The Epic Hero's Quest — Test Answers

In The Odyssey - Amphimedon , what motivates Odysseus to dress as a beggar?

Read the passage from The Odyssey - Penelope . "My lady, never a man in the wide world should have a fault to find with you. Your name has gone out under heaven like the sweet honor of some god-fearing king, who rules in equity over the strong: his black lands bear both wheat and barley, fruit trees laden bright, new lambs at lambing time—and the deep sea gives great hauls of fish by his good strategy, his folk fare well.” Based on the epic simile, the reader should envision Penelope as a queen who is

Read the passage from The Odyssey - Penelope . Ruses serve my turn to draw the time out—first a close-grained web I had the happy thought to set up weaving on my big loom in the hall. I said, that day: 'Young men—my suitors, now my lord is dead let me finish my weaving before I marry, or else my thread will have been spun in vain. It is a shroud I weave for Lord Laertes when cold Death comes to lay him on his bier. The country wives would hold me in dishonor if he, with all his fortune, lay unshrouded.' I reached their hearts that way, and they agreed. So every day I wove on the great loom, but every night by torchlight I unwove it; and so for three years I deceived the Akhaians. Which line from the passage best shows that Penelope is clever?

Read the passage from The Odyssey - Penelope . Ruses served my turn to draw the time out—first a close-grained web I had the happy thought to set up weaving on my big loom in the hall. Which word from the passage best explains what the web in the passage symbolizes?

From The Odyssey - Penelope , what can the reader predict about Odysseus and Penelope’s future relationship?

Read this excerpt from The Odyssey . "Oh, Nan, they are a bad lot; they intend ruin for all of us; but Antinous appears a blacker-hearted hound than any. Here is a poor man come, a wanderer, driven by want to beg his bread, and everyone in hall gave bits, to cram his bag—only Antinous threw a stool, and banged his shoulder!" Based on previous knowledge of Greek values, what prediction can best be made about Antinous’s future?

Read the passage from The Odyssey - Teiresias . But anguish lies ahead; the god who thunders on the land prepares it, not to be shaken from your track, implacable, in rancor for the son whose eye you blinded. One narrow strait may take you through his blows: denial of yourself, restraint of shipmates. When you make landfall on Thrinakia first and quit the violet sea, dark on the land you'll find the grazing herds of Helios by whom all things are seen, all speech is known. Avoid those kine, hold fast to your intent, and hard seafaring brings you all to Ithaka. But if you raid the beeves, I see destruction for ship and crew. Which theme is reflected in the passage?

Read the paraphrase. Although I was sad to see my mother’s dead ghost, I didn’t speak with her because I needed to talk to a different ghost. Which excerpt from The Odyssey - Teiresais is this paraphrasing?

Read the passage from The Odyssey - Teiresias . One narrow strait may take you through his blows: denial of yourself, restraint of shipmates. When you make landfall on Thrinakia first and quit the violet sea, dark on the land you'll find the grazing herds of Helios by whom all things are seen, all speech is known. Avoid those kine, hold fast to your intent, and hard seafaring brings you all to Ithaka. But if you raid the beeves, I see destruction for ship and crew. Which excerpt from the passage best identifies the conflict that Teiresias predicts as partially a character versus character conflict?

In The Odyssey - Teiresias , when Teiresias describes the conflicts that Odysseus will face, how do these conflicts relate to the story’s theme?

What is the conflict in the excerpt?

Based on the evidence provided, readers can conclude that Trey is

Based on the evidence provided, readers can conclude that Rina is

In The Odyssey - Elpenor , the rituals that Odysseus performs on the island show that the ancient Greeks respected and honored

Read the passage from The Odyssey - Elpenor . By night our ship ran onward toward the Ocean's bourne, the realm and region of the Men of Winter, hidden in mist and cloud. Never the flaming eye of Helios lights on those men at morning, when he climbs the sky of stars, nor in descending earthward out of heaven; ruinous night being rove over those wretches. Which is the best paraphrase of the passage?

In organizing the events of Odysseus’s quest, why would the text in The Odyssey - Elpenor be labeled as part of the road of trials?

Read the passage from The Odyssey - Elpenor . By night our ship ran onward toward the Ocean's bourne, the realm and region of the Men of Winter, hidden in mist and cloud. Never the flaming eye of Helios lights on those men at morning, when he climbs the sky of stars, nor in descending earthward out of heaven; ruinous night being rove over those wretches. For Odysseus and his men, the loss of Helios, the sun, symbolizes a loss of

The Odyssey - Elpenor is an epic poem because it features a(n)

The event from The Odyssey that best supports the theme that acting prideful can lead to unwanted consequences is

Read the excerpt from The Odyssey . In the next land we found were Cyclopes, giants, louts, without a law to bless them. In ignorance leaving the fruitage of the earth in mystery to the immortal gods, they neither plow nor sow by hand, nor till the ground, though grain— wild wheat and barley—grows untended, and wine-grapes, in clusters, ripen in heaven's rain. Cyclopes have no muster and no meeting, no consultation or old tribal ways, but each one dwells in his own mountain cave dealing out rough justice to wife and child, indifferent to what the others do. What inference can be made about the Cyclopes?