Intelligence and cunning (*mètis*): • The man of a thousand wiles: He triumphs not through physical strength or speed, but through his adaptability and ingenuity. • The strategist: It is he who devises the trap of the Trojan Horse, leading to the fall of the city. • Eloquence: He possesses the ability to persuade, lie, disguise his identity, and analyze every situation in order to survive encounters with monsters and gods. A deeply human and fallible hero: • Weaknesses: Unlike a god or an invulnerable superhero, he possesses a range of flaws: he can be arrogant (as seen in his encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus), selfish, cruel, or imprudent. • Nostalgia and pain: At the beginning of the poem, he is found weeping alone on the island of the nymph Calypso, consumed by homesickness and a longing to see his loved ones again. • Love of home: His sole objective is not the martial glory sought by an Achilles, but rather a return to Ithaca—to his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus.

Characteristics and primary role: • Waiting and fidelity: She awaits Odysseus’s return for 20 years (10 years during the Trojan War, 10 years on his journey home), even though everyone else believes him to be dead. • The ruse of the shroud (Laertes’s burial shroud): Besieged by dozens of suitors seeking to claim the throne, she promises to choose a new husband only once she has finished weaving a funeral shroud for Laertes (Odysseus’s father). She works on the shroud by day and secretly unravels it each night for over three years, until a servant betrays her

Identity and initial situation: • Young prince of Ithaca: He grows up in the shadow and absence of his father, who left to fight in Troy when he was still just a baby (Odysseus has been away for nearly 20 years). • A threatened kingdom: The palace of Ithaca is overrun by 108 suitors who are squandering the family’s wealth and pressuring Penelope to choose a new husband in order to seize the throne. • An adolescent in crisis: Initially timid, passive, and consumed by a sense of helplessness in the face of these unwelcome guests, he seeks to assert his authority but lacks experience.

Key characteristics: • Arrogance and violence: He is portrayed as the most insolent, proud, brutal, and greedy of the suitors. • Mistreatment of Odysseus: When Odysseus returns to the palace disguised as an old beggar, Antinous insults him violently and even goes so far as to throw a stool at him.

Role and character description: • An ambiguous presence: Throughout the film, Athena appears alongside Odysseus to advise and guide him on his journey, yet she performs no supernatural acts and saves no one.