Eurycleia (nurse of Odysseus)

Eurycleia was the only person to recognize Odysseus without him first revealing himself (as he did to Telemachus) after he returned home from the Trojan War.

In addition, it was Eurycleia who gave provisions and supplies to Telemachus from the storehouse before he left for Pylos to seek news about Odysseus.

She took an oath not to tell Penelope he had left until twelve days had passed; Telemachus not wanting his mother to be any more worried than she already was.

Dennis MacDonald argues in several of his books that the woman who anoints Jesus in chapter 14 of the Gospel of Mark is a reference to Eurycleia.

Eurycleia is portrayed by Sylvie in the 1954 film Ulysses and by Geraldine Chaplin in the 1997 mini-series The Odyssey.