Major Figures in the Thirteenth Book of the Odyssey

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide

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Odysseus - Wandering Trojan War hero famed for his wiles. He is a favorite of Athena and disliked by Poseidon.
Alcinous - King of the Phaeacians, husband of Arete and father of Nausicaa. He makes sure Odysseus gets back to Ithaca safely.
Idomeneus - King of Crete and considerably older than most of the warriors in the Trojan War.
Meriones - A Cretan in Idomeneus' company and roughly an equal to Odysseus in spear and bow in the Iliad. Meriones is a nephew of Idomeneus and a grandson of Deucalion son of Minos, not Prometheus.
Telemachus - Son of Odysseus who was left as a baby when Odysseus went off 20 years earlier to fight in the Trojan War.
Menelaus - king of Sparta and brother of Agamemnon. When Menelaus married Helen, a promise was extracted from all the rejected suitor-princes that they would come to the aid of Menelaus should anyone try to abduct her.
Scheria - The name of the land of the Phaeacians.
Sparta / Lacedaemon - Home of Menelaus and Helen. At the moment Telemachus is staying with them.
Harbor of Ithaca - Odysseus lands in the harbor of the Old Man of the Sea, Phorcys. Ships harbored here don't need to be moored. The naiads may live here, too, since there is a cave sacred to them and they work on their looms there. This cave has two entrances, one for mortals and one for gods.