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Book I Study Questions for The Odyssey
1.
What is a muse? (See the back of your book for help).
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2. Why does Home ask the muse for help as he begins to tell his story?
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3.
Who is “the man of twists and turns”? What kind of traits does he have if the epithet “man of twists and turns
is appropriate?
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4. What has happened to his comrades and why has it happened?
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5. Who held Odysseus back from returning to his wife, and why did she do this?
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6.
Which god is mad at Odysseus, and why is this the case? (Read to the end of Book 1 before
answering this.)
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7. What happened to Aegisthus and why?
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8.
What human tendency does Zeus “harangue” to the other gods on Mt. Olympus. (A quote would be excellent,
especially if it included a citation of the page and line numbers).
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9.
What argument(s) does Athena use to convince her father (Zeus) that it’s time to let Odysseus come home?
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10. To whom does Athena journey while Hermes goes to tell the captor of Odysseus that it’s time to
let him go? Why is she going to see him?
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11. What is Athena’s disguise when she reaches Ithaca, home of Odysseus?
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12. What indication does the story give of how the Greeks view hospitality?
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13. What’s going on at home while Odysseus has been gone for almost 20 years?
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14. How does Athena describe the sea when she gives her cover story to Telemachus? What qualities does the sea
get in this description (which, by the way is also an epithet)?
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15. List at least 4 suggestions that the disguised Athena gives to Telemachus for how he should
conduct his search for his father.
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16. What other prince does Athena refer to as a role model for Telemachus? What do the two princes
have in common in regards to their families?
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17. Describe your first impressions of Penelope, mother of Telemachus and wife of Odysseus.
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18. How does Telemachus demonstrate the beginnings of his own bildungsroman or coming of age
story? (He stands up to his elders in two different situations near the end of Book 1. What are
they?)
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Gonzaga – Odyssey Book Two study questions
Carefully read all of Book Two. (Don’t just hunt for these answers.) You may handwrite your responses or you may
type them, but do your own work. Use complete sentences.
1.
In Book Two, why does Telemachus call the assembly?
2. How has Penelope managed to string the suitors along, so to speak?
3. What do you learn about Antinous as a person from his description of Penelope’s actions?
What is ironic about the things that he says in lines 91-120?
4. Compare Book Two 164-187 to Book Two 198-215. What is the debate about between
Halitherses and Eurymachus?
5. What quest does Telemachus embark on, and how long does he say it will last?
6. What does the English word mentor mean? Where does it come from? When Athena visits in
Book Two, how is she disguised? What does she say?
7. Who is Eurycleia in relation to Odysseus and Telemachus? See also (Book One 485506.)How does she react to Telemachus’s departure?
8. What direction does Telemachus sail? Why? What will be his first stop? Where is it?
(Think geography and Mediterranean mappage. Look at the maps in your copy of The
Odyssey.)
9. Athena helps Telemachus in at least 3 different ways throughout this book. Describe them.
The Odyssey Book Three Study Questions – “King Nestor Remembers”
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 _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Three. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may handwrite
your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete sentences.
1. Carefully analyze the first three sentences of Book Three (lines 1-13). Directly quote
a phrase or phrases that relates to each element of culture identified below:
hierarchy, social organization, some higher than others:
religion:
law and order, rulers:
making a living:
2. Based on lines 38-49, 73-83, and 388-401, identify an important value in ancient
Mediterranean culture. Support your answer with two brief quotations.
3. Define libation (line 50).
4. Based on Book 1 lines 1-3 and Book 3 lines 134-136 and 181-182, write a topic
sentence and a second sentence of a paragraph about Odysseus’s character. Include at
least one brief direct quotation.
5. In what lines does Nestor tell Telemachus the “Honey, I’m home” story? Review
your class notes and the pronouncing glossary at the end of the book. Who is
Aegisthus? What happened to him? Why?
6. Review lines Book 3 lines 281-313 and 341-352 and answer the following below:
a. What’s a barrow?
b. Why would Menelaus have slain Aegisthus if Menelaus had found him in
Agamemnon’s palace?
c. What is a bard?
d. What was the bard’s task, and how was he prevented from fulfilling it?
e. How long did Aegisthus rule Agamemnon’s kingdom?
f. By coincidence, what is taking place on the day that Menelaus arrives home
from the war?
7. What causes Nestor to realize that Telemachus is under the special protection of
Athena?
8. Read 521-526. What phrase in those lines most closely relates to the theme of
Telemachus coming of age? Why?
9. Who is accompanying Telemachus on his journey to Lacedaemon (Sparta), where he
will visit Menelaus and perhaps learn further news about his father?
Book Four Study Questions for The Odyssey
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Carefully read all of Book Four. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may handwrite
your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete sentences.
1. In Book Four lines 1-17, identify and quote phrases that show that marriage in
ancient Greek culture was not based on romantic love, but on other values instead.
2. What is Menelaus’s attitude toward the Trojan War now? Support your answer
with a brief quotation.
3. What comment from Helen between Book Four lines 150-165 shows her powers
of observation? What comments from Helen in those lines and lines 292-296
show some guilt about her past? Did Paris kidnap her, or is there more to the
story?
4. Beginning at line 185, what does Menelaus say that he would have done for
Odysseus if Odysseus had returned home from Troy with the rest of the surviving
Greeks?
5. Who slips a powerful anti-depressant into the wine? Read Book Four lines 240260 carefully. What do those lines reveal about contacts among different
Mediterranean cultures in the ancient world?
6. When Odysseus undertakes a commando mission and sneaks inside the walls of
Troy, who recognizes him but does not betray him?
7. What famous story does Menelaus tell to Telemachus? What was Odysseus’s role
in the tale?
8. Carefully read the elaborate comparison in Book 4 lines 370-379.
a. In this epic simile, what is being compared to the lion’s den?
b. Who are being compared to the fawns?
c. Who is the master lion?
d. What does the master lion do on his return?
9. What does the word protean mean and where does it come from?
10. What mistake did Menelaus and his men make, according to Proteus? What
detour will they have to make on their way home?
11. How and why did the Greek warrior Ajax die? What larger lesson is revealed by
the circumstances of his death?
12. What does Proteus reveal to Menelaus about Odysseus’s location?
13. What gift does Telemachus turn down? Why? What does Menelaus offer him
instead?
14. How does the scene of the action shift between lines 702 and 703? What does
that shift show about the perspective of the poem’s narrator?
15. What plot development takes place at lines 748-757? How does it contribute, in a
way, to the “Honey, I’m home” theme elsewhere in the epic?
16. Read lines 884-892 carefully. In the epic simile, what is compared to the lion?
Look up the definition of overweening. Look up the definition of harried.
17. Explain how Athena contrives to comfort Penelope in her sleep. Who is the
apparition who appears to her? (Use the pronunciation guide at the back of the
book to figure this out.) What important information does Penelope learn? What
important information does she not obtain?
18. What common suspense novel technique is used at the end of Book Four?
The Odyssey Book Five Study Questions – “Odysseus – Nymph and Shipwreck”
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Five. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may handwrite
your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete sentences.
1. Explain how Athena’s conversation with Zeus at the beginning of Book Five is a
reprise of the conversation she had with him in Book One lines 57-103.
2. Based on line 70, what do you notice that Penelope and Calypso have in common?
So what?
3. What important value of ancient Mediterranean culture do lines 103-107 reveal?
4. What threat or warning does Hermes make to Calypso if she violates Zeus’s
command?
5. Odysseus has been spending his nights with Calypso, but how does he spend his
days? Why?
6. Define hone, haft, and adze 260-62.
7. What astronomical and navigational knowledge of the ancient Greeks is revealed in
lines 299-301?
8. In the epic simile beginning on line 360, what is being compared to thistle?
9. What magic object does Ino (Leucothea) give to Odysseus?
10. In the epic simile beginning on line 476, what are strips of Odysseus’s skin compared
to?
11. Define suppliant, line 497 (also in Book Six line 212).
12. In the epic simile beginning on line 540, what is Odysseus’s life compared to?
The Odyssey Book Six Study Questions – “The Princess and the Stranger”
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Six. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may handwrite
your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete sentences.
1. Who is Nausicaa? What is Athena’s disguise when she appears before her?
2. Although it might initially appear that Nausicaa lacks power, in fact she has some and
she uses it. How? Explain. (See lines 53-81.)
3. Define retinue (line 110).
4. In the epic simile beginning at line 142, who or what is compared to the mountain
lion? Who or what is compared to the flocks? What is the impact of the comparison?
5. Based on the comments Odysseus makes at about line 200, what can we infer about
his marriage to Penelope?
6. What important value of ancient Mediterranean culture do lines 226-232 reveal?
7. In the epic simile beginning on line 256, who is compared to a master craftsman?
Who is the gold and silver result of this craft? What is the impact of the comparison?
8. Explain why Nausicaa wants Odysseus to no longer accompany her and her retinue
when they approach the town where people can see them.
9. Write the topic sentence and at least two good supporting sentences for a paragraph
about the character of Nausicaa, based on what you have seen of her in this chapter.
Include at least one brief quotation.
10. Why is Athena still unable or unwilling to appear to Odysseus undisguised?
The Odyssey Book Seven Study Questions – “Phaeacia’s Halls and Gardens”
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Seven. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may handwrite your
responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete sentences.
1. Read lines 15-52 and explain how Odysseus is protected from the potentially hostile
reaction of the Phaeacian sailors and city dwellers.
2. Define palisade (line 51).
3. Carefully read the genealogy of the rulers of Phaeacia. What is the relationship between
Alcinous and Arete (other than husband and wife)?
4. On a separate sheet (with your name on it!), sketch Alcinous’s palace as described in lines
100-109. Look up frieze, lapis, and lintel. Label at least 8 features of your drawing with
phrases from the text. A color sketch is preferable.
5. What important value of ancient Mediterranean culture do lines 189-215 reveal? (Duh!)
6. Why is it that “suppliants’ rights are sacred”? (The phrase is repeated twice – underline it
twice, lines 196 and 215.) What does the phrase mean? What does it show about the culture?
(If you got the definition of suppliant wrong beforehand, be sure to look it up.)
7. Reread lines 215-261. When Alcinous suggests that Odysseus is probably a visiting god,
how does Odysseus react? Reread lines 215-261.
8. What offer did Calypso make to Odysseus? What comment does Odysseus make to Arete
that shows that he never stopped loving Penelope, despite all the time that he spent with
Calypso? (See also Book Nine line 37.) How is the Book Nine comment relevant?
9. What fibbing half-truth does Odysseus tell to Alcinous in their conversation beginning at
line 342?
10. When will Odysseus depart Phaeacia for his homeward journey? Who will comprise his
crew?
The Odyssey Book Nine Study Questions – “In the One-Eyed Giant’s Cave”
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Nine. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may handwrite your
responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete sentences.
1. In Book Nine lines 1-11, how is Odysseus having an experience parallel to one Penelope
had in Book One (see Book One lines 373-414)? Compare and contrast their reactions to
their similar experiences.
2. Much of Book Nine is a flashback where Odysseus is recounting events that happened to
him previously. After Odysseus and his troops leave Ilium (Troy), they encounter the
Cicones. Describe what happens and the casualties.
3. What effect does the lotus flower have on crewmen who eat it?
4. Recall our discussion at the beginning of the year on the elements of culture and the
elements of civilization. Based on lines 118-127, write a topic sentence and a supporting
sentence of a paragraph arguing that the Cyclops lack both a culture and a civilization.
5. Define foreboding. (Look up premonition while you’re at it.) What premonition does
Odysseus have at lines 237-240?
6. When Odysseus and his men enter the cave of the Cyclops named Polyphemus, are they
acting like good guests or bad guests? Explain.
7. When Odysseus reminds Polyphemus that suppliants are sacred (303-305), how does
Cyclops react?
8. Why don’t Odysseus and his men leave after Polyphemus falls asleep?
9. In the epic simile beginning at lines 427-437, who is compared to the shipwright? What
qualities of this character are emphasized by the comparison?
10. Who is the father of Polyphemus?
11. How does the Cyclops episode fit into the hospitality theme? Is Polyphemus a good host
or a bad host? (Duh!) Review lines 515-536 and quote the lines said by Odysseus where he
says, in essence, that Polyphemus has violated a fundamental natural law and is being
appropriately punished.
12. What negative side of Odysseus’s character do lines 548-563 reveal?
13. Explain how Polyphemus puts a curse on Odysseus. What request does he make to his
father, Poseidon?
14. What do Book Nine lines 45-49 and Book Nine lines 607-614 reveal about Odysseus as a
commander and his crew’s attitude toward him?
The Odyssey Book Ten Study Questions – “The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea”
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Ten. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may handwrite
your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete sentences.
1. Why is Aeolus able to give Odysseus “a sack… binding inside the winds that howl
from every quarter” (lines 22-23)?
2. Why did Odysseus’s crew become mutinous? What was the consequence of their
snooping in Odysseus’s possessions?
3. Explain why Aeolus refused to help Odysseus a second time.
4. In the host-guest relationship we have seen so often, why are the Laestrygonians bad
hosts? Duh.
5. In the epic simile beginning on line 231, what is compared to hounds?
6. What does the enchantress Circe do to Odysseus’s men?
7. What advice does Hermes give to Odysseus about how to obtain the release of his
crew (lines 317-334)?
8.
In the epic simile beginning on line 452, who or what is compared to the cow? Who
or what is compared to calves? How does the simile reinforce the homecoming
theme that runs throughout the work?
9.
In line 509, explain Circe’s metaphor, “Now you are burnt-out husks.” What is a
husk? What is being compared to a husk? Also define haggard and sere in the same
line.
10. Beginning on line 538, Circe gives Odysseus another mission. What is it? What will
he learn on the mission (see lines 589-596)?
11. Who is Tiresias? What is his handicap?
12. Who sneaks onto the vessel as they prepare to leave?
13. Persephone is referred to several times in Book Ten. Access the Columbia
Encyclopedia article about her via www.bartleby.com and explain who she is.
The Odyssey Book Eleven Study Questions – “The Kingdom of the Dead” and
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Books Eleven. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may
handwrite your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete
sentences.
1. Who is Elphenor and how did he die (see Book Ten)? What request does he make in
Book Eleven? What does he threaten if the request is not honored (line 81)? How do
his companions fulfill his request (see Book 12, lines 8-15)?
2. What does Elphenor’s appearance in Book Eleven reveal about the culture’s funeral
customs?
3. What does Tiresias reveal about the reason for Poseidon’s grudge against Odysseus?
4. What instruction does Tiresias give about the Cattle of the Sun God Helios?
5. Tiresias gives Odysseus very detailed instructions about how and where he must
make a sacrifice to Poseidon after he returns home. Explain where he must go and
what he must do. How will he know he is in the right place? Define winnow and,
while you’re at it, define thresh.
6. In the conversation with his mother, what anxieties does Odysseus reveal about his
son, his wife, and his kingdom?
7. What killed Odysseus’s mother?
8. What do the mortal women Tyro, Antiope, and Alcmena all have in common?
9. Explain how the scene of the narrative shifts following line 378. At what line does
Odysseus resume his tale of his adventures?
10. About line 450, Odysseus talks to Agamemnon and speculates on the cause of his
death. How does Odysseus think Agamemnon must have died? What does
Agamemnon tell him? Define ignominious. What big theme does Agamemnon’s
story reinforce?
11. (Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus are sometimes both referred to as Atrides,
which means “son of Atreus.”) Beginning at line 519, when Agamemnon asks
Odysseus for news about Orestes, what does Odysseus tell him? What does this
question show that Agamemnon and Odysseus have in common?
12. Review lines 547-558. Is it better to be dead or alive, according to Achilles?
13. What famous ambush trick was Achilles’s son Neoptolemus involved in?
14. Who is Tantalus? Access the Columbia Encyclopedia article about him via the
internet and explain who he is. What torture does he undergo? What English word
comes from his name?
15. Who is Sisyphus? Access the Columbia Encyclopedia article about him via the
internet and explain who he is. What torture does he undergo?
16. What famous superhero’s ghost, better known by his Roman name, does Odysseus
talk to beginning at line 690? What superhero mission does he tell Odysseus about?
The Odyssey Book Twelve Study Questions - “The Cattle of the Sun”
Carefully read all of Book Twelve. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may
handwrite your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete
sentences.
Name_____________________________________________
1.
How does Circe advise Odysseus to avoid getting shipwrecked on the Sirens’
rocks (lines 44-60)? Define transfix.
2. On a separate sheet (with your name on it!), sketch Scylla as described in lines
89-111. Label at least 6 features of your drawing with phrases from the text. A
color sketch is preferable.
3. What other danger is adjacent to Scylla?
4. What does Circe tell Odysseus that he will have to lose in order to navigate
successfully past Scylla? Should he tell his crew what she tells him? Why or
why not?
5. According to Circe, what will happen if the crew harms the Cattle of the Sun?
Copy out the phrase from the very beginning of Book One that refers to the same
incident.
6. Is Odysseus tempted by the Sirens’ song? Explain.
7. The expression “between Scylla and Charybdis” has become proverbial, a more
literary version of “between a rock and a hard place.” What does the expression
mean?
8. In the epic simile beginning on line 270, who is compared to the angler? Who is
compared to the little fish?
9. What argument does Eurylochus make to justify killing the cattle? How does he
promise to atone for the wrong (lines 349-378)?
10. Look carefully at lines 419-420 in context. Who is the “I” in the sentence? Who
are the “I”’s audience? How does the “I” know what Zeus said?
11. After Odysseus’s narrow individual escape from Scylla and Charybdis, where
does he end up after drifting for over a week?
The Odyssey Book Twenty One Study Questions - “Odysseus Strings His Bow”
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Twenty-One. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may
handwrite your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete
sentences.
1. What item does Penelope retrieve from the hidden storeroom? Odysseus only uses
this item on certain occasions. What occasions?
2. What feat of accuracy and strength does Penelope say she will use as a test to
determine whom she will marry?
3. According to Leodes, if no one can perform the feat, how will Penelope select her
husband (lines 162-185)?
4. How does Odysseus confirm his identity to the trusty cowherd and swineherd?
5. When the disguised Odysseus asks Antinous (a suitor) for a chance to string the bow,
how does Antinous react (lines 306-349)? What threat does Antinous make?
6. What pledge does Penelope make if Odysseus strings the bow?
7. Explain the similarity between Book One lines 409-418 and Book Twenty-One lines
389-399. Explain what that similarity has to do with the bildungsroman theme in the
epic.
8. What crucial assistance does Eurycleia, the old nurse, lend to Telemachus and
Odysseus (see lines 420-432)?
9. In the lines beginning at 451, explain the epic simile. To what is Odysseus
compared? Why is this comparison appropriate?
10. What omen from Zeus occurs at the climax to Book Twenty-One?
11. What are Odysseus and Telemachus planning to do at the end of the Book?
The Odyssey Book Twenty-Two Study Questions - “Slaughter in the Hall”
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Twenty-Two. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may
handwrite your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete
sentences.
1. What is Antinous doing just before he becomes the first suitor to die? Why is his
final action appropriate?
2. What does Eurymachus say in an attempt to shift the blame to someone else?
3. What proposal does Eurymachus make to pay Odysseus back for his losses?
4. At lines 106-126, who obtains assistance for Odysseus? What is that assistance?
5. What is the name and occupation of the male household member who assists the
suitors against Odysseus? How is he punished?
6. Who renders divine assistance to Odysseus during the fight? How is the divinity
disguised?
_____________________________________________________________________
7. What has Odysseus said earlier that causes a character to “lash[] out at Odysseus now
with blinding accusations” (line 235)?
8. Compare Book Two lines 164-187 to the epic simile beginning at Book Twenty-Two
line 316. What similarities do you see? What do those two passages reveal about
Greeks’ belief in the predictive power of omens?
9. In addition to the herald Medon, there is one other character who is spared from death
at Telemachus’s urging. What is that character? Why do you think Homer chose to
spare that particular character from death?
10. Explain the epic simile beginning at line 408.
11. When the old servant Euycleia sees the corpses, how does she react? What does
Odysseus say to her? What does Odysseus’s response reveal about the moral code
that Greek warriors lived by?
12. Of the 50 women servants in the household, a dozen of them betrayed the household
by sleeping with the suitors. How are those dozen women killed?
The Odyssey Book Twenty Three Study Questions - “The Great Rooted Bed”
Name: _______________________________
Carefully read all of Book Twenty-Three. (Don’t just hunt for the answers.) You may
handwrite your responses or you may type them, but do your own work. Use complete
sentences.
1. How does Penelope react when Eurycleia breaks the news to her?
2. How does Eurycleia confirm Odysseus’s identity when Penelope remains skeptical?
3. Reread lines 133-157. Also reread lines 404-414. Based on the lines, you can infer
that Odysseus is concerned about something. Discuss and explain what he is worried
about.
4. Identify and discuss the similarities between the epic simile beginning at Book Six
line 256 and the epic simile contained in the passage beginning at Book TwentyThree line 170.
5. Explain how Penelope employs what might be called “the bed test” to confirm
Odysseus’s identity.
6. Beginning at line 240, what explanation does Penelope offer for why she did not
immediately greet Odysseus joyfully?
7. Write a paragraph explaining and discussing the significance of the epic simile
contained in the passage beginning at line 259? (Who is compared to the sailor?)
Why is this epic simile particularly powerful and appropriate at this point in the
story? What interesting twist is Homer using here?
8. What Book and lines contain the passage parallel to the one beginning at Book
Twenty-Three line 305? Explain why it is important that Odysseus makes his
sacrifice to Poseidon far inland. Why can’t he do it in Ithaca?
9. On a separate sheet, with your name on it, use the passage beginning at line 354 to
make a time-line of Odysseus’s adventures and travels.
10. After he spends the night with Penelope, whom does Odysseus go to see?
The Odyssey Book Twenty Four Study Questions - “Peace”
Name: _______________________________
1. What are the cries of the suitors’ ghosts compared to at the beginning of the Book?
Who leads them down to the underworld?
2. Describe Achilles’ funeral. How long did it last? Who was an important female
mourner?
3. Why does Agamemnon recognize one of the suitors? On what occasion had he
previously visited Ithaca? (Don’t mix up Melaneus with Menelaus the king of
Sparta.)
4. Copy out the phrases that answer the following questions: How long did Penelope
manage to stall the suitors with the loom-weaving trick? About how many years were
the suitors living in Odysseus’s house?
5. What are “the solemn honors owed the dead,” according to Laertes?
6. Discuss the parallels between lines 400-15 and two earlier passages: the epic simile
beginning at Book Six line 256 and the epic simile contained in the passage beginning
at Book Twenty-Three line 170.
7. Who is Eupithes? What is the point of his speech? How does he present a much
different picture of Odysseus than the one we are used to?
8. Why does Athena ask Zeus to intercede1? What is she trying to accomplish?
9. What effect does the last paragraph of Book Twenty-Four have on the overall
meaning of the work? In other words, would the themes of the story be different if
Odysseus and his men had pursued the enemy and slaughtered all of them? Since
Homer is clearly capable of writing about extraordinary savagery, why does he not do
so here?
1
If you’re not sure what intercede means, look it up.