Achaeans

The Achaeans, also called Argives or Danaans in the poem, are the collective body of Greek-speaking warriors who sailed against Troy under the leadership of Agamemnon. Their return from the war is the very subject the Muse is asked to sing in the opening lines: the ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after sacking Troy, and the many cities he visited and nations whose customs he learned. The poem repeatedly contrasts the fate of those Achaeans who reached home safely with the prolonged suffering of Odysseus, who alone among the survivors remains detained by the goddess Calypso long after the others have returned.

Identity and Composition

The Achaeans are presented as a pan-Hellenic coalition drawn from many regions. Odysseus himself, when he finally declares his name to the Phaeacians, identifies himself as "Ulysses son of Laertes, renowned among mankind for all manner of subtlety" and states that he lives in Ithaca, a rugged island that breeds brave men. The poem's catalogue of peoples includes not only the mainland Greeks but also islanders from Dulichium, Same, and Zacynthus, all of whom send suitors to Penelope's house. The Achaeans are defined by shared language, customs, and above all by the code of xenia (hospitality) and the pursuit of kleos (glory). When Odysseus encounters the Cyclopes, he expects them to observe the same laws of hospitality that govern Achaean society, and is shocked when Polyphemus declares that "We Cyclopes do not care about Jove or any of your blessed gods, for we are ever so much stronger than they." This contrast establishes the Achaeans as a civilized people who honor the gods and the obligations of host and guest.

The Achaeans at War and at Sea

The Trojan War is the defining collective experience of the Achaeans. Nestor, recalling the campaign to Telemachus, speaks of the nine long years during which "we tried every kind of stratagem, but the hand of heaven was against us" and notes that "our best men all of them fell there—Ajax, Achilles, Patroclus peer of gods in counsel, and my own dear son Antilochus." The homeward voyage, however, proves nearly as deadly as the war itself. Nestor describes how, after sacking Troy, Jove saw fit to vex the Argives on their homeward voyage, bringing about a quarrel between the sons of Atreus that split the fleet. Some Achaeans, like Nestor himself, reached home safely; others, like Agamemnon, were murdered upon arrival; and still others, like Odysseus, were scattered across the sea. The poem thus presents the Achaean experience as one of shared glory followed by dispersed suffering, with the gods themselves intervening to determine who shall return and who shall perish.

The Achaeans as Moral and Religious Standard

The Achaeans serve as the normative human community against which foreign peoples are judged. When Odysseus's men reach the land of the Lotus-eaters, those who taste the lotus lose all desire to return home or to report to their comrades—a violation of the Achaean value of nostos. Similarly, the Laestrygonians are described as "ogres, not men" who throw vast rocks at the ships and spear the crews like fishes. The Cyclopes are said to have "no laws nor assemblies of the people, but live in caves on the tops of high mountains; each is lord and master in his family, and they take no account of their neighbours." These descriptions implicitly define the Achaeans by contrast: they are a people of law, assembly, and mutual obligation. Even within the Achaean world, the suitors' behavior is condemned precisely because it violates these norms. Mentor rebukes the Ithacan assembly by saying that there is not one of them but has forgotten Ulysses, "who ruled you as though he were your father," and that they sit still while the suitors eat up his estate.

The Achaeans in the Underworld

The Nekyia (visit to the dead) brings Odysseus face to face with the ghosts of the greatest Achaean heroes, and their conversations reveal the enduring power of Achaean values even in death. Achilles tells Odysseus that he would rather be "a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead," yet he exults when he hears of his son Neoptolemus's prowess. Agamemnon, still bitter from his murder by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, warns Odysseus not to trust even his own wife—a warning that proves unnecessary for Penelope but underscores the fragility of Achaean households. The ghost of Ajax refuses to speak to Odysseus, still angry over the judgment about Achilles's armor, showing that the rivalries of the living persist among the dead. These encounters reinforce the poem's central themes: that Achaean identity is built on martial glory, competitive honor, and the longing for home, and that even death cannot erase these bonds and grievances.

The Achaeans and the Suitors' Destruction

The suitors who plague Odysseus's house are themselves Achaeans—the sons of the chief men of Ithaca and the neighboring islands. Their crime is not merely personal greed but a violation of the Achaean social order. When Odysseus finally reveals himself and kills them, he declares, "Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy? You have wasted my substance, have forced my women servants to lie with you, and have wooed my wife while I was still living. You have feared neither God nor man, and now you shall die." The suitors' punishment is thus framed as divine justice for transgressing the laws that define Achaean civilization. After the slaughter, the Ithacan people gather in anger, but Athena, in the form of Mentor, makes a covenant of peace between Odysseus and the contending parties, restoring order to the Achaean community. The poem ends not with Odysseus's personal triumph alone but with the reestablishment of lawful rule among the Achaeans of Ithaca.