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. ______
______
The Lotus-Eaters
1. What happens if you eat the lotus flower? ______
______
2. What does Odysseus do to save his men? ______
______
*Now answer #1-4 on page 1049
The Cyclops, p. 1050-1063
1. What is a cyclops? (see note 15 on the left) ______
______
2. How many men go with Odysseus to explore the island of Cyclopes? ______
3. Describe the Cyclops’s home. ______
______
______
4. Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is ______.
5. What does Odysseus do with the olive tree trunk? ______
______
6. Why does Odysseus call himself “Nohbdy”? ______
______
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? ______
______
10. Why does Odysseus yell at Polyphemus and reveal his true identity? ______
11. What does Polyphemus do in response? ______
______
*Now answer #1-3, & 7 on page 1069
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? ______
______
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? ______
______
______
11. How does he predict Odysseus will die? ______
*Now answer #4-6 on page 1069
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? ______
______
3. How do the men face and overcome the Sirens’ song? ______
______
4. What is Charybdis? ______
Draw a picture.
5. What is Scylla? ______
Draw a picture.
6. What choice must Odysseus make? ______
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)? ______
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) ______
______
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
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? ______
______
9. What does Odysseus look like when Athena transforms him in front of his son? ______
10. What does Odysseus tell Telemachus to do in lines 1136-1138? ______
______
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? ______
______
4. Summarize Penelope’s trick of the weaving on her loom. ______
______
______
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? ______
______
2. How does Odysseus prove his true identity?______
______
3. Who does Odysseus kill first and why? ______
______
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? ______
______
8. What was special about Penelope and Odysseus’ bed? ______
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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.