The Odyssey

A Review Game

The Odyssey

Gods, Goddesses, and Mortals, Oh My!

100

Odysseus stays with

her for seven years

100Calypso

200He raises a storm to destroy Odysseus’ raft when he sails

from Calypso’sisland

200Poseidon

300The goddess of

wisdom; she favors Odysseus

300Athena

400The king of the gods; he

sends down a thunderbolt which destroys Odysseus’ remaining ship and causes

his crew to drown

400Zeus

500She turns

Odysseus’ men into pigs

500Circe

Cite That Epic Characteristic

100

A character’s background or

family tree is listed

100Catalog

200A character brags

abouthis past to gain

respect

200Boasting

300The gods and goddesses

get involved in human affairs

300Divine Intervention

400The present is

interrupted to go back and tell about

something that happened earlier

400Flashback

500The social code of

taking care of guests and

warriors

500Hospitality Code

Is It a Bird or a Plane?

No, It’s Odysseus!

100“‘My name is Nohbdy:

mother, father, and

friends, / everyone calls me Nohbdy.’”

100Intelligence

200“I drove them, all three wailing, to the ships, / tied them down under their rowing benches, / and called the rest: ‘All hands

aboard; / come, clear the beach and no one taste / the Lotus, or

you will lose your hope of home.’”

200

Leadership

300“. . . Though I have been detained long by Calypso, / loveliest among goddesses, who held me / in her smooth caves, to be her heart’s delight, / as Circe of Aeaea, the enchantress, / desired me, and

detained me in her hall. / But in my heart I never gave consent.”

300Loyalty

400“‘Cyclops, try some

wine. / Here’s liquor to washdown your scraps of

men.’”

400Intelligence

500“Now I / chopped out a six-foot section of this pole / and set it

down before my men, who scraped it; / and when they had

it smooth, I hewed it again / to make a stake with

a pointed end.”

500Battle Skills

Relate That Quote to an Epic

Characteristic

100“‘I am Laertes’ son,

Odysseus.’”

100Catalog

200Odysseus goes to the underworld to talk to the blind

prophet, Teiresias

200

Visit to Hades

300“On thrones she seated them, and lounging

chairs, / while she prepared a meal of cheese and barley / and amber honey mixed

with Pramnian wine, / adding her own vile pinch, to make them lose / desire or thought

of our dear fatherland. / Scarce had they drunk when she flew after them / with her

long stick and shut them in a pigsty -- / bodies, voices, heads, and bristles, all / swinish now, though minds were still

unchanged.”

300Divine Intervention

400“Sing in me, Muse, and

through me tell the story / of that man skilled in all ways

of contending, / the wanderer, harried for years on end, / after he plundered

the stronghold / on the proud height of Troy.”

400Call to the Muse

500While Odysseus is at

the Land of thePhaeacians, he recalls

his wanderings and tells Alcinous what happened to him after he left Troy

500Flashback

Potpourri

100Wife of Odysseus

100

Penelope

200“‘Friends, / have we never been

in danger before this? / More fearsome, is it now, than when the Cyclops / penned us in his

cave? What power he had! / Did I not keep my nerve, and use my wits to find a way out for us? / . .

. / Heads up, lads! / We must obey the orders as I give them!’”

200

Leadership

300“‘Cyclops, eater of

guests’”

300Epithet

400These giant cannibals

destroy 11 of Odysseus’ships

400Laestrygonians

500He is the king in charge of the winds; he places the stormy winds in a bag so Odysseus can

sail back to Ithaca

500King Aeolus

The Bold, the Brave, and the

Boastful

200

Odysseus is tied to the mast so he can

hear their song

200

The Sirens

400This king takes

Odysseus in as a stranger, and Odysseus

tells him about his travels

400Alcinous

600Odysseus is warned

not to harm his cattle

600Helios

800These characters get three of Odysseus’ men to eat a flower that makes them forget about their

homeland

800The Lotus Eaters

1000Odysseus lost 72 of his men to this powerful

army

1000Cicones

Epic Characteristic

Definitions

200The character takes

a trip to the Underworld

200

Visit to Hades

400At the beginning of the epic when the

poet asks for divine inspiration in telling

his story

400

Call to the Muse

600The action of the epic begins in the

middle

600

In Medias Res

800A phrase that describes or

renames a person

800

Epithet

1000An overused,

descriptive phrase repeated in the

epic; helps the poet memorize his work

1000

Stock Phrase

I Know My Epic Characteristics

200The story begins with Telemachus going off in search of his father who never returned from the Trojan War

200

In Medias Res

400“When the young

Dawn with fingertips of rose / lit up the world.”

400

Stock Phrase

600“‘Cyclops, / if ever mortal

man inquire / how you were put to shame and

blinded, tell him, / Odysseus, raider of cities,

took your eye: Laertes’ son, whose home’s on

Ithaca!’”

600BoastingEpithetCatalog

800“‘It was our luck to come here; here we stand, / beholden for

your help, or any gifts / you give—as custom is to honor strangers.’”

800Hospitality Code

1000“‘Odysseus, master

of landways and seaways’”

1000

Epithet

It Could Be Anything

200This monster has 12 tentacle-like legs, six heads on serpent-like

necks, and triple, razor-sharp fangs; kills six of

Odysseus’ men

200

Scylla

400“When Dawn spread out her fingertips of

rose”

400Stock Phrase

600This character is

suspicious of Circe and doesn’t enter her

cottage

600Eurylochus

800“Meanwhile, I crouched with my drawn sword to

keep / the surging phantoms from the

bloody pit / till I should know the presence of

Teiresias.”

800Bravery

1000This monster swallows sea water, causing a dangerous whirlpool

1000

Charybdis