Odyssey Scholar Quotes

Question 1

Edith Hall on Odysseus - Positive

Answer 1

Very intellectual, charismatic all-round hero, as well as a domestic husband

Question 2

Jenkyns on Odysseus - Positive

Answer 2

In the main part, Odysseus is a big epic warrior, in his own narration he seems to be more like a folktale trickster

Question 3

Doherty on Odysseus - Positive

Answer 3

No living male character is portrayed as a match for Odysseus

Question 4

Clayton on Odysseus - Positive

Answer 4

Uses his verbal skills to trick Polyphemus by telling him his name is “nobody”

Question 5

Graziosi on Odysseus - Negative

Answer 5

Meathead

Odysseus gets home not because of his own cleverness but because of random events which he has no control over

Question 6

Griffin on Odysseus - Negative

Answer 6

Odysseus does very little that is heroic, he accepts humiliations and at moments looks like a real beggar than a hero

Question 7

Jones on Odysseus - Positive and Negative

Answer 7

Jones on Odysseus - Odysseus is no more perfectly good than the Cyclops is perfectly bad

Question 8

Jones on Odysseus’ Wit - Positive

Answer 8

Can be recognised by intimates and by signs and actions

Question 9

Clayton on Odysseus’ Wit - Positive

Answer 9

Where he is physically unimpressive, his verbal skills make up for it

Question 10

Jenkyns on Gods - Positive

Answer 10

Gods are too grand to have emotions

Question 11

Jones on Gods - Positive

Answer 11

Men are at the whims of Gods

Question 12

Jenkyns on Odysseus and Athene

Answer 12

Relationship is like banter between a Olympian goddess and a mortal man

Question 13

Bernard Knox on Gods and Mortals - Positive

Answer 13

Almost everywhere in the peaceful world, women, human and divine have important roles

Question 14

Folit Weinberg on Gods - Positive

Answer 14

Odysseus is saved from Circe because of Hermes

Question 15

Morisson on Calpyso - Negative

Answer 15

Calypso is a surrogate wife; women who in one way or another try to take the place of Penelope

Question 16

Walcot on Xenia - Positive

Answer 16

Book 8 is how to entertain a stranger, Book 9 is how to not entertain a stranger

Question 17

Goldhill on Women - Negative

Answer 17

There is repeatedly a threat to Odysseus when a female wants to make him her husband

Question 18

Jones on Xenia - Negative

Answer 18

Calypso is too hospitable

Question 19

Folit-Weinberg on Women - Positive

Answer 19

We learn what it means in the Odyssey to be female through Nausicaa and Circe

Question 20

Murray on Penelope - Positive

Answer 20

Penelope is the only character who can outwit Odysseus in wisdom and cunnning

Penelope is as much the heroine as Odysseus is the hero

Question 21

Kelly on Women - Positive

Answer 21

Nausicaa is a helper figure

Question 22

Jones on Women - Positive

Answer 22

Women hold the key to his salvation in the early books of the Odyssey

Question 23

Wile on Women - Positive

Answer 23

The audience know that Nausicaa is no threat

Question 24

Atwood on Penelope - Negative

Answer 24

Penelope was sleeping with the suitors and had the maids killed so Odysseus wouldn’t find out

Question 25

Goldhill on Women - Negative

Answer 25

There is repeatedly a threat to Odysseus when a female wants to make him her husband

Question 26

Fenik on Penelope - Negative

Answer 26

Penelop is Boring

Question 27

Edith Hall on Nostos - Positive

Answer 27

Nostos is what Odysseus craves

Question 29

Jones on Nostos - Positive

Answer 29

Odysseus is the loyal husband whose eyes are fixed on one goal only, return home

Question 30

Folit-Weinberg on Nostos - Negative

Answer 30

Circe’s island is the only place where Odysseus forgets his nostos

Question 31

Halverson on Suitors

Answer 31

The suitors are consuming the household, their presence has been a defilement of the household

An assault on the integrity of the Oikos and even minor collaboration with its attackers are high crimes

Question 32

Stanton on Suitors

Answer 32

Odysseus does not see himself as the cause of the suitors deaths, rather their own hard actions and doom of the gods caused it

Question 33

Hall on Suitors

Answer 33

Odysseus kills the suitors who exactly mirror his own actions in the land of the Cyclops

Question 34

Atwood on Suitors

Answer 34

Suitors courted Penelope for wealth and status rather than love

Question 35

Graziosi on Revenge - Positive

Answer 35

It’s a story of return, infidelity and revenge told again and again throughout the Odyssey’s entirety

Question 36

Loney on Revenge - Positive

Answer 36

Vengeance is reciprocal like Xenia, depending on how you’re hurt, you have to be given a certain amount of punishment accordingly

Question 37

Silk on Revenge - Negative

Answer 37

Few modern readers would condone revenge in such a context

Question 38

Schein on Polyphemus - Negative

Answer 38

The savagery is exaggerated by the way he eats his victims raw - barbaric

Question 39

Hall on Polyphemus

Answer 39

Is his self-defence really shocking?