1. Why Does Telemakhos Call the Men to Assembly?

Odyssey Study questions Books 1-6

1. Why does Telemakhos call the men to assembly?

2. . How has Penelope managed to hold off the suitors' demands for the past four years?

3. What sign does Zeus send to the assembly, and what is its meaning?

4. Why had Odysseus not yet returned home from the Trojan War?

5. What words are used to describe the suitors?

6. Athena tells Telémakhos to seek information about his father, Odysseus, from which men?

7. Which god or goddess brings a message from Zeus to Kalypso?

8. What help does Ino give to Odysseus?

9. Who discovers Odysseus on the shore?

10. Why doesn't his benefactor bring Odysseus to the palace in person?

11. What is being celebrated in Menelaus’ palace when Telemachus arrives?

12. Who first recognizes Telemachus in Sparta?

13. How does Helen stop everyone from crying?

14. What foreshadowing takes place in Helen’s story?

15. How does Menelaus present Helen in the tale of the Trojan Horse?

16. How does Menelaus what happened to Odysseus?

17. Why does Telemachus refuse Menelaus’s gift of horses?

18. How do the suitors react when they learn of Telemachus’ voyage?

19.Who used to be the Phaeaceans’ neighbors?

20. Why does Nausikaa decide to wash the palace laundry?

21. What is she too embarrassed to mention to her father?

22. What makes the dance performed by the Phaeacean women unique?

23. What wakes Odysseus up?

24. How do the handmaidens reaction to Odysseus appearance? How does Nausikaa?

25. What decision must Odysseus make concerning his approach to Nausikaa?

26. What is the main reason that Odysseus appears godlike to the Phaeacean ladies?

27. What is the name of the first kingdom that Telemachus visits?

28. What is Nestor’s family celebrating when Telemachus arrives at their city?

29. When did Nestor and Odysseus part company?

30. Where was Menelaus when Agamemnon was assassinated?

31. What was Orestes doing Menelaus finally returned to Greece?

32. Who does Nestor suggest that Telemachus visit?

33. How does Athene take her leave of Telemachus and Nestor, and how does Nestor react to this?

34. What occurs in the morning before Telemachus continues on his journey?

What are the two reasons that Telemachus calls the Ithacans to meet in an assembly?
Who are Telemachus’s two most biggest advocates in the assembly?
What is the main way that Penelope stalls the suitors?
What is the sign read by Halitherses during the assembly and how does he interpret it?
What two personae does Athena assume in the book?
How does Telemachus manage to acquire a ship and crew?
Why does Eurycleia protest against Telemachus’s proposed journey and what promise does he exact from her?
What ritual do the sailors engage in once their ship is at sea and why?
Where is Odysseus physically located when the poem begins?
Which of the Greek gods hates Odysseus and what did he do to make this god hate him?
Who does Athena disguise herself when she visits Telemachus?
Who are the main suitors in Odysseus’s house?
Why does Phemius’ song bother Penelope?
What is the name of Odysseus’s father and where is he when the poem begins?
What is the name of Odysseus’s son and where is he when the poem begins?
What is Eurycleia’s association with both Odysseus and Telemachus?
Why are the suitors not worried even if Odysseus does return?

Identify the speaker

“Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.”

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy

Who is speaking?
Who is the man of twists and turns?
“And you, my friend- how tall and handsome I see you now- be brave, you too, so men to come will sing your praises down the years.”
“So, mother, go back to your quarters. Tend to your own tasks, the distaff and the loom, and keep the women working hard as well. As for giving orders, men will see to that, but most of all: I hold the reins of power in this house.”
“It is not the suitors here who deserve the blame, it is your own dear mother, the matching queen of cunning.”
Who is the matching queen of cunning?
“Gladly, my boy, I’ll tell you the story first to last…Right you are, you guess what would have happened if red-haired Menelaus, arriving back from Troy, had found Aegisthus alive in Agamemnon’s palace.”
“It was Zeus who made me come, no choice of mine…But there is no way, you know, for another god to thwart the will of storming Zeus and make it come to nothing. Zeus claims you keep beside you a most unlucky man...”
“Farewell! But if you knew, down deep, what pains are fated to fill your cup before you reach that shore, you’d stay right here, preside me in our house with me and immortal.”
“Phaeacians we are, who hold this city and this land, and I am the daughter of King Alcinous.”
“And still, much as I weep for all my men, grieving sorely, time and again, sitting here in the royal halls, now indulging myself in tears, now brushing tears away”

Epithets