The Odyssey Overview
How many years total was Odysseus gone from Ithaca?
20 years
In vengeance for his son, which god delays Odysseus's return home?
Poseidon
Name the nymph who turns men into pigs.
Circe
The journey home (The Odyssey) begins from which city?
Troy
What is the name of the wife waiting for Odysseus at home?
Penelope
At the beginning of The Odyssey, Telemachus was approached by a goddess who wanted to help him. Name the goddess.
Athena
What does Odysseus tell the cyclops his name is?
Nobody
Why doesn't Odysseus just kill Polyphemus while he sleeps?
They could not move the stone that seals the cave.
What do the sirens look like?
birdlike creatures who lure sailors to their deaths with irresistible songs.
What is the name of Odysseus' son who has spent his lifetime without his father?
Telemachus
After spending a year on Aeaea with Circe, she finally lets Odysseus and his men go, but where must Odysseus go first?
Land of the Dead
What is the name of the shade who carries souls across the River Styx?
Charon
What does the blind prophet Tiresias say Odysseus and his men should NOT do?
Kill the cattle of the sun god, Helios.
Scylla is...
a 12-legged monster with 6 heads who gulps up anything that sails along the narrow straight where she lives in a cave
What is the name of Odysseys' home?
Ithaca
How many books make up the entirety of The Odyssey?
24 books
Who is the first person to recognize Odysseus when he returns home?
Eumaeus the Swineherd
Odysseus wanted to listen to the Sirens song to learn about his ___________.
Hamartia / Fatal Flaw
Charybdis is...
a massive WHIRLPOOL of a monster along clashing rocks who devours sailors and anyone else who wanders in the area
Who wields a golden wand to make Odysseus at first look like a beggar and then makes him clean, taller, younger as he meets his son?
Athena
Something special about myths is that they usually start in the middle. What do we call this literary technique?
In Medias Res
Who is the god of the Winds who gives Odysseus and his men a bag of winds for their travels?
Aeolus
Which prophet in the Underworld does Odysseus seek for advice about his journey home?
Tiresias
Odysseus says that the most painful thing he has ever endured is
watching his men die and cry to him for help as they were devoured by Scylla.
Who is the most violent, scheming, and ruthless of Penelope's suitors?
Antinous