The Odyssey

READING CHECK

1. What is Odysseus’s wife’s name?

Answer: Penelope

2. Which god is most invested in preventing Odysseus’s return to his home?

Answer: Poseidon

3. How many years has Odysseus been away from Ithaca at the start of the epic?

Answer: 20

4. Name one of the two destinations Telemachus sails to at Athena’s instruction.

Answer: Pylos or Sparta

5. When does Penelope say she will choose a suitor?

Answer: once she completes the burial shroud for Odysseus’s father

6. Who accompanies Telemachus on his trip, disguised as a man named Mentor?

Answer: Athena

7. Who says she helped protect Odysseus’s identity when he snuck into Troy dressed as a beggar?

Answer: Helen

QUIZ

1. Why does Poseidon seek to prevent Odysseus’s return home?

A) Odysseus insulted him during the Trojan War.

B) Poseidon’s animosity toward Odysseus is never explained.

C) Odysseus blinded his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus.

D) Poseidon wants Penelope for himself.

2. What is Athena’s plan for freeing Odysseus from Calypso?

A) Athena will disguise herself as a man and seduce Calypso.

B) Athena will have Zeus send Hermes to free Odysseus.

C) Athena will initiate a war between Calypso and a neighboring island.

D) Athena will drug Calypso, allowing Odysseus to escape.

3. How do Penelope’s suitors threaten to exhaust Odysseus’s wealth in his absence?

A) by launching a full-scale effort to find Odysseus