The Odyssey Study Guide
**The 8 questions in bold are questions you may not be able to answer based on our reading
of the text in class. You may skip over those.
1. Who is the author of The Odyssey?
2. Who is the narrator of The Odyssey?
3. What kind of literature is The Odyssey?
4. What war had Odysseus fought in?
5. How long did that war last?
6. To whom is Odysseus telling his adventure?
7. How are Odysseus’ men defeated and outnumbered when fighting the Cicones?
8. What do the lotus eaters offer Odysseus’ men?
9. What are the Cyclopes?
10. Where do Cyclopes live?
11. When the Cyclops is called “a shaggy mountain reared in solitude,” what does this
metaphor show about him?
12. When Odysseus’ men suggest that they steal the cheeses and then run, what is
Odysseus’ response?
13. How do Odysseus and his men become trapped in the Cyclops’ cave?
14. What lie does Odysseus tell the Cyclops about his ship?
15. Lines say, “he clutched at my companions/ and caught two in his hands like
squirming puppies.” What literary technique is used here?
16. When describing the Cyclops’ eating of two men, Odysseus says, “he dismembered
them and made his meal,/ gaping and crunching like a mountain lion.” What
technique is used here?
17. Why doesn’t Odysseus kill the Cyclops when the giant kills his men?
18. Why does Odysseus offer the Cyclops some wine?
19. What name does Odysseus use to trick the Cyclops?
20. What does Odysseus do with the sharpened stake made from the olive tree?
21. What is “nectar and ambrosia”?
22. What is the Cyclops’ name?
23. Who says “Nohbdy, Nohbdy’s tricked me!”?
24. Why don’t the other Cyclopes help Polyphemus?
25. How are Odysseus and his men able to escape the Cyclops’ cave?
26. What is an example of dramatic irony as the men are leaving the cave?
27. After Odysseus taunts the Cyclops, what does the Cyclops throw at him and his
men?
28. After Odysseus reveals his real identity, what does the Cyclops say had been
foretold?
29. Who is Polyphemus’ father?
30. What prayer does Polyphemus make to Poseidon?
31. What is an epic simile?
PART II:
32. Who is Aeolus?
33. What does Aeolus give Odysseus?
34. What causes the ship to be blown back to Aeolus?
35. Who are Laestrygonians?
36. Who survives the land of the Laestrygonians?
37. What does Circe do to the Odysseus’ crew?
38. In the land of the dead, what warning does Odysseus receive from Tiresias?
39. What warnings does Circe give Odysseus?
40. What song is “a haunting song over the sea”?
41. What does Odysseus do with “a massive cake of beeswax”?
42. What is Scylla?
43. What is Charybdis?
44. Why does Odysseus choose to go toward Syclla rather than Charybdis?
45. As they approach the island of Helios, what warning does Odysseus tell his men
about?
46. Why does Eurylochus disagree with Odysseus’ warning?
47. Who is Helios?
48. Why does Odysseus slip away from his men to a sheltered spot?
49. While Odysseus is away, what does Eurylochus do?
50. What does Lampetia go tell Helios, the Overlord of the Noon?
51. Who says “Restitution or penalty they shall pay- …or I go down forever/ to light the
dead men in the underworld.”?
52. What does Zeus do to punish Odysseus’ men?
53. How is Odysseus able to survive?
54. Who “received and loved” Odysseus?
PART III:
55. Who gave Odysseus a ride home to Ithaca?
56. How did Poseidon punish them for helping Odysseus?
57. What word refers to the men who have moved in to Odysseus’ home to date
Penelope?
58. When Odysseus arrives at home, he is disguised as a what?
59. Who transforms him?
60. How does Odysseus look when he introduces himself to his son?
61. Who is his son?
62. Why does Odysseus’ son doubt that Odysseus is who he claims to be?
63. How long do father and son cry?
64. What does Odysseus say he has hidden in a cave?
65. What is Odysseus’ 20 year old dog’s name?
66. What happens to him when he sees Odysseus?
67. How does Odysseus react?
68. How is Odysseus’ dog a symbol of how his home has been treated?
69. Which of the suitors throw a stool at Odysseus?
70. What curse does Odysseus put on this man?
71. Why might the men think that Odysseus is a god in disguise?
72. What do Odysseus and his son want to do the men?
73. Who is Odysseus wife?
74. What does she wish will happen to Antinous?
75. What does the housekeeper wish will happen to all the suitors?
76. What do Odysseus and his remove form the walls of the Great Hall?
77. What ruse does Odysseus’ wife use to stall the suitors?
78. How is she caught?
79. Explain the contest of the bow. What does the winner get?
80. When Odysseus holds his bow, he compares it to what?
81. What was Zeus’ signal that he was ready to fight?
82. Explain “The hour has come to cook their lordship’s mutton.”
83. Describe the bed that Odysseus built with his bare hands. How did he do it?