The Odyssey
Book 5: Odysseus—Nymph and Shipwreck
Line #
Name: ____________________________________________
9 CP1 English~BUONO (with slight modifications by Mrs. Todd)
Hints and Questions
1-4 Where does this book open?
8-31 Athena reminds Zeus of what is going on in Ithaca and how Odysseus is stuck on Calypso’s island. Zeus
tells her to use her power to sail Telemachus home from Sparta unharmed.
34 What is Calypso’s epithet?
49-52 Describe Hermes’s gear.
65-84 Describe Calypso’s cave. What impression does it make on Hermes? What is significant about that?
91-95 What is Odysseus doing?
98 What is Calypso’s epithet for Hermes?
125-128 According to Hermes, what is Odysseus’s fate?
129-151 Why does Calypso call the gods hard-hearted and jealous?
170-175 How has Odysseus spent much of his time on Ogygia?
179-189 What does Calypso tell Odysseus he must do?
190-212 Odysseus is suspicious of Calypso’s news that she is releasing him. He makes her swear an oath that she
is telling the truth. She does.
223-236 What epithet does Odysseus get? (224)
What does Calypso warn him of?
237-248 What is Odysseus’s response to this warning?
259-288 Describe the raft that Odysseus builds and how he builds it.
How long did it take him?
The Odyssey
Book 5: Odysseus—Nymph and Shipwreck
305-308 How many days did Odysseus sail before he caught sight of the Phaeacians?
309-327 Who/what stops Odysseus’s progress?
338-345 What does Odysseus wish for here?
346-365 What becomes of Odysseus’s raft?
366-386
Who appears to help Odysseus, and how does she help him?
387-401 What two courses of action is Odysseus faced with? Why does he have a hard time making a decision?
421-428 How long has Odysseus been drifting in the ocean before he sees the shoreline? His feelings are
described in a Homeric simile in lines 436-440; what is being compared? Type of imagery?
443-467 Describe the shoreline of the island. What choice is Odysseus faced with here?
468-488 Athena inspires Odysseus to do two things in these lines. What are they?
489-510 Who does Odysseus pray to here that helps him get to land safely? What is the first thing he does upon
arriving?
515-523 What choice is Odysseus faced with here?
524-end What choice does he make, and what does he do specifically?
What questions do you have?