The Odyssey Study Questions Book 7 Lines 216-397 DUE DATE: 12.

16 (11:59 pm) Answer based on your understanding of the lines you have read. This is not a shared homework assignment. You are expected to answer the questions yourself to the best of your ability. Your answers will probably require more space than I have allowed. 1. Odysseus has made it safely to King Alcinous palace. They eat and drink (they do a lot of that). The King promises to help Odysseus by taking him home, but he then says that Odysseus will have to suffer all that Fate/and the overbearing Spinners spun out on his life line/the very day his mother gave him birth (7.232-236). Why do you think he qualifies his promise? 2. What does Alcinous imply that Odysseus might be? (Homer 7.235). 3. When Odysseus replies he is wary and says he is nothing like the immortal gods who rule the skies,/either in build or breeding. just a mortal man (7.246). Explain what you think causes him to be modest? 4. Everyone applauds Odysseus because they believe that he was speaking truly when he tells them that he has been saddled down with sorrow. He lays it on pretty thick when he says They are the ones Id equal, grief for grief/and I could tell you a tale of still more hardship/all Ive suffered, thanks to the gods will (7.247-249). Why does Odysseus stress his suffering and sorrow as opposed to his conquests and victories? 5. There is a METAPHOR in lines 251-256. Explain it. 6. Queen Arete is suspicious of the strangers story that he has reached them by roving on the sea (7.276). What causes her to reply brusquely, sharply (7.272)? 6. Odysseus explains how he got to Ogygia and explains his stay with Calypso. He says that in spite of all that she offers him (including immortality), she never won the heart inside me, never (7.397). We have discussed the values of the Greeks. Based on the quotation, explain the fact that Odysseus has been Calypsos sexual partner for 7 years and yet we are still supposed to believe that he pines for Penelope? 7. You know when you get a good grade (not a perfect grade) and your parents want to know what you got wrong? How does King Alcinous criticize Nausicaa in a way that lets you know that she has disappointed him? (7.342-345).

8. At the end of the book, long-enduring Odysseus glowed with joy (7.377). Why?