all the names in The Odyssey

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:

  1. downloads the text of the book from MIT (since it’s in the public domain, you can find text versions all over the internet)
  2. prints out all the individual words
  3. removes words that don’t start with a capital letter
  4. sorts them and removes duplicates
  5. 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

2 comments

  1. 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.

    1. 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.

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