Study Guide: The Odyssey
People Odysseus: King of Ithaca, Winner of the Trojan War, Husband of Penelope and father of Telemachus. Went on a twenty-­‐year journey, ten years at war and ten years at sea searching for home. Penelope: Odysseus’ wife. Telemachus: Odysseus’ son. Eumaeus: The swineherd that shows Odysseus hospitality on his return to Ithaca. Polyphemus: The Cyclops. Teiresias: The blind prophet Odysseus meets in the Underworld. Circe: A goddess who turns Odysseus’ men into pigs, then gives Odysseus warnings about three challenges that lie in his way. Argos: Odysseus’ dog, who waits twenty years for his master’s return and then dies. Poseidon: God of the sea, who seeks to punish Odysseus. Athena: Odysseus’ patron goddess, who helps him on his journey. Noman: The name Odysseus gives himself to deceive the Cyclops. Laertes: Odysseus’ father. Scylla: A twelve-­‐legged, six-­‐headed monster that lives in a cave. Charybdis: A beast who sucks in the sea and spits it out, three times each day. Eurycleia: Nurse to Odysseus and Telemachus, who tells Penelope that Odysseus has returned and slain the wooers. Places Ithaca: Odysseus’ homeland, where he is king. Troy: Where a great war was fought, and where Odysseus strives to return home from. Phaecia: Where a king offers hospitality and a ship to Odysseus in exchange for his story. Study Questions 1) Why does Odysseus blind Polyphemus (the Cyclops) rather than killing him? 2) How does Odysseus save his men from the Sirens? 3) What do the Sirens and the Lotus Eaters have in common? 4) Is Odysseus best described as honest or intelligent? 5) Who wrote The Odyssey? 6) How does Athena help Odysseus upon his return home? 7) What traits of an epic hero does Odysseus possess? 8) How does Odysseus help his men escape Polyphemus’ cave? 9) How does Penelope test Odysseus’ identity? 10)Why does Odysseus disguise himself when he returns to Ithaca? 11) How does Penelope delay the suitors for over three years? 12) What challenge does Penelope issue the suitors? 13)What is the danger of the island of Lotus Eaters? 14) Why does Odysseus remain in the Cyclops’ cave after his men beg him to leave? 15) What is Odysseus’ greatest flaw? Answers to Study Questions 1) Odysseus does not kill Polyphemus because only Polyphemus is strong enough to move the boulder that blocks the entrance to his cave. 2) Odysseus makes plugs of softened wax to stop his men’s ears from hearing the Sirens’ song. 3) Both groups offer irresistible temptations to Odysseus and his men: the Lotus Eaters their flowers that cause laziness, the Sirens their song that entrances. 4) Odysseus is intelligent. He is not honest, since he does not tell his men all of the warnings of Circe and Tiresias. 5) The Odyssey was written by Homer, somewhere between 800 and 1000 BC. 6) Athena disguises Odysseus as an old beggar so he can return home unrecognized. 7) Odysseus’ heroic traits include his great courage, his cleverness, and his favor from the gods. 8) Odysseus binds his men beneath the bodies of the Cyclops’ sheep. 9) Penelope asks that Odysseus’ bed be moved. Odysseus knows the secret that his bed is made of a living olive tree, and cannot be moved. 10) Odysseus enters Ithaca in disguise because he wants to see how loyal Penelope and the rest of his house has been to him during his absence. 11) Penelope asks the suitors to wait until she finished weaving a robe for Laertes, but at night she unmakes all the work she had done during the day. 12) Penelope sets an archery challenge, saying that she will marry the man who can string Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axes. 13) Eating the lotus flowers on the island causes men to lost all thoughts and desires of home, and stay on the island eating the lotus forever. 14) Odysseus wants to see who lives in the cave, and ask for gifts or trade to help them on their journey. 15) Odysseus’ greatest flaw is that of pride.