- Odysseus - Wandering Trojan War hero famed for his wiles. He is a favorite of Athena and disliked by Poseidon.
- Circe - she is the daughter of Helios who lives in a mansion in a forest on the island of Aeaea. She is a goddess who uses drugs to transform men into beasts.
- Alcinous - king of the Phaeacians, husband of Arete and father of Nausicaa.
- Tiresias - a blind seer whom Odysseus must speak with in the Underworld
- Elpenor - one of Odysseus' men who falls to his death just before they leave Circe's island.
- Agamemnon - the leader of the Achaean forces at Troy and brother of Menelaus. Agamemnon, his concubine, Cassandra, and his men killed by his cousin Aegisthus and wife Clytemnestra when they return from Troy.
- Achilles - the subject of the Iliad. He was a fast runner and the best warrior of the Greeks. In the Odyssey he is a shade, having been killed by Paris of Troy.
- Ajax - when Achilles died, Ajax had a good claim to being the greatest of the Greek heroes and as such should have received the armor of Achilles. When it was awarded Odysseus, instead, Ajax went mad. He still nurses a grudge in the Underworld.
- Hercules - the strongman half-god hero of much of Greek mythology who couldn't die naturally. He traded his immortality and died when he was in agony. He was allowed to live with the gods after his death and was married to the daughter of his persecutor, Hera. In Odyssey XI, Hercules is also a shade.
- Tantalus, Sisyphus, Tityos - Men or Titans who defied the gods and are compelled to suffer eternal punishments in the Underworld.
- Antikleia - mother of Odysseus, daughter of Autolycus, son of Hermes. She is a shade in the Underworld. Her husband is Laertes.
