Plot and Perils
In Book 10, King Aeolus gives Odysseus a leather oxhide bag containing all the stormy winds, but the crew opens it right when they are in sight of this homeland.
What is Ithaca?
To escape Polyphemus’s cave in Book 9, Odysseus blinds the giant with a heated olive stake and ties his men underneath the bellies of these animals.
What are sheep / rams?
When Odysseus narrates his own wanderings to King Alcinous in Books 9–12 using pronouns like "I," "me," and "we," Homer shifts the narrative into this Point of View.
What is First-Person Point of View?
This sacred Greek law of guest-friendship and hospitality is honored by King Alcinous in Phaeacia, but violently broken by Polyphemus when he eats his guests.
What is Xenia?
Defined as a lack of thinking or caring about the consequences of an action—what Odysseus warns his crew against when making them swear an oath not to kill Helios's cattle in Book 12.
What is Recklessness?
Before arriving at the cyclopes in Book 9, Odysseus and his men are temporarily distracted by this addictive substance.
What is the Lotus flower?
To survive the deadly, seductive song of these creatures in Book 12, Odysseus plugs his crew’s ears with beeswax and has himself tied upright to the ship's mast.
Who are the Sirens?
When Homer tells the main frame story from outside the action and reveals the inner thoughts and plans of multiple characters (such as Athena, Telemachus, and Penelope), he uses this Point of View.
What is Third-Person Omniscient Point of View?
Odysseus demonstrates this fatal tragic flaw—excessive pride and arrogance—when he shouts his real name and homeland to Polyphemus as his ship sails away.
What is Hubris?
Defined as not aware of or not concerned about what is happening around one—the state of Odysseus's men after eating the sweet fruit of the Lotus-Eaters, completely forgetting their homes.
What is Oblivious?
In Book 10, this cowardly, skeptical crew member stays outside Circe's palace while the rest of the scouting party goes inside and gets turned into swine.
Who is Eurylochus?
Circe advises Odysseus to steer closer to this six-headed, twelve-legged cliff monster rather than risk losing his entire ship to the whirlpool Charybdis.
Who is Scylla?
This literary device occurs in Book 9 when the audience and Odysseus know he gave the fake name "Noman," while the neighboring Cyclopes mistakenly think nobody is attacking Polyphemus.
What is Dramatic Irony?
Rather than relying on brute strength, Odysseus survives the Cyclops and Circe through metis, which translates to this heroic trait.
What is cunning / cleverness / intelligence?
Defined as intending or intended to do harm; spiteful—how Odysseus describes his crew's jealous, false rumors that he was hoarding gold and silver inside King Aeolus’s bag of winds.
What is Malicious?
When Odysseus washes up on Scheria in Book 6, he is saved by this princess, whom Athena sent to wash her clothes.
Who is Nausicaa?
In Book 11, this blind Theban prophet drinks sacrificial blood in the Underworld and warns Odysseus not to touch the cattle on Thrinacia.
Who is Tiresias?
In Book 12, Homer uses this extended poetic comparison when he likens Scylla snatching six writhing sailors from the deck to a fisherman pulling a hooked fish out of the water.
What is an Epic Simile?
This recurring motif appears in the Lotus-Eaters' sweet fruit, Circe's drugged potion, and the slaughter of Helios's cattle, symbolizing how losing self-control destroys a hero's journey home.
What is Food, Temptation, and Gluttony?
Defined as proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects; treacherous—used to describe the hidden drugs Circe stirs into the wine, honey, and cheese potion to make the crew forget their homeland.
What is Insidious?
In Book 12, after his starving crew slaughters the Cattle of the Sun on Thrinacia, Zeus destroys their ship with a lightning bolt, leaving Odysseus to survive by clinging to this tree above Charybdis.
What is a tall fig tree?
Before leaving Circe's island in Book 10, this young crew member gets drunk, falls off the roof, snaps his neck, and later begs Odysseus in the Underworld to give him a proper burial.
Who is Elpenor?
In Book 11, the ghost of this murdered Greek king serves as a cautionary foil to Odysseus, warning him to return to Ithaca secretly and never trust women completely.
Who is Agamemnon?
In Book 11, Odysseus tries three times to hug the ghost of his mother, Anticleia, only for her to slip through his arms like a shadow—illustrating the human cost of war and this overarching theme of longing for home.
What is Nostos (homecoming)?
Defined as reparation or making amends for a wrong or injury—what the furious Sun God Helios demands from Zeus after Odysseus's men slaughter his sacred cattle.
What is Atonement?