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The Odyssey Study Guide

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The Odyssey Study Guide
Study Guide Questions: Homer’s Odyssey

Directions: Provide clear and accurate responses to the following questions. Incorporate quoted evidence for support , provide page numbers, and insightful analysis (how or why the information/quote is important). Use blue/black ink and make your responses legible.

Book I
1. What does the invocation (the first 13 lines) say the poem as a whole will emphasize?

2. What first impression does this book give us of the gods? How much of a role do they play in human affairs? What seems to motivate their actions?

3. What is our first introduction to various characters? The suitors, for instance…. are they a homogeneous group, or are there differences among them? What qualities does Telemachus possess at the outset?

Book II
4. How, according to Antinous, do the suitors view Penelope 's reluctance? Why do they think they are justified in behaving as they do? Provide your own opinion and explain.

5. How well does Telemachus handle the suitors ' chief Antinous and his self-justification? Provide analysis.

Study Guide Questions: Homer’s Odyssey

Directions: Provide clear and accurate responses to the following questions. Incorporate quoted evidence for support , provide page numbers, and insightful analysis (how or why the information/quote is important). Use blue/black ink and make your responses legible.

Book III
6. How does Athena help Telemachus prepare to meet the old King Nestor? Provide analysis.

7. What is the purpose of this book? Why is it important that Telemachus go and visit old Nestor, aside, of course, from the fact that he 's out for news of his father Odysseus?

8. What exactly does Nestor tell Telemachus about the War and the return home? Why does he dwell upon the fate of Agamemnon, killed by Aegisthus, the lover of Clytemnestra? Provide analysis.

Book IV
9. How does

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