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Name:
Mrs. Sahaydak
English 101, Period:
Date:
Short Answer Study Guide Questions for The Odyssey
A Resource for The Odyssey: http:www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/chapman/
Introduction:
1. What are the characteristics of an epic?
Characteristics of an epic include:
A.
B.
C.
D.
2. Considering his plan to win the Trojan War, do you find Odysseus heroic, or do you think he is
deceitful and treacherous? Why do you feel this way? Explain.
3. How is The Odyssey divided?
The epic can be divided into four major sections:
 Books 1 Books
 Books
 Books
-24=
4. Who is the Odyssey’s accepted author?
5. What is the primary setting of the Iliad?
6. How is the Iliad related to the Odyssey?
7. Where is Odysseus’ home?
8. Define a Homeric simile. (Look in the introductory part of the Odyssey in your textbook.)
9. During the time just before they began the Trojan war, Menelaus and Agamemnon gathered an army
of 1,000 ships. They needed Odysseus’ cunning nature to help them in battle, so they sent a men to
fetch him. Odysseus didn’t want to go to war. He was married to Penelope, who had just given birth
to his son, Telemachus. What did Odysseus do to try to “dodge” going to war with the men?
10. Why didn’t Odysseus’ ploy work?
11. To make up for his deception, Agamemnon sent Odysseus searching for someone else who didn’t
show up to go to war with Troy. Who was it and how did Odysseus find him?
12. What are “myths”?
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13. A god or goddess can be a character’s alter ego. Athena and Poseidon are the goddess and god most
directly associated with Odysseus. How do they represent his alter ego?
14. Why does Telemachus call the men to assembly before he goes on his trip to find his father?
15. Why did Agamemnon’s unfaithful wife Clytemnestra have him killed when he arrived home from the
war at Troy?
16. The gods and goddesses decided to forgive Orestes for killing his father because he was truly sorry for
his deeds. To make up for it, the gods had Orestes go back and murder his mother and her lover.
Then, he was given a job. What was his special job and what does it have to do with his name?
TELL THE STORY
17. The Odyssey. As well as the Iliad, begins with an epic convention—the poet’s prayer to Calliope, the
Muse of epic poetry. What does the poet ask of the Muse? “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.”
18. How does the poet stress a moral them in the lines, “But not by will nor valor could he save them, for
their own recklessness destroyed them all—“ (10-11)?
19. How would you describe the speaker’s manner and attitude in addressing the Muse? “Of these
adventures, Muse, daughter of Zeus, tell us in our time, lift the great song again.” (lines 16-17)
20. Why does Odysseus not return home with his fellow Greeks? “Begin when all the rest who left behind
them/Headlong death in battle or at sea/Had long ago returned, while he alone still hungered/For home
and wife. Her ladyship Calypso/Clung to him in her sea-hollowed caves—/
A nymph, immortal and most beautiful,/Who craved him for her own.”
21. What does Homer tell you about the hero and about what is going to happen to him?
PART ONE: THE WANDERINGS
“I AM LAERTES’ SON…”
22. Why does Odysseus not give his name before the minstrel plays?
23. Do you think Odysseus may be reluctant to identify himself in the home of the Phaecians, who are
sailors and thus worshippers of Poseidon? Why or why not?
24. What does Phaeacia represent?
25. Why do you think Homer has Odysseus recount his own story?
26. How does Homer cast Odysseus in the role of a singer of tales?
27. What impression do you get about Odysseus from the following passage? (lines 34-36) Men hold
me/Formidable for guile in peace and war:/This fame has gone abroad to the sky’s rim.”
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28. What is the epithet or descriptive phrase that names someone found in line 48, “…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.” ?
29. How does Odysseus express one of the main themes of the poem in the passage in lines 51-53? “But
in my heart I never gave consent/Where shall a man find sweetness to surpass/His own home and his
parents? In far lands/He shall not, though he find a house of gold.”
30. What is compared in the simile in lines 69-71? “This was an army, trained to fight on horseback/or,
where the ground required, on foot. They came/with dawn over that terrain like the leaves and blades
of spring. So doom appeared to us,”
31. What time do you think is “unyoking time”? “but when the sun passed toward unyoking time,” (line
77) What does the phrase tell you about the way the people of the era tell time?
32. Which part of the poet’s description of dawn tells you that the event is personified? What is the
resulting image? (line 95) “then two long days and nights we lay offshore/worn out and sick at heart,
tasting our grief, until a third Dawn came with ringlets shining.”
33. Do armies go into towns and cities and take things as well as rape and pillage in modern times?
34. What is Zeus’ command to Calypso?
35. Which god/dess brings Zeus’ command to Calypso?
THE LOTUS EATERS
36. What can you conclude about Odysseus’ character from him sending his men to investigate the
unknown island?
37. What is the effect of eating the lotus flower?
38. Why does Odysseus tie his men under the rowing benches?
THE CYCLOPS
39. How does the Cyclops’ Island contrast with the order and perfect society in Phaeacia where Odysseus
is telling his tale?
40. Why do you think Odysseus and his men burn an offering for the gods? “We lit a fire, burnt an
offering,/and took some cheese to eat; then sat in silence/around the embers, waiting…”
41. Why does Odysseus lead his men into Polyphemos’ cave?
42. What happens when Polyphemos finds Odysseus and his men in the cave?
43. If Poseidon is Odysseus’s alter ego, and Cyclops is Poseidon’s son, why should it be expected that the
Cyclops have a barbaric nature?
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44. How does the poet make something unbelievable, such as the great size of the rock he used to close
the cave, conceivable to the reader? (lines 137-140) “…Two dozen four-wheeled wagons,/with
heaving wagon teams, could not have stirred/the tonnage of that rock from where he wedged it/over
the doorsill. Next he took his seat”
45. What details indicate the Cyclops’s personality under his brute strength? (lines 141-149)
“…Next he took his seat/and milked his bleating ewes. A practiced job/he made of it, giving each
ewe her suckling;/thickened his milk, then, into curds and whey,/sieved out the curds to drip in
withy baskets,/and poured the whey to stand in bowls cooling until he drank it for his
supper./When all these chores were done, he poked the fire,/heaping on brushwood. In the glare
he saw us./ ‘Strangers,’ he said, ‘who are you? And where from?...’”
46. What is ironic about the Cyclops’s comment about “traffic”? (line 150—see above question for line
149 leading up to it.) “’…What brings you here by seaways—a fair traffic?/Or are you wandering
rogues, who cast your lives/like dice, and ravage other folk by sea?’”
47. Why is it such a big deal that Cyclops is treating his guests badly? (lines 163-168) “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./We would entreat you, great Sir, have a care for the gods’ courtesy; Zeus will avenge/ the
unoffending guest.”
48. How does Odysseus’ narration where he gives an “aside” to his audience give the reader insight into
the events he recounts? (lines 178-179) “He thought he’d find out, but I saw through this,/ and
answered with a ready lie:”
49. Why does Odysseus tell the lie to Polyphemus about the ship? (lines 179-183—see above question for
lines before this.) “…’My ship?/Poseidon Lord, who sets the earth atremble,/broke it up on the rocks
at your land’s end./A wind from seaward served him, drove us there./We are survivors, these good
men and I.’”
50. What does the image of the men “lifting (their) hands to Zeus” suggest about their situation? (191)
“…Then he dismembered them and made his meal,/gaping and crunching like a mountain lion-/everything; innards, flesh, and marrow bones./We cried aloud, lifting our hands to Zeus,”
51. What do you learn about the Cyclops from the simile in lines 211-213? “…Then, his chores being all
dispatched, he caught/another brace of men to make his breakfast,/and whisked away his great door
slab/to let his sheep go through—but he, behind, reset the stone as one would cap a quiver.”
52. Why does Odysseus pray to Athena? (215-216) “And now I pondered how to hurt him worst,/if but
Athena granted what I prayed for.”
53. Why do you think Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is Nohbdy? (265-268) “…’Cyclops,/You
ask my honorable name? Remember/the gift you promised me, and I shall tell you./My name is
Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends,/everyone calls me Nohbdy.’”
54. What is ironic about the Cyclops’s saying he will eat Nohbdy last? (268-270) “…And he
said:/’Nohbdy’s my meat, then, after I eat his friends./Others come first. There’s a noble gift, now.’”
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55. What in your experience compares to Odysseus’ “battle talk”? (275-278) “Now, by the gods, I drove
my big hand spike/deep in the embers, charring it again,/and cheered my men along with battle talk/to
keep their courage up: no quitting now.”
56. What are some examples of irony in lines 304 ½ - 314? “….What ails you,/Polyphemus? Why do
you cry so sore/In the starry night? You will not let us sleep./Sure no man’s driving off your flock?
No man/Has tricked you, ruined you?/…Out of the cave/The mammoth Polyphemus roared in
answer:/‘Nohbdy, Nohbdy’s tricked me. Nohbdy’s ruined me!’/To this rough shout they made a sage
reply:/‘Ah well, if nobody has played you foul/There in your lonely bed, we are no use in pain/ given
by great Zeus. Let it be your father,/Poseidon Lord, to whom you pray.’”
57. What steps does Odysseus take to prepare for escape? (329-339) “…Three abreast/I tied them silently
together, twining/cords of willow from the ogre’s bed;/then slung a man under each middle one/to ride
there safely, shielded left and right./So three sheep cold convey each man. I took/the woolliest ram,
the choicest of the flock,/and hung myself under his kinky belly,/pulled up tight, with fingers twisted
deep/in sheepskin ringlets for an iron grip./So, breathing hard, we waited until morning.”
58. What does the double negative of “Nohbdy will not get out alive” literally mean? (361) “Nohbdy will
not get out alive, I swear.”
59. What does the image in lines 396-398 reveal about the rowers’ pace? “…row, row or perish. So the
long oars bent/kicking the foam sternward, making head/until we drew away, and twice as far.”
60. What are the men’s reasons for not wanting Odysseus to call out to the Cyclops? (400-406)
“…’Godsake, Captain!/Why bait the beast again? Let him alone!’/’That tidal wave he made on the
first throw/all but beached us.’…’All but stove us in!’/’Give him our bearing with your
trumpeting,/he’ll get the range and lob a boulder.’ ‘…Aye/He’ll smash our timbers and our heads
together!’”
61. Why does Odysseus reveal his name to Polyphemus after he has escaped? (408-412) “...’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!”
62. Who is the god of earthquakes of whom the Cyclops speaks? (424-429) “Come back, Odysseus, and
I’ll treat you well,/praying the god of earthquake to befriend you--/his son I am, for he by his
avowal/fathered me, and , if he will, he may/hearl me of this black wound—he and no other/of all the
happy gods or mortal men.’”
63. Why does the Cyclops refer to Poseidon as “blue girdler of the islands”? (436) “’Oh, hear me, lord,
blue girdler of the islands,/if I am thine indeed, and thou art father:/grant that Odysseus, raider of
cities, never/see his home: Laertes’ son, I mean,…”
64. What do you think the Cyclops’s curse foreshadows for Odysseus and his men? (438-445 – See lines
436-438 in above question) “who kept his hall on Ithaca. Should destiny/intend that he shall see his
roof again/among his family in his fatherland,/far be that day, and dark the years between./Let him
lose all companions, and return/under strange sail to bitter days at home.’”
AEOLUS
65. What natural phenomenon is controlled by Aeolus?
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66. How does Aeolus show his goodwill when Odysseus is about to leave?
67. How does the summary about the bag of winds relate to Homer’s description of Odysseus’
wanderings in the prayer at the beginning of the poem?
68. Should Odysseus have told the sailors what was in the bull’s-hide bag?
69. Odysseus and his men come within sight of Ithaca. Why do they not land?
70. Odysseus asks for further help from Aeolus. What is his reply?
THE LAESTRYGONIANS
71. Who were the Laestrygonians?
72. Briefly explain what happened to Odysseus’ men who encountered the Laestrygonians and what
Odysseus did there.
THE WITCH CIRCE
73. One legend says that Circe and Odysseus were the parents of Telegonus. This legend says that years
after the events of the Odyssey Telegonus searched for his father. What happened when he happened
upon Odysseus unknowingly?
74. How does the Witch Circe episode parallel the episode of the Lotus Eaters in Book 9? (472-476) “On
thrones she seated them, and lounging chairs,/while she prepared a meal of cheese and barley/and
amber hone mixed with Pramnian wine,/adding her own vile pinch, to make them lose/desire or
thought of our dear fatherland.”
75. What has happened to the men? (477-483) “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./So, squealing, in they went. And Circe tossed them/acorns, mast, and
cornel berries—fodder/for hogs who rut and slumber on the earth.”
76. What have the men done to deserve the fate Circe gives them?
77. How did Circe, violate the laws of hospitality?
78. Who is Persephone? “the cold homes of Death and pale Persephone,”
79. How is Odysseus able to resist Circe’s magic?
80. How is Odysseus able to free his men?
81. How long do Odysseus and his men stay with Circe?
82. Who must Odysseus see in order to learn the way home? Where is this man?
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THE LAND OF THE DEAD
83. What does Odysseus do to call the souls of the dead to him? (491-513) “’Then I addressed the blurred
and breathless dead,/vowing to slaughter my best heifer for them/before she calved, at home in
Ithaca,/and burn the choice bits on the altar fire;/as for Tiresias, I swore to sacrifice/a black lamb,
handsomest of all our flock./Thus to assuage the nations of the dead/I pledged these rites, then slashed
the lamb and ewe,/letting their black blood stream into the well pit./Now the souls gathered, stirring
out of Erebus,/brides and young men, and men grown old in pain,/ and tender girls whose hearts were
new to grief;/many were there, too, torn by brazen lance heads,/ battle-slain, bearing still their bloody
gear./From every side they came and sought the pit/with rustling cries; and I grew sick with fear./But
presently I gave command to my officers to flay those sheep the bronze cut down, and make burnt
offerings of flesh to the gods below--/to sovereign Death, to pale Persephone./Meanwhile I crouched
with my drawn sword to keep/ the surging phantoms from the bloody pit/ ‘til I should know the
presence of Tiresias…”
84. In portions of Book 11 not included in your text book, Odysseus encounters several other characters in
the Land of the Dead. Name some of them and explain their situations.
85. What is Odysseus’ mother’s name?
86. How does Odysseus’ mother die?
87. Why does Odysseus not let his mother come near the blood?
88. In lines 525-527, what is it that Tiresias’ states that Odysseus’ seeks? “…Great captain,/a fair wind
and the honey lights of home/are all you seek. But anguish lies ahead;/the god who thunders on the
land prepares it,/not to be shaken from your track, implacable,/in rancor for the son whose eye you
blinded.”
89. What does Tiresias say would cause Odysseus and his men destruction? (533-539) “When you make
landfall on Thrinakia first/and quit the violet sea, dark on the land/you’ll find the grazing herds of
Helios/by whom all things are seen, all speech is known./Avoid those kind, hold fast to your
intent,/and hard seafaring brings you all to Ithaca./But if you raid the beeves, I see destruction/for ship
and crew…”
90. What does Tiresias predict for Odysseus?(540-544) “…Though you survive alone, bereft of all
companions, lost for years,/ under strange sail shall you come home, to find/your own house filled
with trouble: insolent men/eating your livestock as they court your lady.”
91. What should Odysseus do to the suitors at his house? (545-546) “Aye, you shall make those men
atone in blood!/But after you have dealt out death—in open/combat or by stealth—to all the suitors,”
92. What does Tiresias say Odysseus should do after dealing with the suitors? (548-565) “…go overland
on foot, and take an oar,/until one day you come where men have lived/with meat unsalted, never
known the sea,/nor seen seagoing ships, wit crimson bows/and oars that fledge light hulls for dippin’
flight./The spot will soon be plain to you, and I/can tell you how some passer-by will say,/ ‘What
winnowing fan is that upon your shoulder?’/Halt, and implant your smooth oar in the turf/and make
fair sacrifice to Lord Poseidon:/a ram, a bull, a great buck boar; turn back,/and carry out pure
hecatombs at home/to all wide heaven’s lords, the undying gods,/to each in order. Then a seaborne
death/soft as this hand of mist will come upon you/when you are wearied out with rich old age,/your
country folk in blessed peace around you./And all this shall be just as I foretell.”
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THE SIRENS, SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS
93. How do the Sirens destroy men, and how do Odysseus and his men avoid destruction?
94. What do the critics say that the Sirens represent?
95. Why do you think Odysseus was determined to listen to the Sirens’ song? (Keep in mind what the
Sirens are supposed to represent). (579-585) “…But if you wish to listen,/let the men tie you in the
lugger, hand/ and foot, back to the mast, lashed to the mast,/so you may hear those Harpies’ thrilling
voices;/shout as you will, begging to be untied,/your crew must only twist the more line around
you/and keep their stroke up, ‘til the singers fade…”
96. One myth states that because Poseidon loved the maiden Scylla, his wife Amphitrite turned her into a
monster of the sea by doing what?
97. Why should sailors beware of Scylla? (Describe her) (589-601) “…That is the den of Scylla, where
she yaps/abominably, a new born whelp’s cry,/though she is huge and monstrous. God or man,/no
one could look on her in joy. Her legs--/and there are twelve—are like great tentacles,/unjointed, and
upon her serpent necks/are borne six heads like nightmares of ferocity,/with triple serried rows of
fangs and deep gullets of black death. Half her length, she sways/her heads in air, outside her horrid
cleft, hunting the sea around that promontory/for dolphins, dogfish, or what bigger game/thundering
Amphitrite feeds in thousands./And no ship’s company can claim to have passed her without loss and
grief; she takes,/from every ship, one man for every gullet.”
98. What do you find symbolic, in relation to time, in the numbers of the herd? (You should find
something…) (615-617) “…where Helios’ cattle graze, the fine herds, and flocks/of goodly sheep.
The herds and flocks are seven, with fifty beasts in each…”
99. Who else, besides Circe has warned Odysseus to leave Helios’s cattle alone?
100. How could the Sirens drop under the “sea rim”? (665-667) “So all rowed on until the
Sirens/dropped under the sea rim, and their singing/dwindled away…”
101. What does Odysseus’ failure to remember Circe’s warning about the uselessness of weapons
reveal about how he thinks of himself? (700-704) “They would have dropped their oars again, in
panic,/to roll for cover under the decking. Circe’s/bidding against arms had slipped my mind,/so I tied
on my cuirass and took up/two heavy spears, then made my way along/to the foredeck—thinking to
see her first from there, the monster of the gray rock, harboring/torment for my friends…”
102.
What happens to Odysseus’ companions on Thrinakia?
103.
What happens to Odysseus after Zeus intervenes with the fate of Odysseus’ men?
THE CATTLE OF THE SUN GOD
104. What warning does Odysseus issue his men upon landing? (853-858) “…’Old shipmates,/our
stores are in the ship’s hold, food and drink;/the cattle here are not for our provision,/or we pay dearly
for it. Fierce the god is/who cherishes these heifers and these sheep:/Helios; and no man avoids his
eye.’”
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105. What is Eurylochus’s “insidious plea”? (878-894) “…Now on the shore Eurylochus/made his
insidious plea:/’You’ve gone through everything; listen to what I say./All deaths are hateful to us,
mortal wretches,/but famine is the most pitiful, the worst/end that a man can come to. Will you fight
it?/Come, we’ll cut out the noblest of these cattle/for sacrifice to the gods who own the sky;/and once
at home, in the old country of Ithaca,/if ever that day comes--/we’ll build a costly temple and adorn
it/with every beauty for the Lord of Noon./But if he flares up over his heifers lost,/wishing our ship
destroyed, and if the gods/make cause with him, why, then I say: Better/open your lungs to a big sea
once for all/than waste to skin and bones on a lonely island!’”
106. In the lines of the above question, what does Eurylochus suggest as recompense or payment to
Helios for the cattle they kill?
107.
Other than hunger, might there be another reason that the men listen to Eurylochus? Why?
108. What exactly happened to cause the gods’ fury? (919-930) “Lampetia in her long gown
meanwhile/ had borne swift word to the Overlord of Noon:/’They have killed your kine.’ And the
Lord Helios/burst into angry speech amid the immortals:/’O Father Zeus and gods in bliss
forever,/punish Odysseus’ men! So overweening,/now they have killed my peaceful kine, my joy/at
morning when I climbed the sky of stars,/and evening, when I bore westward from heaven./Restitution
or penalty they shall pay--/and pay in full—or I go down forever/to light the dead men in the
underworld.’…”
109. Odysseus takes the credit when things go well. Now, when a disaster occurs, he blames the gods.
What does this reveal about his character?
PART TWO: COMING HOME
THE MEETING OF FATHER AND SON
110. Lines 949-952 compare Eumaeus’s reaction to the return of Telemachus to that of a father
welcoming his son home after ten years. What makes the comparison ironic? “Think of a man whose
dear and only son,/born to him in exile, reared with labor,/has lived ten years abroad and now
returns:/so how would that man embrace is son! Just so/ the herdsman clapped his arms around
Telemachus/and covered him with kisses—for he knew/the lad had got away from death…”
111. In Homer’s time, slaves may very well have outnumbered the citizens. What do you think Homer
is trying to say by having Odysseus make an alliance with a servant? (979-990) “’Friend, sit down;
we’ll find another chair/in our own hut, Here is the man to make one!’/The swineherd, when the quiet
man sank down,/built a new pile of evergreens and fleeces--/a couch for the dear son of great
Odysseus--/then gave them trenchers of good meat, left over/from the roast pork of yesterday, and
heaped up/willow baskets full of bread, and mixed/and ivy bowl of hone-hearted wine./Then he in
turn sat down, facing Odysseus,/their hands went out upon the meant and drink/as they fell to, ridding
themselves of hunger…”
112.
What does Telemachus think he is in the presence of when he meets Odysseus?
113. How do lines 1005-1009 express how Odysseus feels about not being there for his son’s
childhood? “The noble and enduring man replied:/’No god. Why take me for a god? No, no./I am that
father whom your boyhood lacked/and suffered pain for lack of. I am he.’/Held back too long, the
tears ran down his cheeks/as he embraced his son.”
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114. After Odysseus is transformed by Athena, Telemachus thinks that Odysseus is a god (did you get
that answer two questions above?). What does Telemachus’ response to Odysseus’ transformation
suggest about the relationship between the ancient Greeks and their gods?
115. What are Odysseus’s and Telemachus’ cries compared to during their tearful reunion? What
aspect of their reunion does this simile emphasize? (1027-1035) “…Then throwing/his arms around
this marvel of a father,/Telemachus began to weep. Salt tears/rose from the wells of longing in both
men,/and cries burst from both as keen and fluttering/as those of the great taloned hawk,/whose
nestlings farmers take before they fly./So helplessly they cried, pouring out tears,/and might have
gone on weeping so ‘til sundown…”
THE BEGGAR AND THE FAITHFUL DOG
116. Why should a great epic concern itself with an old dog?
117. In what way is the dog Argos, as he is described here (lines 759-765), similar to Odysseus and to
the kingdom of Ithaca? “Treated as rubbish now, he lay at last/upon a mass of dung before the gates-/manure of mules and cows, piled there until/field hands could spread it on the king’s
estate./Abandoned there, and half destroyed with flies,/old Argos lay…”
118.
What was Argos’s condition when Odysseus returned home?
119. What does this scene reveal to the reader about Odysseus’ character? (768-770) “And the man
looked away,/wiping a salt tear from his cheek; but he/hid this from Eumaeus….”
120. Why is this scene in lines 778-781 ironic? “…And you replied, Eumaeus:/’A hunter owned him—
but the man is dead/in some far place. If this old hound could show/the form he had when Lord
Odysseus left him,/going to Troy, you’d see him swift and strong…’”
121.
What qualities does Penelope reveal about herself in this scene?
THE TEST OF THE GREAT BOW
122. What are the suitors doing in the house?
123.
How has Penelope managed to hold off the suitors’ demands for the past four years?
124. What is the conflict that Odysseus faces in lines 841 ½ - 843? “’You, herdsman,/and you, too,
swineherd, I could say a thing to you,/or should I keep it dark?...”
125. Why does Odysseus promise the cowherd and swineherd rewards? (861-865) “So now what is in
store for you I’ll tell you:/If Zeus brings down the suitors by my hand/I promise marriages to both,
and cattle,/and houses built near mine. And you shall be/brothers-in-arms of my Telemachus.”
126.
How is Penelope’s acceptance of the beggar as a competitor for her hand ironic?
127.
What do you learn about Odysseus’ state of mind from this scene?
128. How is the suitor’s comment in line 899 ironic? “May his fortune grow an inch for every inch he
bends it!”
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129. What might the crack of thunder in lines 909-913 foreshadow? Explain. “…In the hushed hall it
smote the suitors/and all their faces changed. Then Zeus thundered/overhead, one loud crack for a
sign./And Odysseus laughed within him that the son/of crooked-minded Cronus had flung that omen
down.”
130. What does the phrase “cook their lordships’ mutton” mean? How would you express the idea?
(928-930) “”The hour has come to cook their lordships’ mutton—supper by daylight. Other
amusements later,/ with song and harping that adorn a feast.”
131.
Why will Odysseus take revenge on the suitors and maids?
132.
What does the phrase “true son of King Odysseus” imply about Telemachus?
DEATH AT THE PALACE
133. Where is the climax of the epic?
134.
What is Odysseus able to do that the suitors could not do?
135.
Why could Odysseus do this thing that the suitors could not do?
136.
After Odysseus won the contest, who was the first suitor he killed? Why?
137. What can you infer about the suitors’ state of mind from their reaction to Odysseus’ attack? (956958) “Now as they craned to see their champion where he lay/the suitors jostled in uproar down the
hall,/everyone on his feet. Wildly they turned and scanned/the walls on the long room for arms; but
not a shield,/not a good ashen spear was there for a man to take and/…throw.”
138. Foils are contrasting characters. The violent, insulting Antonius has a foil in the epic; who is it?
(980-994) “Eurymachus alone could speak. He said:/’If you are Odysseus of Ithaca come back,/all
that you say these men have done is true,/Rash actions, many here, more in the countryside,/But here
he lies, the man who caused them all./Antinous was the ringleader, he whipped us on/ to do these
things. He cared less for a marriage/than for the power Cronion has denied him/ as king of Ithaca. For
that/he tried to trap your son and would have killed him./He is dead now and has his portion.
Spare/your own people. As for ourselves, we’ll make restitution of wine and meat consumed,/and
add, each one, a tithe of twenty oxen/with gifts of bronze and gold to warm your heart./Meanwhile we
cannot blame you for your anger.’”
139.
What happens to the disloyal serving women?
140. What does this bloody scene add to the epic’s theme about the value of hospitality and about what
happens to people who mock divine laws?
ODYSSEUS AND PENELOPE
141. How does Homer portray Penelope?
142. Why does Penelope have so much trouble recognizing Odysseus? (1024-1028) “And she for a
long time, sat deathly still/in wonderment—for sometimes as she gazed/she found him—yes,
clearly—like her husband,/ but sometimes blood and rags were all she saw.”
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143. How does Penelope test Odysseus?(1076-1107) “Make up his bed for him, Eurycleia,/Place it
outside the bedchamber my lord/built with his own hands. Pile the big bed/with fleeces, rugs, and
sheets of purest linen./With this she tried him to the breaking point,/and he turned on her in a flash,
raging:/’Woman, by heaven you’ve stung me now!/Who dared to move my bed?/No builder had the
skill for that—unless/a god came down to turn the trick. No mortal/in his best days could budge it
with a crowbar./There is our pact and pledge, our secret sign,/built into that bed—my handiwork/and
no one else’s! An old trunk of olive/grew like a pillar on the building plot,/and I laid out our bedroom
round that tree,/lined up the stone walls, built the walls and roof,/gave it a doorway and smooth-fitting
doors./Then I lopped off the silvery leaves and branches, hewed and shaped the stump from the roots
up/into a bedpost, drilled it, lit it serve/as a model for the rest, I planned them all,/ inlaid them all with
silver, gold and ivory,/and stretched a bed between—a pliant web/of ox hide thongs dyed crimson.
There’s our sign!/I know no more. Could someone else’s hand/ have sawn that trunk and dragged the
frame away?’/Their secret! As she heard it told, her knees grew tremulous and weak, her heart failed
her./With eyes brimming tears she ran to him,/throwing her arms around his neck, and kissed him,…”
144. Explain the process by which Odysseus builds the bed. (1089-1099) See above question for the
lines involved in this question.
145.
In what other episode was the olive tree significant? Why is each use a symbol of?
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