Major Characters
Achilles
Achilles was the leading hero of the Greeks in the Trojan War. Homer focuses on
Achilles and the wrath of Achilles in the Iliad.
Aeneas
Aeneas was the only great Trojan warrior who survives the war. Aeneas is
protected by Aphrodite, his mother. He flees Troy, carrying his father on his
back and leading his child by the hand. His values are more Roman than Greek, as
he is first and foremost a warrior.
Agamemnon
Agamemnon was the leader of the Greek forces in the Trojan War. Agamemnon was
the brother-in-law of Helen of Troy. Agamemnon was married to Clytemnestra who
was the sister of Menelaus' wife, Helen of Troy.
Ajax
Ajax was one of the suitors of Helen and so was one of the members of the Greek
force against Troy in the Trojan War. Ajax killed himself.
Andromache
Andromache was the loving wife of the Trojan Hector and the mother of their son
Astyanax, until Hector and Astyanax were killed, Troy destroyed, and (at the end
of the Trojan War) Andromache taken by Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, by whom she
bore Amphialus, Molossus, Pielus, and Pergamus.
Cassandra
Cassandra a princess of Troy, was awarded to Agamemnon at the end of the Trojan
War. Cassandra prophesied their murder, but as was true with all her prophecies,
Cassandra was not believed.
Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon who ruled in his stead while her husband
went off to fight the Trojan War. When he returned, after having murdered their
daughter Iphigenia, she or her lover killed him. Their son, Orestes, killed her.
Hector
Hector was a Trojan prince and the leading hero of the Trojans in the Trojan
War.
Hecuba
Hecuba or Hecabe was the wife of Hector, King of Troy. Hecuba was the mother of
Paris, Hector, Cassandara, and many others. She was given to Odysseus after the
war.
Helen of Troy
The daughter of Leda and Zeus, sister of Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux (the
Dioscuri), and wife of Menelaus, Helen's beauty was so overwhelming that Theseus
and Paris of Troy abducted her and the Trojan War was fought to bring her back
home. More here
Iphigenia
Iphigenia was the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. Agamemnon sacrificed
his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis at Aulis.
Menelaus
Menelaus was the king of Sparta. Helen, the wife of Menelaus was stolen by a
prince of Troy while a guest in the palace of Menelaus.
Odysseus
Crafty Odysseus and his ten-year return to Ithaca from the war at Troy.
Patroclus
Patroclus was a dear friend of Achilles who put on the armor of Achilles and led
Achilles' Myrmidons into battle, while Achilles was sulking on the sidelines.
Patroclus was killed by Hector.
Penelope
Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus, kept suitors at bay for twenty years
while her husband fought at Troy and suffered Poseidon's wrath on his return
home. During this time, she raised their son Telemachus to adulthood.
Priam
Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War. Hecuba was the wife of Priam.
Their daughters were Creusa, Laodice, Polyxena, and Cassandra. Their sons were
Hector, Paris (Alexander), Deiphobus, Helenus, Pammon, Polites, Antiphus,
Hipponous, Polydorus, and Troilus.
Sarpedon
Sarpedon was a leader of Lycia and an ally of the Trojans in the Trojan War.
Sarpedon was a son of Zeus. Patroclus killed Sarpedon.