Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________

The Odyssey Study Guide

Part 1: The Adventures of Odysseus

The Invocation, p. 1045

1. Whom does Homer ask for help in telling his tale? _______________________________
2. What is a muse? _________________________________________________________________________

Calypso (Holt textbook handout, p. 752-754)

3. How long has Odysseus been gone? _________________________________

4. What is Odysseus doing when we first meet him? ________________________________

5. Which god is most against Odysseus? __________________________________

6. Which goddess helps Odysseus? _________________________________

7. Which god is sent to tell Calypso to release Odysseus? _______________________________

8. Where does Odysseus go after leaving Calypso? _________________________________

Sailing from Troy, p. 1047-1049

1. Who is the king of Phaeacia? ___________________________________

2. What does he offer to Odysseus to help him return home? __________________________________

3. Who is Odysseus’s father? ________________________________

4. What is the name of Odysseus’s home and kingdom? ________________________________________

5. Where did Odysseus go first after leaving Troy? (line 42) _____________________________________

6. Summarize what happened there. __________________________________________________________

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The Lotus-Eaters
1. What happens if you eat the lotus flower? ____________________________________________________

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2. What does Odysseus do to save his men? ____________________________________________________

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*Now answer #1-4 on page 1049

Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________

The Cyclops, p. 1050-1063

1. What is a cyclops? (see note 15 on the left) ___________________________________________________

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2. How many men go with Odysseus to explore the island of Cyclopes? _______________

3. Describe the Cyclops’s home. ______________________________________________________________

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4. Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is __________________________________.

5. What does Odysseus do with the olive tree trunk? _____________________________________________

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6. Why does Odysseus call himself “Nohbdy”? ___________________________________________________

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7. What is the Cyclops’s name? _____________________________________

8. Who is the father of the Cyclopes? _______________________________

9. How do Odysseus and his men escape from the Cyclops? ________________________________________

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10. Why does Odysseus yell at Polyphemus and reveal his true identity? __________________________

11. What does Polyphemus do in response? _____________________________________________________

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*Now answer #1-3, & 7 on page 1069
Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________

Circe (Holt textbook handout, p. 773-775)

1. Who is Aeolus? ______________________________________________

2. What does Aeolus give Odysseus to help him on his journey home? __________________________

3. What are the Laestrygonians? ______________________________________________________________

4. What do they do to Odysseus’s fleet of ships? ___________________________________________________

5. Where does Circe live? __________________________

6. What does Circe turn Odysseus’s men into? _________________________

7. Who gives Odysseus a magical plant to protect him from Circe? _______________________________

8. How long do Odysseus and his men stay with Circe? ________________________________

The Land of the Dead, p. 1064-1069

1. Whom does Odysseus seek in the Underworld? ________________________________

2. What is a shade? ________________________________________________________________

3. Whose shade does Odysseus encounter first? __________________________________

4. How did he die? _________________________________________________________________________

5. Who does he reveal is still alive in Ithaca?

a. ________________________ b. _________________________ c. _________________________

6. What does Elpenor’s shade ask Odysseus to do? Why? _________________________________________

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7. Whose shade does Odysseus see in line 614? __________________________________________________

8. Where does Helios keep his cattle? ______________________________________

9. If they harm the cows, what does Tiresias say will happen to Odysseus and his men? (line 645)

“_____________________________________________________________________________________”

10. What does Tiresias tell Odysseus to do when he finally reaches home? _______________________

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11. How does he predict Odysseus will die? ______________________________________________________

*Now answer #4-6 on page 1069

Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________

Circe (again), (Holt textbook handout, p. 778-779)

The Sirens, p.1071-1073

1. Circe warns Odysseus about:

a. ______________________________, who lure sailors to their destruction

b. ____________________________________, sea rocks that destroy even birds in flight

c. The sea monster _______________________________

d. The whirlpool ___________________________________

e. _________________________________________, which Tiresias has warned Odysseus not to harm

2. What are the Sirens? _____________________________________________________________________

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3. How do the men face and overcome the Sirens’ song? __________________________________________

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4. What is Charybdis? _______________________________________________________________________

Draw a picture.

5. What is Scylla? __________________________________________________________________________

Draw a picture.

6. What choice must Odysseus make? _________________________________________________________

Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________

Scylla and Charybdis, p. 1073-1076

1. Who does Odysseus ask for help in line 776? ____________________________

2. Which monster do the men see and hear first? _____________________________________

3. What happens as the ship passes between “a rock and a hard place” (Scylla and Charybdis)?

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The Cattle of the Sun God, p. 1076-1082

1. Odysseus tells his men that the cows belong to ______________________________.

2. How long were Odysseus and his crew stuck on Thrinacia? ____________________________________

3. What happens when Odysseus prays to the gods for help? (lines 854-862) ___________________

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4. Who convinces the men to disobey Odysseus? __________________________________________

5. Who tells Helios what they have done? (line 903) _______________________________________

6. What is Helios’s threat to the gods? ____________________________________________________________

7. What tool does Zeus use to punish the crew? _____________________________________________________

8. What happens to Odysseus’s men? _______________________________________________________

9. Odysseus survives Scylla & Charybdis a second time with the help of ______________________ (line 987)

10. Where does Odysseus swim to? __________________________, home of _________________________.

*Now answer #1-4 on page 1082

Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________

The Odyssey Study Guide

Part 2: The Return of Odysseus

“Twenty years gone, and I am back again…” p. 1090-1096

1. Odysseus has finished telling his story to the ___________________________________________.

2. They help him return home with their ___________________________.

3. How long has Odysseus been away from home? ___________________________________

4. Suitors have been trying to marry Odysseus’s wife _____________________________________.

5. They also plan to murder his son ___________________________________________.

6. Where does Telemachus go in search of news of his father? ____________________________________

7. Who is Odysseus’s faithful swineherd? _____________________________

8. How does Athena protect Odysseus from the suitors? __________________________________________

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9. What does Odysseus look like when Athena transforms him in front of his son? ______________________

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10. What does Odysseus tell Telemachus to do in lines 1136-1138? _______________________________

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____________

Argus, p. 1096-1097

11. What happens when Odysseus sees his dog? _______________________________________________

The Suitors, p. 1097-1100

1. Who hits the disguised Odysseus with a stool? ________________________________________

2. Who asks to speak to the beggar that night? __________________________________________

Penelope, p. 1100-1103

3. What does Penelope want to know about the beggar? _________________________________________

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4. Summarize Penelope’s trick of the weaving on her loom. _______________________________________

Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________

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5. How long does she get away with the trick? __________________________________

6. The disguised Odysseus tells Penelope that her husband is ______________________________ and

_______________________________________________________________.

The Challenge, p. 1103-1105

7. What impossible task does Penelope propose for the suitors?

a. _________________________________________________________________

b. _________________________________________________________________

8. What is the prize for completing the task?

_______________________________________________

9. Who completes the task? ____________________________________

*Now answer #1-4 on page 1105
Odysseus’ Revenge, p. 1107-1111

1. Whom does Odysseus trust to help him defeat the suitors? __________________________________

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2. How does Odysseus prove his true identity?________________________________________________

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3. Who does Odysseus kill first and why? ____________________________________________________

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4. What sign shows Athena is helping Odysseus win? _________________________________________

5. What happens to the disloyal maids? _____________________________________________________

Penelope’s Test, p. 1111-1114

6. How does Athena help Odysseus win over Penelope? _______________________________________

7. How does Odysseus prove his identity to Penelope? ____________________________________________

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8. What was special about Penelope and Odysseus’ bed? __________________________________________

Name_______________________________________________ Date_____________ Period________

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The Ending, p. 1114 & graphic novel handout

1. Odysseus goes to visit ________________________________________________.

2. The families of the murdered suitors want revenge, but ___________________________ stops them.