What is the name of the suitor who acts as a diviner and is killed by Odysseus?

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The suitor who acts as a diviner and is killed by Odysseus is Leodes.

Leodes is an Ithacan suitor of Penelope and serves as the sacrificial priest for the other suitors. Unlike many of them, he dislikes their abusive behavior and recognizes that their treatment of Odysseus’s household is dangerous. Nevertheless, he remains part of the suitors’ group and shares their fate when Odysseus returns.

Leodes is the first suitor to examine Odysseus’s bow after Penelope announces the contest. He predicts that the bow will bring death to many men, but he cannot string it. After Odysseus reveals himself and begins killing the suitors, Leodes pleads that he opposed their wrongdoing. Odysseus rejects his appeal and kills him; in Homer’s account, Leodes is decapitated.

Ctesippus is another suitor, remembered for throwing an ox hoof at the disguised Odysseus. Agelaus participates in the final fight, while Amphinomus is portrayed as one of the more decent suitors but is still killed. None of those figures combines the roles of Penelope’s suitor, diviner, and doomed bow contestant as Leodes does.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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