The Odyssey Reading Guide
“Tell the Story” Page 651
1. To whom is Homer speaking in the invocation?
2. What does he ask her to help him do?
3. Who is Calypso?
4. What literary device is used in lines 27-28?
Part One: The Wanderings
“Calypso, The Sweet Nymph” Pages 652-654
5. Where is Odysseus when we first meet him?
6. How long has he been trying to get home?
7. a) Who comes to Calypso’s island to tell her to let Odysseus go home?
b) Why?
8. The Homeric simile (lines 41-47) compares Hermes’ flight to what?
9. How does he leave her island?
10. What happens to Odysseus soon after he leaves Calypso?
“I Am Laertes Son” Page 656
11. Where is Odysseus when this part begins?
12. a) Why does Odysseus begin to tell his story?
b) To whom?
13. According to lines 143-146, where do people find the most “sweetness”?
14. What happened when the wind took Odysseus, his ships, and men to the Cicones?
15. After that crises, how long did the ships of Odysseus drift in the sea?
“The Lotus Eaters” Pages 657-658
16. a) Where did they next land?
b) Why did they land?
17. What happened to the scouts?
18. What effect did the Lotus plant have on those who ate it?
19. What is an epithet example on line 207?
20. State a theme for this excerpt.
“The Cyclops” Reading Guide Pages 660-670
(Page 660-670)
21. When Odysseus told the Cyclops that Zeus would punish the monster if the Greeks were
harmed, how did the Cyclops react?
22. What did the Cyclops do to several of Odysseus’s men? (Hint: breakfast)
23. What lie does Odysseus now tell about his name?
24. What did Odysseus now tell Polyphemus his name was? How does his crew react?
25. Summarize the Cyclops’s cry (prayer/curse) to Poseidon.
“The Enchantress Circe” Reading Guide Pages 673-675
26. Odysseus and his men land on what island after escaping from the Cyclops?
27. What do Odysseus’s men do to disobey him again?
28. Who are the Laestrygonians and how do they harm Odysseus?
29. What do the men see as they approach the stone house?
30. What happens when the men drink the wine?
31. How does Odysseus resist Circe’s magic?
“The Sirens”; “Scylla and Charybdis” Pages 678-683
32. Why is the singing of the Sirens dangerous?
33. Odysseus does not tell his men of Circe’s last prophecy which was:
34. How does Odysseus prevent his men from listening to the song of the Sirens?
35. The men were in danger of the monster named ___________ on one side and the whirlpool
named _________ on the other side.
36. What was the worst sight Odysseus had ever suffered? Why?
Literary Term Examples from these episodes:
37. Find a metaphor on line 680.
38. Find an epithet on line 703.
39. Explain the Homeric simile on lines 822-827.
40. State a theme for this episode.