The Odyssey - Quotes & Content

Monomyth

hero's quest/journey

Archetype

reoccurring patterns, characters, and storylines

Allusion

reference to a person, place, or event from the past

Hubris

excessive pride

invocation

introduction

Diction

word choice

heroic/tragic flaw

weakness in a character

Who sang the Odyssey?

Homer

Book 1: Which story do the Gods discuss at the beginning of the book?

Orestes and Aegisthus: Aegisthus had an affair with Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra and killed Agamemnon on his return home, despite being warned by Hermes not to. Orestes then killed Aegisthus to avenge his father so the Gods see him as the hero

Book 1: Which Goddess asks Zeus to have mercy on Odysseus?

Athene

Book 1: How does Telemachus greet Mentes/Athene?

Welcomes Mentes and prepares a banquet in his/her honour

Book 1: What advice does Mentes/Athene give Telemachus?

Athene tells Telemachus his father is still alive and advises him to go to (sandy) Pylos and talk to Nestor, and then head to Sparta to see King Menelaus to ask for news of Odysseus.

Book 1: What does Telemachus tell the suitors they must do?

Leave his house the next day, and informs them Odysseus is dead (lieeees, lies)

Book 1: Which suitors protest when Telemachus tells them they must leave?

Antinous and Eurymachus

Book 1: How does Telemachus compare to Odysseus over the course of Book 1?

Beginning: Weak, doubts whether Odysseus is his true father.
End: Demonstrates strength (sending his mum to her room) and sneakiness (telling the suitors Odysseus is dead) just like his dad

What happens in Book 2? (2)

1. telemachus calls an assembly and tries to incite action against the suitors by fail 2. he leaves for his journey

What happens in Book 3?

telemachus visits nestor then moves on to sparta

What happens in Book 4? (3)

1. telemachus visits menelaus 2. the suitors plot his murder 3. penelope weeps after finding out he's left

Book 5: Who is the only god missing when they all gather on Mount Olympus to discuss Odysseus' fate?

Poseidon

Book 5: How does Calypso respond when Hermes tells her she must let Odysseus leave Ogygia?

She delivers a passionate speech about the double standard of the gods, where if goddesses sleep with mortal men it's unacceptable and scandalous but male gods are always having affairs

Book 5: How does Calypso help Odysseus get home? (3)

1) Builds him a raft
2) Stocks it with gifts/provisions
3) Creates a breeze

Book 5: When Poseidon sees Odysseus sailing the seas again what does he do?

sends a storm to drown him

Book 5: When Odysseus is drowning, what does he wish?

that he could've died a glorious death at Troy (for the Kleos) rather than alone and dishonoured at Sea

Book 5: Who saves Odysseus from drowning and how?

The sea nymph Ino gives him her veil, which will stop him from drowning

Book 5: How long does Odysseus swim for the get to Scherie (island of the Phaeacians?)

2 days

Book 5: What does Odysseus do when he reaches Scherie?

Tosses the veil back into the Sea as instructed by Ino, then walks inland to safe cover of the forest and sleeps between two olive trees.

Book 6: Who appears to the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa, disguised as her friend Dymas?

Athene

Book 6: Which goddess does Odysseys compare Nausicaa to?

artemis

Book 6: When Nausicaa instructs her handmaids to come back and bathe Odysseus, what does he do?

He insists on bathing alone and puts on the clothes Nausicaa gave him, while Athene makes him look especially handsome

Book 6: How does Nausicaa get around the problem of the gossip her being seen with Odysseus would cause?

She gives him directions on how to get to the palace so the two of them won't be seen together

Book 6: Who does Nausicaa tell Odysseus to plead his case to?

Her mother, Queen Arete, rather than the King Alcinous

Book 7: What 3 things does Athene do to help Odysseus on his way to the Phaeacians' palace?

1) Gives him directions to the palace in disguise as a little girl
2) Informs him all about Queen Arete and King Alcinous, then advises him to direct his plea for help to the wise and strong Queen Arete rather than Alcinous
3) Shrouds him in a protective mist that makes him invisible until he reaches the palace

Book 7: What is the Phaeacians' reaction to Odysseus making his plea?

awkward silence until the King's oracle scolds the King for not showing Odysseus some hospitality, at which point Alcinous makes one of the princes give up his seat for Odysseus and decides there will be a feast held in his honour the next day

Book 7: Moved by Odysseus' story of his journey from Ogygia to Scherie, what does King Alcinous offer Odysseus and what is his response?

King Alcinous offers Odysseus his daughter's hand in marriage, but says that if he declines he's still get him safely home. Odysseus decides to go home

Book 8: At dawn, what 2 things does Athene do?

1) Goes around the city disguised as a town crier, shouting the news of a stranger's arrival and the upcoming feast in his honour so everyone congregates at the palace
2) Makes odysseus even more handsome and instills in him the desire to prove himself worthy of any challenge

Book 8: At the King's banquet, what does the King's blind bard Demodocus tell the story of and what is Odysseus' reaction?

The fight between Odysseus and Achilles just before the Trojan War, Odysseus cries and hides behind his robe

Book 8: When the King orders some sporting games, boasting that when Odysseus gets home he'll talk of the Phaecians athleticism, who invites Odysseus to join the games?

Prince Laodamas

Book 8: What is Odysseus' response to Euryalus' taunts?

He hurls a discus further than any man present has managed so far and proudly asks any man to challenge him, saying he'll take on anyone except his gracious host Prince Laodamas and win any contest except a running race

Book 8: What is the second story Demodocus sings?

The story of Ares and Aphrodite's affair, and how they were shamed in front of all of the gods in Hephaestus' net

Book 8: What does Alcinous order to entertaining Odysseus after Demodocus' second song?

Dancing, and gives him gifts. Euryalus also gives him a sword to make up for the earlier fight.

Book 8: What does Odysseus request Demodocus sing about, and how does he react to the song?

Odysseus in the Trojan Horse, cries again.

Book 9: What is the first place Odysseus and his crew reached?

Ismarus, the city of the cicones

Book 9: What happened in Ismarus?

Odysseus and his crew plunder the land/kill the men/enslave the women until the natives fight back, killing 6 Ithacans per ship. They then fall victim to a god sent storm and have to stay there for a few days until they can leave.

Book 9: 10 days after they leave Ismarus, where do Odysseus and his men land next?

the island of the lotus eaters

Book 9: After leaving the island of the lotus eaters, where do Odysseus and his men land next?

The land of the cyclopes

Book 9: What is the first thing Odysseus and his men do on the Cyclopes' island?

go to a deserted cave and eat the cheese thats there, waiting for the owner to come back and give gifts

Book 9: When the cyclops (Polyphemus) returns, how does he react to Odysseus and his men having come into his cave and eaten his cheese?

he dismisses zeus and xenia and eats 2 of the men

Book 9: What does Odysseus tell Polyphemus?

that they were shipwrecked by poseidon

Book 9: How does Odysseus escape Polyphemus?

Hatches a plan and has his men carve out a pike from olive and heat its end in fire, gets polyphemus drunk, tells him his name is nobody, stabs him when he's asleep, then escapes under his sheep as they run out

Book 9: What does Odysseus do as he and his men escape (despite their protests)?

Taunts Polyphemus with his true identity 'Odysseus, the sacker of cities, Son of Laertes, the man from Ithaca' for the Kleos

Book 9: How does Polyphemus response to Odysseus' taunts?

Calls on his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus and make sure he never gets home. The next rock he throws forces Odysseus' ship out to sea.

Book 9: When they land at a new land what does Odysseus do?

makes an offering to zeus that gets rejected

Book 10: Where do Odysseus and his crew land?

aeolia

Book 10: How does Aeolus help Odysseus?

lets him stay for a month then gives him bag of winds

Book 10: What happens when Odysseus and his crew get in sight of Ithaca?

While Odysseus sleeps his crew open his bag of winds, thinking Aeolus has given him a big bag of gold and silver that he plans to keep for himself. When the winds are released, they are all blown back to Aeolus, who refuses to help them again as he believes they are cursed by the gods

Book 10: After they leave Aeolia for a second time, where do Odysseus and his men land?

the land of the laestrygonians

Book 10: Who are the Laestrygonians?

A powerful race of giants ruled by King Antiphates

Book 10: What happens when Odysseus and his men land on the island of the Laestrygonians?

Antiphates eats Odysseus' scouts and the remaining men flee to their ships, so the laestrygonians pelt them with rocks and sink all but odysseus' ship

Book 10: Why is Odysseus' ship the only one to survive the Laestrygonians?

he moored his ship in a hidden bay

Book 10: Where do the Ithacans land after fleeing the land of the Laestrygonians?

Aeaea, island of the powerful sorceress Circe

Book 10: What does Hermes give to Odysseus and instruct him to do outside Circe's?

gives him a magical herb called moly which will prevent Circe's magic from working, and instructs him to eat the herb, threaten her with his sword then sleep with him when she gives into him

Book 10: What happens after Odysseus makes peace with Circe?

she turns the pigs back into men and they stay on her island for a year until one of odysseus' men asks if they can go home

Book 10: What happens to Elpenor?

Having gotten drunk and slept on the roof the night before, when he hears the men shouting and marching in the morning, he falls off the roof, breaks his neck, and dies

Book 11: What's the first thing Odysseus does in the Underworld?

makes offerings according to circe's instructions, which the shades of the dead gather to drink the blood of

Book 11: Who's the first shade to speak to Odysseus and what happens?

Elpenor. Odysseus weeps and is surprised, then listens to his story. Elpenor begs Odysseus to honour his death by building a burial mound for his body and Odysseus agrees

Book 11: Who is the second shade to see Odysseus?

his mum, anticleia

Book 11: What does Teiresias prophecise? (4)

1) Warns him not to eat Helios' cattle
2) Odysseus will survive alone
3) Odysseus will have to defeat the suitors/make them pay with blood
4) Odysseus has to leave Ithaca and reach an area of Earth that has never known the sea, then pray to Poseidon to ensure his peaceful seaborne death at any old age surrounded by family

Book 11: What does Anticleia tell Odysseus and what do they try and do? Why doesn't it work?

1) The situation in Ithaca: Telemachus growing up but helpless against the suitors, Penelope is continually loyal
2) Try and hug 3 times but it doesn't work because she's dead

Book 11: Which other shades do Odysseus speak to after his mother Anticleia?

A long line of princesses: Tyro, Antiope, Megara, Ariadne, etc

Book 11: Who appears after the line of princesses? What do they have to say?

Trojan soldiers (Achilles, Patroclus etc) and Achilles says the underworld is so miserable he'd rather be a living poor country farmer, then asks about his son Neoptolemnus

Book 11: What does Agamemnon talk about?

the story of his murder and son Orestes' revenge against Aegisthus and Clytemnestra and how no women are to be trusted, except penelope

Book 12: Where do Odysseus and his crew go after leaving the Underworld and what do they do?

Return to Aeaea and giver Elpenor the proper funeral rites

Book 12: What happens after the men bury Elpenor? (5)

1) Circe reappears and sleeps with Odysseus for one last night
2) She warns him of the dangers of Scylla/Charybdis on his route home
3) She warns him not to eat the sun god's cattle at Thrinacia
4) Her final warning is too plug everyone's ears when they pass the sirens
5) they sail away with magic winds from circe

Book 12: What does Odysseus hear, and therefore most desire, in the sirens' song?

knowledge

Book 12: What happens when they go past the sirens?

they follow Circe's instructions and everyone plugs their ears except Odysseus, who becomes the first man to hear the sirens' song

Book 12: What happens after the sirens? (4)

1) they go past Scylla and Charybdis (who the men haven't been told about)
2) The men lose their oars in terror
3) They sail towards Scylla (inevitable death of 6 men) rather than Charybdis (likely death of all men)
4) Odysseus briefly tries to take up his sword against Scylla, she eats 6 of his men, and they sail away

Book 12: Where do they come across after Scylla and Charybdis?

Thrinacia, the island of the sun

Book 12: When they come across Thrinacia what does Odysseus want to do? Who persuades him otherwise?

Odysseus wants to avoid Thrinacia entirely (b/c of the many many warnings) but Eurylocus persuades him to let the men rest there

Book 12: What happens on Thrinacia?

they get stuck by a storm for a month, use up all their supplies and the men eat the cattle when odysseus has been put to sleep by zeus

Book 12: What happens as a result of the men eating Helios' cattle?

zeus sends a storm at helios' request and everyone except odysseus dies

Book 12: What happens to Odysseus after all the men (except Odysseus) are killed by Zeus' storm?

Odysseus floats back to Scylla and Charybdis, narrowly escapes them and drifts on the timbers of his ship for 9 days before finally reaching Ogygia

Book 13: What does Alcinous promise to Odysseus?

Each Phaeacian man will give him a gift to build up his wealth for his return to Ithaca

Book 13: What do they all spend the day doing after Odysseus' story is finished?

feasting

Book 13: How does Odysseus get back to Ithaca?

he is sailed back by the phaeacians and left on a rocky cove with his treasure all around him

Book 13: Which god sees Odysseus in Ithaca? What do they do?

Poseidon, who approaches Zeus angrily and says he wants to see Odysseus suffer (more) but respects/fears Zeus' wrath

Book 13: What is Zeus' response to Poseidon's speech about Odysseus?

that poseidon is a god and can take revenge on a mortal whenever he chooses, but is stopped from putting mountains around the city by zeus

Book 13: What revenge does Poseidon take on Odysseus/the Phaeacians?

Turns the Phaeacians' ship to stone and sinks it as it approaches Scherie

Book 13: Upon seeing his ship turned to stone what does Alcinous recall and what does he decide?

The prophecy mentioned in Book 8 that his father told him: that his ship would be turned to stone and mountains thrown up around his island if his people were nice to strangers, and decides to no longer be nice to strangers

Book 13: What is Odysseus' reaction when he wakes up on Ithaca?

doesn't recognise ithaca because athene has shrouded him in mist and thinks he's been tricked, then counts his treasure

Book 13: What does Athene do once Odysseus is on Ithaca? (3)

1. shrouds him in mist
2. approaches him disguised as a shepherd
3. asks odysseus for his story and then compliments his cunning

Book 13: What does Odysseus say his story is to Athene/The Shepherd?

he is a hunted man from Crete who fought in the Trojan War and just escaped a ship of pirates

Book 13: What do Athene and Odysseus do together?

hide the treasure and plan on how to defeat the suitors

Book 13: What is Athene's plan?

disguise odysseus as a beggar and send him to eumaeus the swineherd while she goes to fetch telemachus

Quote: How does Eumaeus greet Telemachus?

like a son

What happens in Book 14?

Odysseus goes to eumaeus

What happens in Book 15?

telemachus returns

Book 16: When Telemachus worries aloud that he wouldn't be able to oust the suitors, what does Odysseus do?

Pumps him up, urges him to seek the aid of his brothers, and praises the virtues of dying in glorious battle

Book 16: Who does Telemachus say Eumaeus should give the message for Penelope that he's home to?

eurycleia, not laertes

Book 16: What is Telemachus' reaction when Odysseus' reveals himself?

in disbelief, thinks he's a god

Quote: What are Telemachus and Odysseus described as being like when they finally embrace?

birds of prey who have had their nest ransacked by villagers