Homer, Odyssey, Books 4, 5, 6, 7
Book 4‑‑
1) How is the double wedding in
Sparta unusual, and what might be its significance?
2) Why is Eteoneus' blunder in receiving Telemakhos at Menelaos'
household so important?
3) What is Menelaos' response to Telemakhos?
Pay special attention to the
"type scene" in which Odysseus' story is told
with references to his son while his son is there unknown.
What are the codes Menelaos detects to identify Telemakhos?
4) How does this visit create another set of analogues to the
family‑relations sub‑plot?
5) How does Helen react to the
scene at the dinner table? How does
this affect your reading of her character?
Be alert for parallels with women Odysseus meets.
6) What effect is Helen's story
supposed to have on each of her hearers?
7) What effect does Menelaos hope
for from his story? In what way is
it an answer to Helen's story?
8) How does Menelaos describe the
suitors? Note especially his
repetition of thematic formulae from other books (esp. 3 and 1).
9) How did Menelaos find out how to
return home? What would you have
done to discover how to return home, and why is his method different from yours?
10) What character did Aeschylus
derive from this book of the Odyssey?
How did Aeschylus change the version of Agamemnon's death he found in
Homer, and why?
11) What does Menelaos plan for
Telemakhos, and why doesn't Telemakhos give in to his plans?
12) Note the "flashback" in this
book. What is the effect of cutting
away from Telemakhos in Sparta to the suitors in Ithaka at this particular
moment
13) How is Medon identified in
epithets, and how does this construct his relationship with Penelope?
14) What does Athena do for
Penelope and what does she refuse to do?
Why? How is the poet using
Penelope to influence your response to events?
15) How does Book 4 end?
Why? If you are unsure, read
ahead into Book 5 and understand one source of the poet's dramatic
art--suspense.
Book 5‑‑
1) Many Homeric epithets are described as "merely formulaic," but researchers have shown that poets may practice "the artful avoidance of economy" even when they have the opportunity (Russom). Why refer to Dawn's relationship with Tithonos at the beginning of Book 5 (vs. the common "rosy‑fingered dawn")?
2) Compare the opening of Book 5
with the council of the gods in
Book 1. Compare both to Genesis 1
and 2. What is going on?
How does it clearly belong
here (and not in Book 1) and why is it
redundant in the way that it is?
3) In 5: 32‑57 we have a forecast
of events in Books 5, 6, 7, and 8.
We also have a means of calculating how long in real time
it takes Odysseus to come home after the gods' council in Book 1.
The events described here will not take place until Book 13.
Why not?
What is the epic's structural principle?
4) When Hermes confronts Kalypso,
how does she react to his demand
and what is his answer? What theme
does this develop?
5) How does the poet characterize
Odysseus' relationship with Kalypso,
and how do we first see Odysseus?
6) In Odysseus' first reported
speech in the epic (5: 181‑90), how
does he respond to Kalypso's offer.
What does this tell you about "all
he had endured" (181)? Compare his
speech in The Iliad‑‑how has
he changed?
7) At dinner, Kalypso tests
Odysseus. What does Odysseus answer
and why is this the "right answer"?
The passage from 181‑236
raises an important issue for the poet‑‑how has s/he attempted to
deal with it? Might you
describe Odysseus' choice as "heroic"?
8) Why spend so much time
describing how Odysseus builds his
boat? Does it have anything to do
with the shipwreck which follows?
9) Odysseus' lament (5:309‑323)
parallels a lament by Achilles (21:
307‑20 in the Fagles translation).
Compare the two‑‑how has the author
of Odysseus' lament varied Achilles' lament, and why?
10) COAST GUARD ADVICE!: What
precaution does Odysseus take when
the boat was filled with water, and why?
(5: 333‑37 and 369‑77)
IF EVER YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THIS SITUATION, DO LIKEWISE!
11) When Odysseus, swimming, finally sees land, the poet
describes it in an extended simile.
Why this simile? What does
it do to your expectations because of its analogy?
As Odysseus is battered
against the rocks in the surf, another extended
simile describes his injuries‑‑note its similar reversal of the
expected analogy.
12) What gift of Athena's, more
important even than Ino's cloak,
preserves Odysseus as he battles in the surf?
13) What natural phenomenon is
being described in the scene in
which Odysseus prays to the river god and the god draws Odysseus
into the shallows? What is
the basis of Odysseus' appeal in his
prayer, and why would it work?
How does it differ, utterly, from
Achilles' encounter with the River Scamander in Iliad Book 21,
and what does this mean about these two heroes and their
audiences' expectations?
14) Yet another extended simile
ends Book 5. What medical
condition does the poet imply threatens Odysseus, and how does
the metaphor describe the solution.
What is the poet's simile for life, itself?
Book 6‑‑
1) Upon what occasion does Athena
visit Nausikaa, and how does it
charge with meaning N's encounter with Odysseus?
2) How does Nausikaa's version of
why she must go to river differ
from the one told to her by Athena/Dymas' daughter?
What does this tell you
about Nausikaa? How does dad "read"
her?
3) What is laundry‑day like in
Homer's era? Who does what?
4) How does the poet describe
Odysseus' first encounter with
Nausikaa and her maids, and how does N respond to O's presence?
What choice does O have to make, and what does he decide?
Why?
5) How is Odysseus' speech designed
to charm Nausikaa? To what
does he appeal? What prayer
for her does he utter? What kinds
of thematic associations has it acquired in this context?
6) Why does Nausikaa say Odysseus
should be helped?
7) What role does Athena play in
Odysseus' bath, and what simile
does the poet use to describe the effect?
What has O become? How
does Nausikaa respond to this and what may it portend?
8) What route does Nausikaa command
O to take into town and why? What must Odysseus do as soon as he enters
the palace? Why?
What interesting socio‑political phenomenon might this be?
9) Why doesn't Athena openly assist
Odysseus, and how does this explain
the relationships among the gods?
10) Look up Nausikaa's name in
Graves' Greek Myths. In
what senses does she deserve it?
Consult the note on the name "Helen"
in Roche's translation of the Orestia (55). What is the
connection?
Book 7--
1) How does Athena aid Odysseus'
entrance to the court of Alkinoos and Arete, and what tradition does this implicitly
suggest among the inhabitants of the Greek islands from C10-C8 BCE?
Also, how has Nausicaa's final speech in Book 6 set up this entrance?
2) What is the full family
relationship between Alkinoos and Arete?
How do you account for this, politically?
3) In terms of our ranking of
households by order and prosperity, how would you rank Alkinoos' hall?
What do you make of the decorations?
4) What is Odysseus' first position
(self-chosen) in the hall, and what folk-motif does it recall?
How does it fit into the "hospitality" motif we've been tracing from
Ithaca to Pylos to Sparta to Ogygia?
5) How does Odysseus explain his
sojourn with Kalypso?
6) How does Odysseus describe his
encounter with Nausicaa to her father, and how does he respond?
Why?
7) When Odysseus hears the whole of
Alkinoos' plans for him (VII: 331-52), he responds in a way that ignores a
possibility Alkinoos had mentioned.
What is the possibility and how does it relate to the thematic content of O's
travels?