The Odyssey

Question 1

Telemachus

Answer 1

Odysseus’ son
Asks for the god’s help against the suitors trying to steal the throne
Goes to Nestor and Menelaus seeking news of his father

Question 2

Calypso

Answer 2

Odysseus is marooned for 7 years on Ogygia by Calypso a nymph

Question 3

Phaeacians

Answer 3

After leaving Calypso’s island, he lands on the island of the Phaeacians who he tells the story of his journey home.

Question 4

Lotus eaters

Answer 4

Whoever eats the fruit forgets everything and only wants to stay there and eat more lotus fruit. Odysseus had to get his men away and they sail for the land of the Cyclopes

Question 5

Polyphemus

Answer 5

A Cyclopes, son of Poseidon and herdsman. Odysseus and 12 companions enter his cave and are trapped there

Question 6

How does Odysseus get away from Polyphemus

Answer 6

Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk, then they blind him. They tie themselves to the underside of his sheep and sneak out when he opens the cave

Question 7

What does Odysseus tell Polyphemus his name is

Answer 7

Nobody

Question 8

What does Polyphemus do when Odysseus is sailing away?

Answer 8

He asks Poseidon to curse him, so that he won’t return home for many years, all of his companions die and he loses all of his ships and returns home alone on a strangers ship. He also will find trouble in his house when he returns home

Question 9

King Aeolus

Answer 9

Keeper of the winds, gives Odysseus a bag of winds to help him get home

Question 10

What happens just before Odysseus gets home to Ithaca after using the bag of winds?

Answer 10

His men get curious and open the bag, thinking its full of gold, they release the winds and he ships are blown back to Aeolus Island. Aeolus won’t help him again, because he thinks Odysseus is cursed by the gods.

Question 11

Laestrygonians

Answer 11

Destroy all but one ship and eat the crews, leaving only Odysseus and on ship and crew

Question 12

Circe

Answer 12

A witch who lives on Aeaea

Turns half of Odysseus’s men into pigs.

Question 13

Who helps Odysseus defeat Circe?

Answer 13

Hermes. He tells Odysseus how to counter her charms and gives him an antidote so he won’t turn into a pig when he eats Circe’s food. He then forces her to turn his men back

Question 14

What happens with Circe after Odysseus rescues his men?

Answer 14

They sleep together and Circe bears a son, Telegonus. Odysseus stays for a year. Circe tells him he must visit the underworld to talk to the prophet Tiresias

Question 15

What does the ghost of Achilles tell Odysseus?

Answer 15

He tells him he would rather be the slave of a poor man on earth, than king of all of the souls of the dead

Question 16

What does the ghost of Tiresias tell Odysseus

Answer 16

He foretells the fate of Odysseus

Question 17

Sirens

Answer 17

Odysseus sails past them unharmed by putting wax in the ears of this men. He wants to hear their songs, so he has himself tied to the mast so he can’t be tempted by them

Question 18

Planctae

Answer 18

Wandering rocks, to avoid them Odysseus has to sail close to the cliffs, on either side is Scylla and Charybdis

Question 19

Scylla

Answer 19

Once a lover of Poseidon changed into a monster by Poseidon’s jealous wife Amphitrite. She snatched 6 men form the ship as it passes her

Question 20

Cattle of Helius

Answer 20

Circe warns Odysseus not to touch any of Helius’s animals when he lands on Thrinacia. While Odysseus is sleeping his men kill a cow for food. Zeus punishes them by sending a storm and sinking their ship. Everyone dies, but Odysseus

Question 21

After Zeus destroys the last ship, what happens to Odysseus?

Answer 21

He washes up on calypso’s island

Question 22

How does Athena help Odysseus when he returns to Ithaca?

Answer 22

She disguises Odysseus as a beggar

Question 23

How does Penelope put of choosing a suitor?

Answer 23

She tells them she will choose when she finishes weaving a burial robe for Odysseus father Laertes. She weaves by day and at night she undoes her work. She manages to fool them for three years.

Question 24

How does Odysseus’ nurse recognize him

Answer 24

A scar on his thigh

Question 25

What test does Penelope force the suitors to do?

Answer 25

They must string Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow through a line of axe heads

Question 26

Penelope

Answer 26

Odysseus’ wife

During his absence she is besieged by suitors but she remains faithful to Odysseus

Question 27

How does Penelope test Odysseus to prove his identity?

Answer 27

She orders their marriage bed brought out of the room, when Odysseus protests, saying it’s impossible to move because it’s made from a live tree, Penelope knows it’s really him