I just finished listening to the audiobook version of “The Odyssey” and there are so many cool names in it. Some of them, I’ve heard before and some I haven’t. And I thought it would be fun to use some of these names in role playing games. But how can I get a list of them?
I did some googling a while back for things like “list of names from the odyssey” but all it turned up were pages that listed some of the main characters. I wanted all the names. So, I wrote a script. Or rather, I chained several Unix commands together on my Mac to print out what I wanted.
Here is the command:
http -p b GET http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.mb.txt | grep -o -E '\w+' | grep -w '[^ ]*[A-Z][a-z]\+' | sort | uniq | aspell list
If you’re not familiar with Unix/Linux/MacOS command line, this:
- downloads the text of the book from MIT (since it’s in the public domain, you can find text versions all over the internet)
- prints out all the individual words
- removes words that don’t start with a capital letter
- sorts them and removes duplicates
- runs the result through a spell checking program to print out only words that appear to be misspelled – words that don’t appear in the dictionary
And here is the resulting list of 379 proper nouns from “The Odyssey”, alphabetized for your enjoyment.
Acastus Achaeans Acheron Acroneos Adraste Aeacus Aeaean Aeetes Aegae Aegisthus Aegyptius Aegyptus Aeisthus Aeoli Aeolian Aeson Aetes Aethon Aetolian Agelaus Alcandra Alcinous Alcippe Alcmaeon Alector Aloeus Alpheus Alybas Amnisus Amphialus Amphiaraus Amphilochus Amphimedon Amphinomus Amphion Amphithea Amphitrite Amphitryon Amythaon Anabesineus Anchialus Andraemon Anticlea Anticlus Antilochus Antinous Antiope Antiphates Antiphus Apeira Apheidas Arceisius Arete Arethusa Aretias Aretus Argive Argives Arnaeus Artacia Arybas Asopus Asphalion Asteris Atomics Autolycus Autonoe Blest Boethous Cadmus Cauconians Cechalian Cephallenians Ceteians Chalcis Chios Chloris Chromius Cicons Cimmerians Cleitus Clymene Clymenus Clytius Clytoneus Cnossus Cocytus Crataiis Cretheus Crouni Ctesippus Ctesius Ctimene Cydonians Cyllene Cythera Damastor Danaans Deiphobus Delos Demodocus Demoptolemus Deucalion Dia Diocles Diomed Dmetor Dodona Dolius Dorians Dulichium Dymas Echeneus Echephron Echetus Elatreus Elatus Elis Elpenor Enipeus Epeans Eperitus Epeus Ephialtes Ephyra Epicaste Erechtheus Erembians Eretmeus Erinyes Eriphyle Erymanthus Eteocretans Eteoneus Euanthes Euboea Eumaeus Eumelus Eupeithes Euryades Euryalus Eurybates Euryclea Eurydamas Eurylochus Eurymachus Eurymedon Eurymedusa Eurymus Eurynome Eurynomus Eurypylus Eurytion Eurytus Evenor Geraestus Gerene Gortyn Gyrae Halios Halitherses Halius Halosydne Hellas Hermione Hippodamia Hippotas Hylax Hypereia Hyperesia Iardanus Iasian Iasion Iasus Icarius Icmalius Idomeneus Idothea Ilithuia Ilius Ilus Ino Iolcus Iphicles Iphimedeia Iphitus Iphthime Irus Ismarus Ithacus Itylus Lacedaemon Laerceus Laertes Laestrygonian Laestrygonians Lampetie Lampus Lamus Laodamas Lapithae Leiocritus Leiodes Lemnos Leocritus Lesbos Leto Leucas Leucothea Maera Maia Malea Malean Mantius Maron Mastor Medon Megapenthes Megara Melampus Melaneus Melanthius Melantho Memnon Mentes Mermerus Mesaulius Messene Messenians Mimas Minyan Moly Mulius Mycene Naubolus Nausicaa Nausithous Nauteus Neaera Neleus Neoptolemus Nericum Neritum Neritus Nisus Noemon Noman OEdipodes OEnops Ocyalus Ogygian Oicleus Orchomenus Ormenus Orsilochus Ortilochus Ortygia Ossa Otus Paeeon Pandareus Panopeus Paphos Patroclus Peirithous Pelasgi Peleus Pelias Pelion Periboea Periclymenus Perimedes Pero Perse Phaeacian Phaeacians Phaecian Phaecians Phaedimus Phaestus Phaethusa Pharos Pheae Pheidon Phemius Pherae Pheres Philoctetes Philoetius Philomeleides Phorcys Phronius Phrontis Phthia Phylace Phylacus Phylo Pieria Pirithous Pisander Pisenor Pleiads Poias Polites Polybus Polycaste Polyctor Polydamna Polyneus Polypemon Polypheides Polytherses Ponteus Pontonous Pramnian Procris Proreus Prymneus Psyra Pylian Pylians Pylos Pyriphlegethon Pytho Rhadamanthus Rheithron Rhexenor Rumour Salmoneus Samos Sardinian Scheria Scyros Sicania Sicel Sicels Sidon Sidonia Sidonians Sintians Solymi Stockman Stratius Sunium Syra Taphian Taphians Taygetus Tecton Teiresias Telamon Telemus Telephus Telepylos Telepylus Temesa Tenedos Terpes Theban Themis Theoclymenus Thesprotian Thesprotians Thetis Thoas Thon Thoon Thoosa Thrasymedes Thrinacian Thyestes Tithonus Tityus Trito Tydeus Tyndareus Tyndarus Zacynthus Zethus
I started looking at them and noticed the list of “A” words was rather lengthy and there were only two “B” words. I stopped after that.
Some of the A words look so similar it makes you wonder if they’re the same name but with a typo.
And I realized my algorithm has a flaw. The list doesn’t contain Mentor, who is an important character. In fact, he is is so important that his name became an English word a couple thousand years later.