The Odyssey
A Review Game
Gods, Goddesses, and
Mortals,
Oh My!
100
Odysseus stays
with
her for seven years
100
Calypso
200
He raises a storm to
destroy Odysseus’
raft when he sails
from Calypso’s
island
200
Poseidon
300
The goddess of
wisdom;
she favors Odysseus
300
Athena
400
The king of the gods; he
sends down a thunderbolt
which destroys Odysseus’
remaining ship and causes
his crew to drown
400
Zeus
500
She turns Odysseus’
men into pigs
500
Circe
Cite That Epic
Characteristic
100
A character’s
background or
family tree is listed
100
Catalog
200
A character brags
about
his past to gain
respect
200
Boasting
300
The gods and
goddesses
get involved in
human affairs
300
Divine Intervention
400
The present is
interrupted to go
back and tell about
something that
happened earlier
400
Flashback
500
The social code of
taking
care of guests and
warriors
500
Hospitality Code
Is It a Bird or a
Plane?
No, It’s Odysseus!
100
“‘My name is Nohbdy:
mother,
father, and
friends, / everyone
calls me Nohbdy.’”
100
Intelligence
200
“I drove them, all three wailing,
to the ships, / tied them down
under their rowing benches, /
and called the rest: ‘All hands
aboard; / come, clear the beach
and no one taste / the Lotus, or
you will lose your hope of
home.’”
200
Leadership
300
“. . . Though I have been detained
long by Calypso, / loveliest among
goddesses, who held me / in her
smooth caves, to be her heart’s
delight, / as Circe of Aeaea, the
enchantress, / desired me, and
detained me in her hall. / But in my
heart I never gave consent.”
300
Loyalty
400
“‘Cyclops, try some
wine. /
Here’s liquor to wash
down your scraps of
men.’”
400
Intelligence
500
“Now I / chopped out a six-foot
section of this pole / and set it
down before my men, who
scraped it; / and when they had
it smooth, I hewed it
again / to make a stake with
a pointed end.”
500
Battle Skills
Relate That Quote
to an Epic
Characteristic
100
“‘I am Laertes’ son,
Odysseus.’”
100
Catalog
200
Odysseus goes to
the underworld to
talk to the blind
prophet, Teiresias
200
Visit to Hades
300
“On thrones she seated them, and lounging
chairs, / while she prepared a meal of cheese
and barley / and amber honey mixed with
Pramnian wine, / adding her own vile pinch,
to make them lose / desire or thought of our
dear fatherland. / Scarce had they drunk
when she flew after them / with her long
stick and shut them in a pigsty -- / bodies,
voices, heads, and bristles, all / swinish
now, though minds were still unchanged.”
300
Divine Intervention
400
“Sing in me, Muse, and
through me tell the story /
of that man skilled in all
ways of contending, / the
wanderer, harried for years
on end, / after he plundered
the stronghold / on the
proud height of Troy.”
400
Call to the Muse
500
While Odysseus is at
the Land of the
Phaeacians, he recalls his
wanderings and tells
Alcinous what happened
to him after he left Troy
500
Flashback
Potpourri
100
Wife of Odysseus
100
Penelope
200
“‘Friends, / have we never been
in danger before this? / More
fearsome, is it now, than when
the Cyclops / penned us in his
cave? What power he had! / Did I
not keep my nerve, and use my
wits to find a way out for us? / .
. . / Heads up, lads! / We must
obey the orders as I give them!’”
200
Leadership
300
“‘Cyclops, eater of
guests’”
300
Epithet
400
These giant cannibals
destroy 11 of Odysseus’
ships
400
Laestrygonians
500
He is the king in charge
of the winds; he places
the stormy winds in a
bag so Odysseus can sail
back to Ithaca
500
King Aeolus
The Bold, the
Brave, and the
Boastful
200
Odysseus is tied to
the mast so he can
hear their song
200
The Sirens
400
This king takes
Odysseus in as a
stranger, and Odysseus
tells him about his
travels
400
Alcinous
600
Odysseus is warned
not to harm his
cattle
600
Helios
800
These characters get
three of Odysseus’
men to eat a flower
that makes them
forget about their
homeland
800
The Lotus Eaters
1000
Odysseus lost 72 of his
men to this powerful
army
1000
Cicones
Epic
Characteristic
Definitions
200
The character takes
a trip to the
Underworld
200
Visit to Hades
400
At the beginning of
the epic when the
poet asks for divine
inspiration in
telling his story
400
Call to the Muse
600
The action of the
epic begins in the
middle
600
In Medias Res
800
A phrase that
describes or
renames a person
800
Epithet
1000
An overused,
descriptive phrase
repeated in the
epic; helps the poet
memorize his work
1000
Stock Phrase
I Know My Epic
Characteristics
200
The story begins with
Telemachus going off
in search of his father
who never returned
from the Trojan War
200
In Medias Res
400
“When the young
Dawn with
fingertips of rose /
lit up the world.”
400
Stock Phrase
600
“‘Cyclops, / if ever mortal
man inquire / how you
were put to shame and
blinded, tell him, /
Odysseus, raider of cities,
took your eye: Laertes’
son, whose home’s on
Ithaca!’”
600
Boasting
Epithet
Catalog
800
“‘It was our luck to
come here; here we
stand, / beholden for
your help, or any gifts /
you give—as custom is to
honor strangers.’”
800
Hospitality Code
1000
“‘Odysseus, master
of landways and
seaways’”
1000
Epithet
It Could Be Anything
200
This monster has 12
tentacle-like legs, six
heads on serpent-like
necks, and triple, razorsharp fangs; kills six of
Odysseus’ men
200
Scylla
400
“When Dawn spread
out her fingertips of
rose”
400
Stock Phrase
600
This character is
suspicious of Circe and
doesn’t enter her
cottage
600
Eurylochus
800
“Meanwhile, I crouched
with my drawn sword
to keep / the surging
phantoms from the
bloody pit / till I should
know the presence of
Teiresias.”
800
Bravery
1000
This monster swallows
sea water, causing a
dangerous whirlpool
1000
Charybdis