He is portrayed as a traitor in this literature because he actually plays a pretty instrumental role in the Trojan Horse plot as the one to convince the other soldiers to accept the generous ‘gift.’

Melantho (Mia Goth)

Melantho is one of Penelope’s favourite slaves — but that favouritism isn’t returned. In addition to revealing Penelope’s weaving ruse to the suitors, she also sleeps with one of them: Eurymachus, becoming his mistress. 

Eumaeus (John Leguizamo)

A swineherd who looks after Odysseus’ livestock, Eumaeus is also a close and incredibly loyal friend to the Greek hero. Technically, he is the family’s ‘doulos,’ which is another word for slave; originally bought by Odysseus’ father as a child.