Homer's Odyssey

Question 1

who are the main characters in the Odyssey?

Answer 1

• Odysseus
• Calypso (sea nymph, keeps Odysseus captive for 7 years)
• Circe (sorceress, daughter of Helios, Odysseus stays w/ her for 1 year)
• sirens: Scylla (6-headed beast) & Charybdis (whirlpool)
• Telemachus (Odysseus’ son)
• Polyphemus (cyclops)

Circe & Odysseus were lovers, Calypso loved him (one sided)

Question 2

what were the main plot points & chronology of the Odyssey?

Answer 2

• Books 1-4: Telemachus asks about his dad while suitors try to court his mother Penelope
• Books 5-8: Odysseus leaves Calypso & gets shipwrecked on Scheria (land of the Phaeacians)
• Books 9-12: Odysseus recounts his fantastic travels to Phaeacians (lotus eaters, Polyphemus, Laestrygonians [cannibals], Circe, Underworld, Sirens, Cattle of Helios)
• Books 13-24: Odysseus returns home, infiltrates his palace in disguise, & reclaims throne after slaughtering suitors

Question 3

what main themes of the course are reflected in the Odyssey?

Answer 3

• [prototype] quest story (hero must overcome obstacles to return home)
• allegory (Odysseus’ metaphorical death & rebirth; comes back from the Underworld w/ new knowledge)
• mappable journey (cf. Apollonius’ Argonautica)
• Scheria as utopia (palace w/ self-maintaining walls [no need for defence], magical garden w/ year-round harvest, self-piloting ships)

Odyessus comes back from the Underworld w/ new knowledge

Question 4

what is the literary/historical/mythological context of the Odyssey?

Answer 4

• part of Homer’s epic cycle
• sequal to the Iliad
• composed ca. 8th c. BCE (Archaic Greece)
• set during Mycenaean B.A. (12th c.)
• oral storytelling
• written in dactylic-hexameter (epic meter)
• helped shape shared Hellenic identity through common myths