Elpenor, Eurylochos and Laertes - Characters, The Odyssey | The Odyssey by Homer- Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

Elpenor

Elpenor is the guy who wandered up to Circe's roof and fell to his death before the men departed. Odysseus talks to him in the underworld, where Elpenor asks for a proper burial: "I ask that you remember me, and do not go and leave me behind unwept, unburied, when he leave, for fear I might become the gods' curse upon you; but burn me there with all my armor that belongs to me, and heap up a grave mound beside the beach of that gray sea, for an unhappy man, so that those to come will know of me" (11.60-65, 69-78).

And so Odysseus actually sails all the way back to Circe's island to give this poor guy a proper burial. That's how important funeral rites are.

Eurylochos

Sometimes spelled Eurylochus. One of the Ithakans traveling with Odysseus on the way back from Troy. He is a cautious man, refusing to enter Circe’s hall even when accompanied by armed men. He’s also the brilliant mind who convinces everyone to stay a night at Thrinakia – land of Helios’s cattle – which we all know results in the death of…everyone. Except Odysseus. 

Laertes

Odysseus' father. For some reason, he seems to live in a shack at the outskirts of Ithaka, although he also apparently has a nice farm. Mostly, he mourns for Odysseus and then for Telemachos.

As Eumaios tells the boy, he would, "while he so greatly grieved for Odysseus yet would look after his farm and with the thralls in his household would eat and drink, whenever the spirit was urgent with him; but now, since you went away in the ship to Pylos, they say he has not eaten in this way, nor drunk anything, nor looked to his farm, but always in lamentation and mourning sits grieving, and the flesh on his bones is wasting from him" (16.137-145).

So, obviously, he's thrilled when Odysseus comes back, and even more thrilled when Odysseus and Telemachos get into a fight about who's braver: "What day is this for me, dear gods? I am very happy. My son and my son's son are contending over their courage" (24.513-515). Ah. It warms a grandfather's heart.