The Odyssey: Reading and Study questions

The Odyssey: Reading and Study questions

DIRECTIONS: Read the section for The Odyssey by Homer, in your literature books 721 to 798. You need to read all books in the epic and answer the questions on this handout. You do not need to type them, but it might be helpful for you to do so (and easier for me to read). Answer the questions labeling the sections and numbering the questions. Do your best and answer in complete sentences and make specific references to lines and text.

DUE: Tuesday 4/28/09 (do NOT save this for last minute. You MUST work on this over April vacation)

Book 1: Athena Advises Telemachus
1. What is a muse and how is it used in the first stanza?
2. How does the poet tress a moralizing theme in lines 10 to 11?
3. What traits in the personality of the young Telemachus does the passage from lines 19 to 29 emphasize?
4. How is the passage from lines 46 to 49 an example of dramatic irony?

Book 2: Telemachus Confronts the Suitors
1. What conclusions can you draw about Penelope’s character from this description (lines 96-110) of the famous weaving trick? How would you compare her personality to what you already know about Odysseus?
2. What is the first major conflict exposed in the epic (lines 115-119).
3. How do Athena’s words point to a major theme in the opening section of the Odyssey?
4. What do lines 145-148 foreshadow?

Book 3: The Visit to Nestor/Book 4: The Menelaus and Helen
1. What is a formulaic passage and how are lines 152-158 an example of it?
2. From lines 180-185, which three lines are an example of formulaic passage and why?

WRAP –UP for Part I, Books 1-4:
• Complete the following questions on page 731
o Interpreting meanings: # 6-9
o Analyzing language and vocabulary: # 1-3


WRAP-UP for Part II, Books 5-8
• Complete the following questions on page 744
o Identifying facts: #1-3
o Interpreting Meanings: #5-8
o Analyzing Language and Vocabulary: #1

WRAP-UP for Part II, Books 9-12
• Complete the following questions on pages 768-769
o Identifying facts: #1-7
o Interpreting Meanings: #9 and 13

WRAP-UP for Part III, Books 13-16
• Complete the following questions on page 774
o Identifying facts: #1-3
o Interpreting meanings # 4, 5 and 7

WRAP-UP for Part III, Books 16-19
• Complete the following questions on page 781
o Identifying facts: #1-3
o Interpreting meanings # 4-9

WRAP-UP for Part III, Books 20-24
• Complete the following questions on page 795
o Identifying facts: #1-6
o Interpreting meanings # 8 and 9