Understanding Odyssey

1. What does the Odyssey give greater weight? Cite folklore motifs to support your answer.

2. What does the meeting of the assembly at Ithaca illustrate? What political organization is featured?

3. Why does not Telemachus become king of Ithaca? Why does not Laertes, Father of Oddyseus, come out of retirement to take over the reins of government and save Penelope from all her difficulties with the suitors?

4. Throughout the Odyssey, Homer contrasts the legend about the coming of Agamemnon with the story of Odysseus. What could be his purpose?

5. What transformation has taken place in the values and outlooks of the heroes of the Trojan war as manifested by Menelaus and his wife Helen?

6. In what way is Odysseus different from the typical epic hero? In your opinion, can he be considered the first “modern man”?

7. How can you interpret the wanderings and adventures of Odysseus in the year after the fall of Troy?

8. Describe the land of the Phaecians. What does it symbolize? What do Achaians and Arete idolize?

Books 7-12

1. What does the raid on Cicone city of Ismaurus by Odysseus and his men demonstrate?

2. What can you associate with the lotus plant? Why do those who eat it quickly lose all memory?

3. What does the episode with the cyclops Polyphemus symbolize?

4. What does the crew of Odysseus symbolize in the episode of the bay of the winds given by Aeolus? What lesson is important?

5. What motif in European folklore is common and similar with Odysseus encounter with Circe? Can you think of a folktale that is familiar variant of the episode?

6. What other stories in Greek mythology parallels the visit of Odysseus to Hades? How do you regard this episode?

7. How do you view Odysseus? Encounter with the Sirens? What kind of test did he undergo?

8. Compare/ contrast the obstacles that Odysseus and his crew encountered on the island of the sirens and seylla and Charybdis. What kind of test did Odysseus master in Seylla and Charybdis?