Anticlea’s Family Tree

About Anticlea →

Family

• Laertes(spouse),Ctimene(child),Odysseus(child)— Marriage

  Laertes and Anticlea were the parents of Odysseus and his sister Ctimene. Anticlea died of grief during Odysseus's long absence, and he met her shade in the underworld.

• Sisyphus(spouse),Odysseus(child)— Consort

  Sisyphus seduced Anticlea before her marriage to Laertes, and Odysseus was born from this union as their biological son.

  ⚠ The dominant tradition (Homer, Odyssey) names Laertes as Odysseus's father. The Sisyphean paternity is a rival account found in later sources including pseudo-Apollodorus and various scholia.

• Autolycus(parent)

  Anticlea was the daughter of Autolycus, the master thief and son of Hermes. Through this lineage, her son Odysseus inherited the cunning and resourcefulness for which he became famous.

Associated with

• Eurycleia

  Eurycleia served alongside Anticlea in Laertes' household. Laertes honored Eurycleia equally with his wife Anticlea, and both women raised the young Odysseus on Ithaca according to Odyssey 1.

• Penelope

  Anticlea died of grief during Odysseus's long absence, and when her shade met Odysseus in the Underworld, she told him that Penelope remained faithful on Ithaca but was wasting away with sorrow.

• Sisyphus

  In a variant tradition, Anticlea lay with Sisyphus before her marriage to Laertes, making the master trickster of Corinth the biological father of Odysseus rather than Laertes.

• Tiresias

  In Odyssey Book 11, Odysseus encountered Anticlea's shade while visiting the Underworld to consult Tiresias. After speaking with the prophet, Odysseus recognized his mother among the gathering dead.