The Gods of Olympus and their minions, servants and creations.
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The Gods of Olympus
Voiced by: Jean Topart (Zeus, in French), Vlasta Vrana (Zeus, in English), Luis Puente (Zeus, in Latin American Spanish)
The deities reigning over the galaxy known as Olympus, and possibly over the whole universe. Ulysses offended them when killing the Cyclops to save his son, and they condemned him and his crew (which they cursed to be inanimate) to wander aimlessly in the unknown in said galaxy, putting plenty of dangers in the path of the Odysseus until it reaches the Kingdom of Hades for Ulysses' ultimate judgement.
- Adaptational Villainy: Zeus. In the original Odyssey myth, he is more of an arbitrator. Here, he is the main tormentor of Ulysses instead of Poseidon.
- All Myths Are True: Ulysses and his crew believed them to be legends from Ancient Greece. Turns out they're real. And very, very annoyed.
- Berserk Button: A universe-sized one for them is being defied.
- The Corrupter: They can corrupt some people into hampering Ulysses one way or another. They do this with the Sphinx's daughter Hercronne, for instance.
- Cosmic Entity: They are cosmic entities who are omnipotent and omniscient over the Olympus galaxy, and possibly over the universe.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The gods of Olympus are written with pretty much no redeeming qualities in this show. Nonetheless, when Ulysses finally bests them by making it to the Kingdom of Hades and refusing to abandon his crew, they keep their promise to free his crew and let everyone go back to Earth.
- Everybody Hates Hades: Mostly averted. Hades takes part to Ulysses' final trial in the last episode and his role is more or less faithful to his mythical one.
- Evil Laugh: Zeus regularly lets these out.
- Evil Sounds Deep: They all have deep-sounding and authoritative voices. In the French version, Zeus (Jean Topart) particularly stands out.
- Jerkass Gods: The gods persecute Ulysses in particularly petty and underhanded ways. This is normal for Classical Mythology, which is practically defined by this, but the gods of Ulysses 31 manage to be even more cruel.
- Punishing Ulysses for slaying the Cyclops here is arguably worse than in the original Odyssey, because here it's not Poseidon's son but a cyborg monster he created, and which was used by a cult of lunatics to drain the lives of children so they can see, as it implies that either Poseidon didn't care what they were using it for... or actually created it all for that purpose!
- The episode "Flowers of Fear" features killer robo-plants that can hide themselves away perfectly when dormant, but react to the presence of life by growing into huge monstrous plants that seek to blast the living creature with lasers. The gods sowed these things across the entirety of a planet devoted solely to medicine... because they were too good at curing sick people for the gods' liking (Mind you, they were so good at curing sick people they could cure death).
- Leitmotif: The ominous and haunting "Curse of the gods"
. - The Man Behind the Man: The antagonists or helpful people Ulysses meets are often either in league with the gods or forced to obey their orders lest they want to die or suffer forever.
- Ominous Opera Cape: The personifications of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades during Ulysses' final trial in the last episode wear large capes.
- Powers That Be: They intervene overtly but also like to pull the strings unnoticed.
- Prongs of Poseidon: Poseidon is depicted with one in the first episode. Moreover, in this universe the trident seem to symbolize the Olympus gods as a whole and not just Poseidon, since even minions of Zeus and the Cerberus satellite of the Kingdom of Hades have trident symbols.
- Sadistic Choice: They regularly inflict this on the people they torment, including Ulysses.
- Secret Test of Character: Most of the Cosmic Plaything ordeal they put Ulysses through is this. They near-constantly tempt Ulysses into abandoning his crew or the children one way or another to get a shortcut to Earth, in addition to sending deadly threats in his path.
- Upon finally reaching the Kingdom of Hades, Hades allows Ulysses to return to Earth... provided he leaves all his companions behind. Ulysses refuses. Just as it seems that all is lost, it turns out this was the final trial of the gods and he is now free to return to Earth with all his revived crew.
- Top God: Zeus is the king of the gods and the central figure tormenting Ulysses in his journey, despite the "offense" of killing the Cyclops being made to Poseidon.
The Tridents
Small fighter ships belonging to the armies of the gods. They are often sent to attack the Odysseus.
- Energy Weapon: Their main armament, fired from each "dent" of the ship's trident shape.
- Expy: Of TIE Fighters, what else?
- Mook Mobile: They seem to exist solely to harrass the Odysseus in large numbers and be destroyed by Ulysses.
- Prongs of Poseidon: They are shaped like tridents.
- Space Fighter: Their main role in space battles.
- Stock Sound Effects: They emit TIE Fighter sounds occasionally. Especially when they shoot their lasers.
- Zerg Rush: They're not much of a threat individually, and thus always attack the Odysseus in large numbers.
The Shark Men
Foot soldiers in service of the gods.
- Mind-Control Device: They use brooches called 'remoras' on the people of Nereus to mind-control them in "Nereus - The Hidden Truth".
- Mook Lieutenant: The shark man lieutenant seen in "Rebellion on Lemnos" is more heavyset than the normal shark men and doesn't have the nose of a shark.
- Mooks: Nameless and numerous soldiers serving the gods.
- Prongs of Poseidon: They are armed with tridents, and have trident symbols on their uniforms (since they are minions of the gods). The episode "Rebellion on Lemnos" shows them exploiting the enslaved women of Lemnos to produce material to build trident-shaped monoliths that are used to raze cities.
- Shark Man: As their name and appearance suggests, they are shark-like humanoids.
The Cyclops
A giant monster created by Poseidon and worshipped by a cult of blind one-eyed priests.
- Cyber Cyclops: A cyborg revamp of the mythical Cyclops from The Odyssey.
- Cyborg: Seems to be part-living creature part-machine.
- Cyclops: A cybernetic monster with only one eye.
- Eye Beams: Shoots powerful Frickin' Laser Beams with its eye.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When rescuing Telemachus, Yumi and Numinor, Ulysses finds out the antenna of the destroyed pod Nono came in can reflect the Cyclops' beam, and orders Nono to redirect the beam at the Cyclops' eye, which causes the creature to kill itself.
- Load-Bearing Boss: The whole planet on which the Cyclops lives implodes after its death.
- Magitek: It was created by the gods' magic.
- Monster of the Week: The first creature Ulysses has to confront, and the one whose death causes his exile into the Olympus as a punishment by the gods.
- No Ontological Inertia: When the Cyclops' own beam gets sent back right into its eye by Nono, the monks are blinded.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: Drains the life energy of sacrificed children to fuel its own energy and that of each monks' eye.
- Starfish Aliens: Nothing is even remotely humanoid in this creature.
The Cyclops' Monks
A cult of one-eyed monks who worship the Cyclops. They bring children to the Cyclops as sacrifices so the Cyclops can empower their eye.
- Black Cloak: They wear long black cloaks with hoods.
- Cult: They form a cult that worships the Cyclops.
- Cyclops: They only have one eye, in the shape of a crystal jammed above their nose. The only way for them to see is to be empowered by the power of the Cyclops' eye.
- Evil Wears Black: They kidnap children to sacrifice them and dress in black cloaks so it's safe to say they're evil.
- Eye Beams: They can shoot Frickin' Laser Beams with their eye once they're empowered by the Cyclops.
- Keystone Army: A variant. When the Cyclops is blinded, the monks loose their eyesight as well.
- Looks Like Orlok: They have a pale (well, pale green) and vampirish appearance (fangs in particular) and they're bald.
- Mind over Matter: They have some degree of telekinetic power apparently, given how one of them magically lifts an unconscious Telemachus to bring him into his cell.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: The leader of the monks angrily tells Ulysses that Poseidon and the other gods won't let his slaying of the Cyclops unpunished and that "their revenge will be terrible". Then the Cyclops' planet explodes, and Ulysses' ordeal with the gods starts there...
- Ominous Latin Chanting: They chant ominously when the sacrifice ceremony starts.
- Small Role, Big Impact: They only appear in the first episode, and they're the very cause of Ulysses' perilous journey through the Olympus as a punishment by the gods.
- Targeted Human Sacrifice: They sacrifice humanoid children (not only humans, but humanoid species like Zotrians too apparently) to the Cyclops. The Cyclops' ritual only works using children.
Cortex
A tyrannical computer created by the gods. It rules a planet that is exclusively populated by machines.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: A malevolent artificial intelligence.
- Computer Voice: A sinister one at that.
- Evil Laugh: Lets one out when Ulysses defies it.
- Master Computer: Controls everything in its realm.
- Prongs of Poseidon: Has a trident symbol on its central unit, since it was created by the gods.
- Scavenger World: Cortex' robotic servants scavenge every ship unfortunate enough to be captured in its realm.
- Technopath: Cortex can take control of plenty of machines, the Odysseus and its service robots included.
Flowers of Fear
Robotic parasite flowers that were created by the gods to punish a hospital-planet's civilization for its very advanced medical technologies they saw as pure arrogance.
- Eye Beams: They have eyes, and shoot Frickin' Laser Beams with them.
- Extra Eyes: Each plant has three eyes.
- Fantastic Flora: A dangerous robotic flora created by the gods.
- Final Solution: The flowers carried out a genocide on the hospital-planet.
- Monster of the Week: The threat Ulysses has to deal with in "Flowers of Fear".
- The Punishment: The gods destroyed a whole civilization with them because said civilization's medical technologies were so advanced they could cure death.
- They Have the Scent!: They can detect any form of intelligent life, then track it down to destroy it.
- When Trees Attack: They are parasitic plants who attack any form of life that dares setting foot on the hospital-planet.
Decoy Astronaut
A robotic killer disguised as an ancient astronaut from Earth. The gods created it as a bait to lure Ulysses towards Scylla and Charybdis.
- David Versus Goliath: Nono, of all people, tries to distract it. He's just a mere annoyance to the killer robot, but that's still very ballsy from him.
- Femme Fatalons: Its true form's hands are like sharp claws.
- Glowing Eyes: The robot's eyes glow when it gets rid of its synthetic flesh to reveal what was beneath.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Ulysses eventually runs it through in the neck with his Laser Blade.
- Implacable Man: Very reminiscent of a T-800 (predating it by 3 years, actually) in that it relentlessly tries to kill Telemachus, Yumi and Nono.
- Killer Robot: Its true form is revealed when Nono tears synthetic skin and flesh off one of its feet.
- Meat-Sack Robot: A human-shaped robot with synthetic flesh. Not unlike a T-800 Terminator, again.
- Monster of the Week: The enemy Ulysses has to get rid of in "Trapped Between Fire and Ice". Scylla and Charybdis don't quite qualify as they are space storms and not sentient monsters.
- The Speechless: It never speaks.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Ulysses disposes of it in space after its death.
Swamp Phantoms
Mud monsters created by the gods. They have built-in cameras that scan their targets, then they copy said target's appearance to turn into doubles. Appear in the episode "Phantoms from the Swamp".
- Blob Monster: Their default state.
- Didn't See That Coming: They can copy Ulysses' Laser Blade... but not his energy shield. Because it's transparent.
- Ditto Fighter: They can copy Ulysses' Laser Blade/blaster gun.
- Evil Knockoff: They copy Ulysses, Yumi, Telemachus and Nono then try to kill them.
- Glowing Eyes: The cameras in their eyes glow when they're scanning their targets to copy them.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Throwing objects at them is useless since they can regenerate. They are vulnerable to Ulysses' blaster, however.
- Monster of the Week: In "Phantoms from the Swamp".
- My Skull Runneth Over: Projecting the image of someone then moving it rapidly makes their central unit overload and explode.
- Prongs of Poseidon: Once they're destroyed, the gods' trident symbol can be seen on their command units.
- ShapeShifting: They can morph into any creature they copy (humans, Zotrians, and even Nono).
- Swamps Are Evil: ...and the mud is alive and copies your appearance, then tries to kill you.
Slaves of the Parcae
Former men or humanoids the gods punished for entering the domain of the Parcae. They are condemned to help the Parcae weave the threads of life forever.
- Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: For some reason, Ulysses doesn't activate his energy shield when fighting them, while they all have shields.
- Faceless Goons: They have dark helmets that hide their face.
- Fate Worse than Death: When Ulysses enters the realm of the Parcae, the gods threaten to condemn him to the same fate as these slaves.
- Instant Militia: The gods turn some of them into soldiers to attack Ulysses.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: They get shields when turning into soldiers.
- Lured into a Trap: How they are eventually dealt with. Telemachus tensions a wire that makes them trip atop stairs and then tumble down said stairs.
- Mooks: The main physical threats to Ulysses in the episode "The Seat of Forgetfulness". They are numerous and lacking individuality.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: According to Zeus, they are invincible.
- Prongs of Poseidon: Their swords are trident-shaped.
- The Punishment: The gods condemned them to be slaves of the Parcae, weaving the threads of life on a giant loom for an eternity.
- Shoulders of Doom: They have prominent blue armored shoulders.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: They throw their swords at Ulysses in unison at some point. And they miss their target, of course.
- Was Once a Man: They dared entering the domain of the Parcae, and the gods punished them by having them work on the Parcae's gigantic loom forever.
- Zerg Rush: They try to overwhelm Ulysses and the children through sheer number.
Kenocopters
Vulture-like creatures the gods used to keep the Saurians enslaved on the geologically identical copy of Earth before the Flood happened. The gods left them behind on the planet, and they attack everyone in sight.
- Energy Weapon: They shoot energy beams with their beaks.
- Feathered Fiend: They are cruel vulture-like creatures.
- Hydra Problem: Shooting a Kenocopter with Frickin' Laser Beams doesn't kill it. Instead, it creates another one.
- Monster of the Week: The main threats in "Before the Flood".
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Their only vulnerability is water.
- Self-Duplication: Any damage on a Kenocopter creates another one.
- Weaksauce Weakness: They are vulnerable to water.
- Zerg Rush: They attack in large numbers.
