M5 Reading Assignment and Reading Guide - Fall 2022 - World Literature I

Read the following pages in The Odyssey. Answer the questions below as you read. The Odyssey Books Eleven and Twelve What libations does Odysseus pour around the votive pit, and what does he vow to slaughter for the dead when he returns home? What does he swear to sacrifice for Teiresias? What sacrifice does he perform at the wellpit? What do you think this sacrifice has to do with being alive or dead? Which shade speaks to Odysseus first? What does he ask of Odysseus? Which member of his own family does Odysseus see? Whom does Odysseus allow to first taste the blood? What does Teiresias tell Odysseus to do in order to bring all his men safely home? What does he warn them not to do? Teiresias tells Odysseus that if his men do what he has told him not to do, Odysseus will return home to find what? After he kills the suitors, what does Teiresias tell Odysseus he must then do to appease Poseidon? Where must he go, what must he carry, and what must he do when a stranger says what words to him? Why do you think these actions will appease Poseidon's anger at Odysseus? Of what did Odysseus's mother die? What does he ask about his other family members? In lines 255--383, what sort of people does Odysseus describe? When he pauses, which member of the royal family speaks to the assembled guests? What does she tell them to do? Who immediately supports what she said? Who says that Odysseus should spend an extra day on Skheria, and for what purpose? How long does Odysseus say he would delay for this purpose? What does the king request Odysseus speak about next? Which companion from the battle of Troy speaks next to Odysseus in the land of the dead? How does he tell Odysseus he died? When did we first read about his death? What advice does this dead man give Odysseus? About which family member does this man inquire? Why can Odysseus not answer? Which dead man next appears to Odysseus in line 548? What compliment does Odysseus pay him? What is this man's opinion of being dead? What does this man say it would be better to be as a live man "than lord it over all the exhausted dead? What does this tell us about the Greek view of death? About which family members does this man inquire? Odysseus tells him about his son. What is the son's name, and what does Odysseus tell him the son did? How does this dead man take the news about the deeds of his son? Reading Guide for The Odyssey Book Twelve What do Odysseus and his men do at dawn when they return to Aiaia? While detailing the challenges ahead, Kirke tells Odysseus about the Skylla and Kharybdis. Why does she suggest that he pass by the Skylla rather than the Kharybdis? When he asks her to tell him how to fight off Skylla, what does she say? How is Odysseus able to listen to the Seirenes without being drawn toward them to his death? How does he keep the crew from listening? What are his instructions to the crew about what they should do when he tries to ask to be untied? What lesson can you learn from the example of how Odysseus dealt with the Seirenes? Why does Odysseus say he did not tell the crew about Skylla ahead of time? Do you think he made the right choice to go past the Skylla rather than the Kharybdis? What sight does Odysseus say is “far the worst I ever suffered, questing the passes of the strange sea?” Why do you think this sight is worse for him than the sight of his men being killed by the Laistrygonians or the Kyklops? When the crew insists upon landing upon Thrinakia, what does Odysseus ask them to swear? Why are they stuck on Thrinakia, and for how long? Why does Odysseus go into the interior of the island alone? What happens to him there? What do his men do while he is gone? When Helios learns about the killing of his “kine,” or cattle, what does he threaten to do if the culprits are not made to pay restitution or penalty? How does Odysseus say he learned about the conversation between Helios and the other gods? What “queer signs” did the gods make appear to Odysseus and his men regarding the cattle? How does Zeus make the crew pay for their crime against Helios? What does Odysseus lash together to ride out the storm? How does he keep from being drowned in the Kharybdis? How long must he suffer over the Kharybdis? How is he able to paddle past the Skylla without being eaten? On which island does he say he landed next? Who lived there?