Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________
The Odyssey Study Guide
Part 1: The Adventures of Odysseus
The Invocation, p. 1045
1. Whom does Homer ask for help in telling his tale? _______________________________
2. What is a muse? _________________________________________________________________________
Calypso (Holt textbook handout, p. 752-754)
3. How long has Odysseus been gone? _________________________________
4. What is Odysseus doing when we first meet him? ________________________________
5. Which god is most against Odysseus? __________________________________
6. Which goddess helps Odysseus? _________________________________
7. Which god is sent to tell Calypso to release Odysseus? _______________________________
8. Where does Odysseus go after leaving Calypso? _________________________________
Sailing from Troy, p. 1047-1049
1. Who is the king of Phaeacia? ___________________________________
2. What does he offer to Odysseus to help him return home? __________________________________
3. Who is Odysseus’s father? ________________________________
4. What is the name of Odysseus’s home and kingdom? ________________________________________
5. Where did Odysseus go first after leaving Troy? (line 42) _____________________________________
6. Summarize what happened there. __________________________________________________________
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The Lotus-Eaters
1. What happens if you eat the lotus flower? ____________________________________________________
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2. What does Odysseus do to save his men? ____________________________________________________
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*Now answer #1-4 on page 1049
Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________
The Cyclops, p. 1050-1063
1. What is a cyclops? (see note 15 on the left) ___________________________________________________
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2. How many men go with Odysseus to explore the island of Cyclopes? _______________
3. Describe the Cyclops’s home. ______________________________________________________________
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4. Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is __________________________________.
5. What does Odysseus do with the olive tree trunk? _____________________________________________
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6. Why does Odysseus call himself “Nohbdy”? ___________________________________________________
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7. What is the Cyclops’s name? _____________________________________
8. Who is the father of the Cyclopes? _______________________________
9. How do Odysseus and his men escape from the Cyclops? ________________________________________
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10. Why does Odysseus yell at Polyphemus and reveal his true identity? __________________________
11. What does Polyphemus do in response? _____________________________________________________
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*Now answer #1-3, & 7 on page 1069
Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________
Circe (Holt textbook handout, p. 773-775)
1. Who is Aeolus? ______________________________________________
2. What does Aeolus give Odysseus to help him on his journey home? __________________________
3. What are the Laestrygonians? ______________________________________________________________
4. What do they do to Odysseus’s fleet of ships? ___________________________________________________
5. Where does Circe live? __________________________
6. What does Circe turn Odysseus’s men into? _________________________
7. Who gives Odysseus a magical plant to protect him from Circe? _______________________________
8. How long do Odysseus and his men stay with Circe? ________________________________
The Land of the Dead, p. 1064-1069
1. Whom does Odysseus seek in the Underworld? ________________________________
2. What is a shade? ________________________________________________________________
3. Whose shade does Odysseus encounter first? __________________________________
4. How did he die? _________________________________________________________________________
5. Who does he reveal is still alive in Ithaca?
a. ________________________ b. _________________________ c. _________________________
6. What does Elpenor’s shade ask Odysseus to do? Why? _________________________________________
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7. Whose shade does Odysseus see in line 614? __________________________________________________
8. Where does Helios keep his cattle? ______________________________________
9. If they harm the cows, what does Tiresias say will happen to Odysseus and his men? (line 645)
“_____________________________________________________________________________________”
10. What does Tiresias tell Odysseus to do when he finally reaches home? _______________________
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11. How does he predict Odysseus will die? ______________________________________________________
*Now answer #4-6 on page 1069
Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________
Circe (again), (Holt textbook handout, p. 778-779)
The Sirens, p.1071-1073
1. Circe warns Odysseus about:
a. ______________________________, who lure sailors to their destruction
b. ____________________________________, sea rocks that destroy even birds in flight
c. The sea monster _______________________________
d. The whirlpool ___________________________________
e. _________________________________________, which Tiresias has warned Odysseus not to harm
2. What are the Sirens? _____________________________________________________________________
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3. How do the men face and overcome the Sirens’ song? __________________________________________
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4. What is Charybdis? _______________________________________________________________________
Draw a picture.
5. What is Scylla? __________________________________________________________________________
Draw a picture.
6. What choice must Odysseus make? _________________________________________________________
Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________
Scylla and Charybdis, p. 1073-1076
1. Who does Odysseus ask for help in line 776? ____________________________
2. Which monster do the men see and hear first? _____________________________________
3. What happens as the ship passes between “a rock and a hard place” (Scylla and Charybdis)?
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The Cattle of the Sun God, p. 1076-1082
1. Odysseus tells his men that the cows belong to ______________________________.
2. How long were Odysseus and his crew stuck on Thrinacia? ____________________________________
3. What happens when Odysseus prays to the gods for help? (lines 854-862) ___________________
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4. Who convinces the men to disobey Odysseus? __________________________________________
5. Who tells Helios what they have done? (line 903) _______________________________________
6. What is Helios’s threat to the gods? ____________________________________________________________
7. What tool does Zeus use to punish the crew? _____________________________________________________
8. What happens to Odysseus’s men? _______________________________________________________
9. Odysseus survives Scylla & Charybdis a second time with the help of ______________________ (line 987)
10. Where does Odysseus swim to? __________________________, home of _________________________.
*Now answer #1-4 on page 1082
Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________
The Odyssey Study Guide
Part 2: The Return of Odysseus
“Twenty years gone, and I am back again…” p. 1090-1096
1. Odysseus has finished telling his story to the ___________________________________________.
2. They help him return home with their ___________________________.
3. How long has Odysseus been away from home? ___________________________________
4. Suitors have been trying to marry Odysseus’s wife _____________________________________.
5. They also plan to murder his son ___________________________________________.
6. Where does Telemachus go in search of news of his father? ____________________________________
7. Who is Odysseus’s faithful swineherd? _____________________________
8. How does Athena protect Odysseus from the suitors? __________________________________________
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9. What does Odysseus look like when Athena transforms him in front of his son? ______________________
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10. What does Odysseus tell Telemachus to do in lines 1136-1138? _______________________________
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____________
Argus, p. 1096-1097
11. What happens when Odysseus sees his dog? _______________________________________________
The Suitors, p. 1097-1100
1. Who hits the disguised Odysseus with a stool? ________________________________________
2. Who asks to speak to the beggar that night? __________________________________________
Penelope, p. 1100-1103
3. What does Penelope want to know about the beggar? _________________________________________
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4. Summarize Penelope’s trick of the weaving on her loom. _______________________________________
Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________
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5. How long does she get away with the trick? __________________________________
6. The disguised Odysseus tells Penelope that her husband is ______________________________ and
_______________________________________________________________.
The Challenge, p. 1103-1105
7. What impossible task does Penelope propose for the suitors?
a. _________________________________________________________________
b. _________________________________________________________________
8. What is the prize for completing the task?
_______________________________________________
9. Who completes the task? ____________________________________
*Now answer #1-4 on page 1105
Odysseus’ Revenge, p. 1107-1111
1. Whom does Odysseus trust to help him defeat the suitors? __________________________________
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2. How does Odysseus prove his true identity?________________________________________________
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3. Who does Odysseus kill first and why? ____________________________________________________
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4. What sign shows Athena is helping Odysseus win? _________________________________________
5. What happens to the disloyal maids? _____________________________________________________
Penelope’s Test, p. 1111-1114
6. How does Athena help Odysseus win over Penelope? _______________________________________
7. How does Odysseus prove his identity to Penelope? ____________________________________________
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8. What was special about Penelope and Odysseus’ bed? __________________________________________
Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________
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The Ending, p. 1114 & graphic novel handout
1. Odysseus goes to visit ________________________________________________.
2. The families of the murdered suitors want revenge, but ___________________________ stops them.