Characters
- Amphinomus — Dulichian suitor; hesitant; warned; slain
- Lyssa — prevents his repentance from saving him
- Nisus — father (named)
- Other suitors — peers who vote for violence
- Telemachus — deals the death-blow
- Thyestes — disguised warner; later fight leader
Places
- Dulichium — Amphinomus’s home island
- Odysseus’s palace — warning conversation and death
Themes
Narrative
Amphinomus son of Nisus, from Dulichium, is the suitor most inclined to decency: he speaks against murdering Telemachus when the ambush fails, and the poet notes Penelope liked his words. Odysseus, still disguised, warns him privately—leave the palace before the coming reckoning—and pours a libation wish for his safety. Amphinomus goes thoughtful but does not depart; Athena has bound him to die under Odysseus’s hand. In the slaughter, as he charges, Telemachus strikes him from behind with a spear; he falls, and Odysseus’s son leaves the spear in the body to snatch up another weapon.
Amphinomus embodies the *Odyssey*’s hard justice: even the least cruel suitor, warned by the hero himself, cannot escape once Athena has fixed the doom of the house’s polluters.