Deck 13: A Different Kind of Hero: The Odysseus

Question 1

Because he is so inventive, Odysseus is able to craft an agreement with the suitors' families, so that the poem ends in peace.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Odysseus loses his men because they killed and ate the sacred cattle of Poseidon.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Polyphemus is the son of Helios, the sun god, who avenges him by not allowing Odysseus to travel by day.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

In order for the dead in Hades to speak, Odysseus must feed them blood.

Question 5

Circe became Odysseus's lover for one year.

Question 6

The moral universe of the Odyssey is typically Greek: humans have no control over their destinies; everyone is the victim of the whims of the gods.

Question 7

Odysseus built his and Penelope's marriage bed so that it could not be moved.

Question 8

Odysseus does not appear until Book 5 of the Odyssey.

Question 9

Lord Tennyson interprets Odysseus as embodying a modern spirit of scientific heroism.

Question 10

Some modern critics assume that the Odyssey's author is a woman.

Question 11

At the end of the Odyssey, a new war breaks out between Odysseus and the vengeful relatives of the dead suitors.

Question 12

Several traits distinguish Odysseus from other Greek heroes. Which one is not one of them?

A) He has fully human parents.
B) He uses cunning rather than brute force.
C) He descends into the Underworld.
D) He does not die young, but lives a long life.

Question 13

Odysseus's most important characteristic is his physical strength.

Question 14

Odysseus blinded Polyphemus because he had said lewd things about Odysseus's wife.

Question 15

Agamemnon was slain by his wife's lover Orestes and avenged by his son Aegistus.

Question 16

Circe made Odysseus's men drink a potion that turned them into dogs.

Question 17

Calypso offers immortality to Odysseus, but Odysseus would rather go home to his wife.

Question 18

Most scholars believe that Homer's portrait of the bard Demodocus is autobiographical.

Question 19

Odysseus arrived home with only three men from his original crew.

Question 20

The Odyssey begins with the confrontation between Odysseus and his father Laertes, which causes Odysseus to go off to war to seek honor for himself.

Question 21

Circe and Calypso have much in common. Which of the following does not describe them both?

A) She poses a deadly threat to the hero.
B) She is the archetypal helper-maiden.
C) She weaves.
D) She lives in a beautiful cave with a rich garden all around.

Question 22

In the Odyssey, Zeus

A) punishes the good and rewards the guilty.
B) punishes the guilty and rewards the good.
C) punishes everyone in the Underworld.
D) rewards everyone in Elysium.

Question 23

How does Hermes help Odysseus against Circe?

A) He gives him a cape of invisibility.
B) He changes his appearance to that of a woman.
C) He gives him a sword that will kill a god.
D) He gives him an herb to mix with her potion.

Question 24

Why does Agamemnon tell Odysseus in the Underworld not to trust his wife?

A) because Agamemnon was killed by his wife and her lover
B) because Agamemnon's mother killed his father
C) because he knows Penelope has been unfaithful to Odysseus
D) because he hates all women

Question 25

Why does Odysseus descend into the Underworld?

A) to speak to his mother one more time
B) to seek advice from the blind seer Tiresias
C) to seek advice from Achilles
D) to ask his young friend Elpenor how he wants to be buried

Question 26

Penelope represents the Great Goddess or her priestess in that she

A) weaves.
B) guards an olive trunk or Tree of Life.
C) has a special way of knowing and planning.
D) does all of the above.