Two women of the Odyssey, in a screenshot from the 2026 Nolan film trailer – the one in the foreground probably needs no introduction, either for her character or her a(fair use)
TOP 10 GIRLS OF THE ODYSSEY
Sing, muse, of my Top 10 Girls of the Odyssey!
As I like to joke, I can find Fantasy Girls in anything. I have my Top 10 Girls of Mythology and my Top 10 Girls of Classical Mythology, so it’s not much of a leap for my Top 10 Girls of the Odyssey and even some special mentions to spare, albeit I’ll admit I needed a little help from my muse to round out my top ten and special mentions.
Although you’d be surprised – the Odyssey has a higher prevalence for female characters than its Homeric counterpart of the Iliad, perhaps not surprisingly for the former’s theme of homecoming or return from the latter’s war. Even setting that aside, the Odyssey’s protagonist Odysseus is strikingly dependent on the help of women for his homecoming, indeed without whom he would not have been able to return home – or not had a home to which he could return. These good girls of the Odyssey as I like to dub them are just over half my top ten.
Of course, Odysseus also faces a few female figures as antagonists or obstacles to his odyssey – whom you won’t be surprised to learn I dub the bad girls of the Odyssey. Interestingly, a couple of my good girls of the Odyssey alternate or switch between being bad girls of the Odyssey.
Such was the prevalence of female characters in the Odyssey, particularly when compared to the Iliad, that there’s something of a fringe theory – originating with nineteenth century English novelist Samuel Butler – that the “Homer” who wrote the Odyssey was a woman. Butler opined that it was a Sicilian woman, hence setting much of the Odyssey’s fantastic voyage in Sicily – and inserting herself in the Odyssey as one of its good girls (and is one of my top ten entries).
Even more so than my Girls of Mythology, this is obviously something of a personal novelty top ten list, lacking the same extent of name recognition or adaptations in popular culture as for girls of mythology in general. I’ve mostly made fair use of their depictions from screenshots of the trailers for Christopher Nolan’s 2026 Odyssey film. However, one major entry was not in the trailers, while the film itself lacked two notable good girl entries, so I have used public domain art or licensed images for those entries.
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Anne Hathaway as Penelope in the trailer for the Nolan 2026 Odyssey film (fair use)
(1) PENELOPE
My queen!
You needn’t have looked so worried, Penelope – of course it was always going to be you in top spot.
Although in fairness, Penelope had a lot to be worried about, what with her husband’s twenty-year absence and keeping those suitors at bay.
The ultimate good girl of the Odyssey, Penelope might be absent from Odysseus’ fantastic wanderings within the Odyssey, for obvious reasons that the whole point of his wanderings was to return home to her, but she is very much present in the prelude with Telemachus (the Telemachy, in Books 1-2 and 4) and for his homecoming in Books 16-24 – indeed, giving Odysseus one final test, literally for their matrimonial bed.
Ultimately, all of Odysseus’ efforts in the Odyssey, even with Athena’s divine intervention, would have been for naught without Penelope’s steadfast fidelity to him and her cunning at holding the line against the suitors.
There was a variant legend that Penelope did sleep with all her suitors, giving birth to the god Pan, but not in my Odyssey – and not my Penelope!
It says something for her desirability that all of Odysseus’ thoughts were getting back to her, even when shacking up with sea nymphs en route (although presumably some of his thoughts were for his kingdom, his son, and his dog) – not to mention those suitors, over 100 in number. Although she was renowned for her beauty – not surprisingly as a cousin of Helen – it was her intellect, rivalling that of her husband, as well as her virtue, definitely exceeding that of her husband, for which it was said she surpassed even Helen.
She was portrayed by Anne Hathaway in the 2026 Nolan film.
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
Circe as painted by John William Waterhouse’s Circe Invidiosa in 1892 (public domain image)
(2) CIRCE
Bad girl of the Odyssey turned good for Odysseus – to the extent of even turning back his men she had turned into pigs, the latter one of the most famous and iconic scenes from the Odyssey.
Circe is one of the most famous sorceresses or witches of mythology and literature – daughter of the Titan god of the sun, Helios, and reigning over her island of Aeaea among her bestiary transformed from men.
Such is her enduring allure – an allure I rank in my Top 10 Girls of the Odyssey as second only to Penelope – that it is easy to forget she only has a limited appearance in the Odyssey. She appears in only one book of the Odyssey – Book 10 – and doesn’t even have that book to herself with Odysseus. Her liaison with Odysseus is for only one of ten years of his odyssey and yet has been the source of enduring fascination and influence ever since. Artists and writers have added to that liaison, most notably through adding her son with Odysseus, Telegonus, for whom the epic “sequel” to the Odyssey, the Telegony, was named. Weirdly, that sequel involved Telegonus mistakenly killing his father and even more weirdly, returning to Circe with Penelope and Odysseus’ son Telemachus, whereby Circe makes them all immortal – and most weirdly of all, Telegonus shacks up with Penelope and Circe with Telemachus.
Circe was not quite so seductive in the 2026 Nolan film depicted by Samantha Morton, and did not have any liaison with Odysseus, let alone for a year.
Calypso as depicted by Charlize Theron in a screenshot from the trailer for the 2026 Nolan film (fair use)
(3) CALYPSO
Good girl of the Odyssey for rescuing him, turned bad girl (of sorts) for keeping him “captive” for seven years after that. One might quibble with the label of captivity where a beautiful sea nymph shares her bed with you every night and offers you immortality, although Odysseus did cry about it a lot.
Calypso is eclipsed as one of Odysseus’ extramarital liaisons in the Odyssey only by Circe – which is quite the striking achievement on Circe’s part, since Calypso also had her own island of Ogygia to match Circe’s Aeaea, had more of her own book with Book 7 (as well being mentioned in two other books, Books 1 and 7) and accounted for seven of the ten years of the Odyssey as opposed to Circe’s single year.
Still, it’s no shame to lose out to a sorceress femme fatale like Circe – and only just, as Calypso has had her own enduring charm and influence ever since, even just her name. Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau named his ship for her, inspiring John Denver’s song of the same name – “Aye Calypso, I’ll sing to your spirit”.
Since Odysseus spends the large majority of the ten years of the Odyssey – seven of the ten years or 70% – with Calypso in her island, most of the Odyssey is Calypso’s odyssey.
Also, she poses perhaps the most substantial temptation to Odyssey not to return home, over and above the longest obstacle to him – and that is her promise of immortality. For the narrative and thematic significance of that alone, she deserves her own place for odyssey within the Odyssey.
She was depicted by Charlize Theron in the 2026 Nolan film, in much the same role as in the original Odyssey.
Zendaya as Athena in the trailer for Nolan’s 2026 Odyssey film (fair use)
(4) ATHENA
Okay, I know I called Penelope the ultimate good girl of the Odyssey but Athena also vies for that title, with the advantage of being divine – and the closest to a good girl goddess among the Olympian deities. Although on the other hand, Athena loses points because she only rarely appears in her divine female form in the Odyssey.
Even so, Athena plays the decisive moving role in Odysseus’ return and homecoming, effectively as his divine patron – and where he is essentially her champion, embodying the intellectual prowess that was one of her divine aspects.
Yes, he’s on his own in his fantastic voyage from Troy to the cattle of Helios he narrates in Books 9-12, but for all his survival by his own wits, he simply would not have been able to return home without her.
Her decisive moving role in the Odyssey is from the very outset in Book 1, where she successfully petitions Zeus to compel Calypso to release Odysseus from his captivity, albeit captivity with benefits, through to the conclusion in Book 24, where she intervenes to broker peace from blood feud by the families of the slain suitors.
She not only guides and protects Odysseus, but also his son Telemachus through Books 1-3 of the Telemachy.
And she doesn’t stop when Odysseus is back in Ithaca, appearing in almost every book of his homecoming in Books 13-24 to lend him and Telemachus critical assistance to defeat the suitors, again taking human guise when needed.
She was depicted by Zendaya in the 2026 Nolan film, albeit with something of a twist in her tale.
Nausicaa as painted by Jean Veber in his 1888 painting Ulysses and Nausicaa (public domain image)
(5) NAUSICAA
One of my favorite good girls of the Odyssey – and a critical one in the right place at the right time after Odysseus is shipwrecked (again) on her island, even if she had a little help from Athena.
Nausicaa was princess of the Phaeacians. Guided by a dream sent to her by Athena, she and her handmaidens go to the seashore to wash clothes, awakening a naked Odysseus. While her handmaidens fled at the sight of him, she kept her head when he begged her aid, setting in train the hospitality from her royal household and parents which culminated in her father, King Alcinous, generously giving Odysseus the ships that finally took him home to Ithaca.
“Nausicaä is young and beautiful; Odysseus says she resembles the goddess Artemis…Homer gives a literary account of a love which is never expressed (one of the earliest examples of unrequited love in literature). Nausicaä is presented as a potential love interest for Odysseus: she tells her friend that she would like her husband to be like him, and her father tells Odysseus that he would let him marry her…Nausicaä is also a mother figure for Odysseus; she ensures his return home, and says “Never forget me, for I gave you life”. Odysseus never tells Penelope about his encounter with Nausicaä, out of all the women he met on his long journey home. Some suggest this indicates a deeper feeling for the young woman.”
Some variant legends shipped Odysseus’ son Telemachus with her, which I think I prefer to pairing him off with Circe – while other variant legends did indeed shack her up with Odysseus himself, at least as the father of one of her sons.
And yes, Nausicaa was the character which Butler’s Sicilian woman author of the Odyssey had as a self-insert.
Sadly omitted from the 2026 Nolan film.
Leucothea, an Etruscan sculpture from Pyrgi, c. 350 BC (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Rome), photograph by Olivier for Wikipedia “Leucothea” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
(6) INO LEUCOTHEA
Yes, it’s the last of the good girls of the Odyssey that gave him critical aid in his homecoming.
There was just something about Odysseus that was just catnip for nymphs or goddesses helping him – Athena, Circe, Calypso, and then this one in a blink or you’ll miss it moment.
Ino was a priestess turned queen, turned goddess under her epithet of Leucothea, “white goddess” after her death and transfiguration. She was a goddess of the sea, perhaps even parallel to Amphitrite, but I tend to think her epithet of white goddess evokes her as personification of sea foam.
She saves Odysseus after his ship is destroyed yet again at sea between Calypso and Nausicaa or the Phaeacians – giving him her divine veil that magically takes him to land.
Again sadly omitted from the 2026 Nolan film.
Mermaids by Jean Francis Auburtin, 1920 (public domain image)
(7) SIRENS
“I have heard the mermaids singing each to each”.
And now we get to the bad girls of the Odyssey – well, excluding Circe and Calypso when they were bad girls.
You might be surprised I don’t rank the Sirens higher, given that they and their song have become names for irresistible allure. Heck, I’m surprised I didn’t rank them higher. And I would have ranked them higher but for four reasons.
Firstly, I just wanted to rank the good girls higher. Secondly, following on from the first reason, they are dangerous, indeed deadly, to those who succumb to their allure – often eating their victims, at least in some subsequent variant legends, although I’m not sure that was the case in the Odyssey. Thirdly, as they appear in Homer, they don’t even have names – it was later writers who gave them names and origins, as well as increasing them in number from the two Sirens in Homer, typically to the usual female trio but occasionally to four Sirens.
Fourthly and finally, it was their song rather than their appearance that was alluring. The s€xy mermaid fishy thing was a much later change from the classical bird thing of their appearance in Homer, evoking the monstrousness of the harpies.
The subject of one of my personal favorite scenes from the 2026 Nolan films, although the Sirens themselves remain mysterious and barely seen.
X-TIER (WILD TIER)
Epic screenshot from the epic part of the Odyssey from the trailer for the Christopher Nolan film (fair use)
(8) SCYLLA & CHARYBDIS
The definitive or iconic paired bad girl duo of the Odyssey.
It’s easy to overlook them since both are monstrous and one is a maelstrom, but they are female.
And Scylla at least was originally a beautiful nymph before she was transformed into her monstrous form, in some versions by another entry in my Top 10 Girls of the Odyssey – Circe.
They are there in the 2026 Nolan film – they’re simply too iconic to omit – but without any hint of their female form.
And we come back full circle to my feature image with which I started – not for Penelope in the foreground but Melantho in the background, portrayed by Mia Goth (fair use)
(9) MAIDS – MELANTHO
I hesitate to call them bad girls of the Odyssey, since the “maids” of Ithaca seem more hapless victims of the suitors first, then of Odysseus ordering their execution as the equivalent of collaborators or traitors (which sadly Telemachus carried out). That’s particularly so as their service was likely involuntary servitude – slaves in other words.
That is why most modern adaptations, including the 2026 Nolan film, omit or spare them that fate. Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad does not spare them this fate – indeed, that’s a large part of why she wrote it – but gives them a much needed and well deserved voice at the injustice of it.
Melantho is the most prominent among them, one of Penelope’s favorite maids who betrayed Penelope’s ruse weaving and unweaving the shroud to the suitors. She is given the epithet Melantho of the Pretty Cheeks. She was portrayed by Mia Goth in the 2026 Christopher Nolan film – there is a hint of her literary fate but she is fortunately spared.
The nine Muses on a Roman sarcophagus (second century AD), Louvre, Paris – that’s Calliope at the far left on the bottom, holding a scroll (public domain image)
(10) MUSE – CALLIOPE
“Sing, muse”
Yes, who else for my tenth place entry but the muse invoked in the very first line of the poem to tell of Odysseus, as she is in the Iliad to tell of the wrath of Achilles?
She is not named in either poem but is usually identified with Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, often hailed as the greatest of the muses.
