Anticleia
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
The Legend of Anticleia
Anticleia was the daughter of the cunning Autolycus, himself the son of Hermes, and the mother of Odysseus by Laertes, king of Ithaca. Some later traditions suggested that Sisyphus had seduced Anticleia before her marriage, making Odysseus the son of the most devious mortal in mythology rather than the noble Laertes — a claim that would explain Odysseus's own legendary craftiness. Anticleia was alive when Odysseus departed for the Trojan War, but during the long years of his absence — ten years of war followed by ten years of wandering — she was consumed by longing for her son. Unable to bear the grief any longer, she took her own life, or simply wasted away from sorrow. When Odysseus visited the underworld in Book Eleven of the Odyssey, Anticleia's shade was among the first he encountered. He tried three times to embrace her, but each time his arms passed through empty air. She told him of conditions at home — Penelope's faithfulness, Telemachus's growth, and Laertes's decline — and her words strengthened his resolve to return to Ithaca.
Parents
Autolycus
Children
Odysseus
Symbols
Fun Fact
The scene where Odysseus tries three times to embrace his mother's ghost and fails is one of the most emotionally powerful moments in the Odyssey
Explore Further
Anticlea
🗡 heroNone recorded
Mother of Odysseus who died of grief during his absence and appeared to him in the Underworld
Semele
🗡 heroMortal mother of Dionysus
Semele was a Theban princess who became the mortal mother of Dionysus — destroyed when she insisted on seeing Zeus in his true divine form.
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
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
Pentheus
🗡 heroNone recorded
King of Thebes torn apart by his own mother for opposing the worship of Dionysus
Chrysippus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A son of Pelops whose abduction by Laius of Thebes brought a curse upon the house of Laius and introduced the theme of transgression that haunted the Oedipus cycle
Danae
🗡 heroNone recorded
Princess of Argos imprisoned in a bronze tower, mother of Perseus by Zeus
Aethra
🗡 heroMotherhood, Captivity, Loyalty
Princess of Troezen, mother of Theseus, who became a captive slave in Troy.
Agraulos
🗡 heroNone recorded
A daughter of Cecrops, the first king of Athens, who disobeyed Athena by opening a forbidden chest and was driven to leap from the Acropolis
Megara
🗡 heroNone recorded
First wife of Heracles, given to him as a reward and later killed in his madness
Alcimede
🗡 heroMotherhood, nobility
Noble Thessalian woman and mother of Jason, leader of the Argonauts