Anticlea
Mother of Odysseus who died of grief during his absence and appeared to him in the Underworld
The Legend of Anticlea
Anticlea was the daughter of Autolycus, the master thief and grandson of Hermes, and the mother of Odysseus by Laertes. Some traditions held that she was already pregnant by Sisyphus when she married Laertes, making Odysseus the son of the great trickster rather than the Ithacan king. During the twenty years Odysseus was away at Troy and wandering the seas, Anticlea died of grief and longing for her son. When Odysseus descended to the Underworld to consult the prophet Tiresias, he encountered his mother's shade among the dead. He had not known she was dead, and he tried three times to embrace her, but her ghost slipped through his arms like a shadow or a dream. She told him of conditions at home and of his father's despair.
Parents
Autolycus
Children
Odysseus
Symbols
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Anticleia
🗡 heroNone recorded
The mother of Odysseus who died of grief during her son's long absence at Troy, appearing to him as a shade when he visited the underworld
Jocasta
🗡 heroNone recorded
Queen of Thebes who unknowingly married her own son Oedipus after his return
Icarius
🗡 heroNone recorded
A legendary king of Sparta and father of Penelope who tried to prevent his daughter from leaving with Odysseus after her marriage
Aletes
🗡 heroWandering, Vengeance, Kingship
Son of Aegisthus who briefly seized the Mycenaean throne before being killed by Electra.
Megara
🗡 heroNone recorded
First wife of Heracles, given to him as a reward and later killed in his madness
Laius
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes whose attempt to cheat fate led directly to the Oedipus tragedy
Althaea
🗡 heroNone recorded
Queen of Calydon and mother of Meleager who killed her own son by burning the magical brand that the Fates had tied to his life at birth
Creon
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes who ruled after Oedipus and decreed death for Antigone
Aethra
🗡 heroMotherhood, Captivity, Loyalty
Princess of Troezen, mother of Theseus, who became a captive slave in Troy.
Pentheus
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes torn apart by his own mother for opposing the worship of Dionysus
Oedipus
🗡 heroKing who fulfilled the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother
The tragic king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling a prophecy he had spent his life trying to avoid.
Haemon
🗡 heroNone recorded
Son of Creon and fiancé of Antigone who died beside her in defiance of his father