Helios, Hephaistos, Hermes, and Kalypso - Characters, The Odyssey | The Odyssey by Homer- Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

Helios

God of the sun and master of some really awesome cattle that no one was allowed to touch, much less kill and eat. When Odysseus' men do just that, Helios demands revenge, basically by holding his breath until Zeus agrees:

Father Zeus, and you other everlasting and blessed gods, punish the companions of Odysseus, son of Laertes; for they outrageously killed my cattle, in whom I always delighted, on my way up into the starry heaven, or when I turned back again from heaven toward earth. Unless these are made to give me just recompense for my cattle, I will go down to Hades' and give my light to dead men. (12.377-383)

Hephaistos

Sometimes spelled Hephæstos. Aphrodite's crippled blacksmith husband. Luckily, he married a beautiful goddess. Unluckily, she cheats. 

Hermes

The messenger of the Gods. He doesn't seem to have any real personality of his own, but he sure is Zeus' yes-man. 

Kalypso 

Sometimes spelled Calypso. The goddess who holds Odysseus hostage for purposes of sex. On the one hand, she sure is hospitable: she invites Hermes to "speak what is in your mind. My heart is urgent to do it if I can, and if it is a thing that can be accomplished. But come in with me, so I can put entertainment before you" (5.87-90) and even Odysseus says that she "loved me excessively and cared for me, and she promised to make me an immortal and all my days to be ageless, but never so could she win over the heart within me" (7.254-258).

On the other hand, she's basically keeping Odysseus as a sex captive: "By nights he would lie beside her, of necessity, in the hollow caverns, against his will, by one who was willing, but all the days he would sit upon the rocks, at the seaside, breaking his heart in tears and lamentation and sorrow as weeping tears he looked out over the barren water" (5.152-158).

Well, that's probably what he's going to tell Penelope, at any rate.