Odyssey

Question 1

What is the Greek adjective for ‘resourceful’ or ‘cunning’, often used to describe Odysseus?

Answer 1

Polymetis

Question 2

What is the technical term for an adjective repeatedly used to describe and characterise a person or thing (a common feature of epic)?

Answer 2

Epithet

Question 3

Which Greek noun is used to describe the quality of ‘trickery’ or ‘cleverness’?

Answer 3

Dolos

Question 4

Name THREE things that could be expected by a stranger of a host under the laws of xenia (and ONE thing a stranger would not expect).

Answer 4

Three from: food; shelter; the means to wash; help with onward journey (a stranger would not expect to be asked their name until after these things had been received).

Question 5

Who/what is described by this simile, AND when: ‘…like fish, enmeshed in a net the fishermen have dragged from the grey tide, onto the shore of the bay. There they all lie heaped on the sand, gasping for salt water, while the hot sun takes their life.’

Answer 5

The suitors, after Odysseus, Philoetius, Eumaeus and Telemachus have killed them all (almost).