The Odyssey Questions & Answers

Circe is a powerful witch and goddess who lives on the island of Aeaea. When Odysseus and his men arrive there, she welcomes some of the crew into her palace, gives them drugged food, and… read more

The main character is Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. He is imperfect but heroic, and his long journey home after the Trojan War drives the entire story. Odysseus spends 10 years trying to return… read more

The main action of the poem takes place in the years immediately after the Trojan War, around the 12th century BCE in Mycenaean Greece. When the poem begins, Odysseus has been away from home for… read more

Calypso is a beautiful goddess who keeps Odysseus captive for seven years on the island of Ogygia because she falls in love with him. She wants him to stay with her forever as her husband… read more

In The Odyssey, Penelope tests Odysseus by pretending that she does not fully believe he is really her husband, even after he has revealed himself and killed the suitors that have invaded their home… read more

Tiresias is a blind prophet whom Odysseus meets in the underworld during his journey home from Troy. Odysseus travels to the land of the dead on Circe’s advice because Tiresias is the one figure who… read more

At the end of the poem, Odysseus finally returns home to Ithaca, kills the suitors who have overrun his house, reunites with Penelope, and restores peace to his kingdom. Disguised as a beggar with Athena’s… read more

In The Odyssey, Odysseus escapes Calypso because the gods finally order her to release him. Athena persuades Zeus to intervene on Odysseus’s behalf, and Zeus sends Hermes to Calypso’s island, Ogygia, with the command… read more

In The Odyssey, Poseidon is angry with Odysseus because Odysseus blinded Poseidon’s son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. After Polyphemus trapped Odysseus and his crew in a cave and ate some of the men, Odysseus escaped… read more

In The Odyssey, Antinous is the leading and most arrogant of the suitors trying to marry Penelope while Odysseus is away. He lives in Odysseus’s palace, consumes his wealth, insults his family, and encourages… read more

In The Odyssey, Odysseus’s mother Anticleia dies of grief and longing while he is away from home for 20 years fighting in the Trojan War and wandering afterward. When Odysseus meets her spirit in… read more

The genre is epic poetry. The poem is one of the earliest and most influential epics in Western literature, and it follows the long journey of the hero Odysseus as he struggles to return home… read more

Odysseus kills the suitors in The Odyssey because they have violated his household, threatened his family, and broken the sacred customs of hospitality and marriage. For years, the suitors have lived in Odysseus’s palace,… read more

Agamemnon is a Greek commander from the Trojan War, Menelaus's brother, and a tragic example of a warrior who survives Troy only to be murdered when he gets home. His story is repeatedly used… read more

In The Odyssey, Odysseus fights the suitors with help from Telemachus, Athena, Eumaeus the swineherd, and Philoetius the cowherd. Telemachus is his main human ally. After Odysseus reveals himself to his son, they… read more

In The Odyssey, Odysseus’s crew opens the wind bag. Aeolus, the god of the winds, gives Odysseus a sack containing the winds and releases only the West Wind to blow the ship toward Ithaca… read more

In The Odyssey, Penelope survives Odysseus’s long absence, resists the suitors who want to marry her, and is finally reunited with Odysseus after he returns to Ithaca and kills them. For most of… read more

In The Odyssey, Odysseus leaves home to fight in the Trojan War, and he stays away far longer because his journey back to Ithaca is blocked by danger, bad choices, and divine anger. … read more

Odysseus goes to the underworld in The Odyssey because Circe tells him he must consult the ghost of Tiresias, a blind prophet, to learn how to get home to Ithaca. After Odysseus and his… read more

Throughout the poem, Telemachus grows from a helpless young prince into an active defender of Odysseus’s household. At the beginning, he is stuck in Ithaca watching the suitors harass Penelope and consume the estate’s… read more

In The Odyssey, Odysseus tells the Cyclops Polyphemus that his name is Nobody. He gives this false name while Polyphemus is drunk on the strong wine Odysseus has offered him. After Polyphemus falls asleep… read more

Odysseus loses his entire crew throughout The Odyssey, and he is the only man from his ships who survives the journey home. The exact total number of crewmen is not given here, but… read more

In The Odyssey, Athena tells Telemachus to stop sitting helplessly in Ithaca and take action: he should confront the suitors, gather a crew, sail to Pylos and Sparta, and search for news of Odysseus. … read more

In The Odyssey, Nestor is the king of Pylos and an old Greek commander from the Trojan War whom Telemachus visits while searching for news of Odysseus. Nestor cannot tell Telemachus what happened… read more

In The Odyssey, Odysseus wants to hear the Sirens because their song is a famous, deadly temptation, and hearing it would let him gain knowledge and glory while proving his self-restraint. Circe warns… read more

Zeus kills Odysseus’s crew in The Odyssey because they slaughter and eat the sacred Cattle of the Sun, which belong to the sun god Helios, after they had been warned not to harm them. … read more

In The Odyssey, Odysseus is described as a brave but flawed hero: the king of Ithaca, Penelope’s husband, Telemachus’s father, a former Trojan War commander, and a man defined by intelligence, endurance, pride, and… read more

The Odyssey is an epic poem with many tragic episodes, rather than a tragedy in its overall genre. The story contains deep suffering. Odysseus loses every one of his men before he reaches Ithaca: his… read more

In The Odyssey, Nestor advises Telemachus to take courage from Orestes’s example, continue his search by visiting Menelaus in Sparta, and avoid staying away from Ithaca too long. When Telemachus reaches Pylos, Nestor… read more

In The Odyssey, Telemachus tells the suitors that they are disgracing his household, wasting Odysseus’s wealth, and risking punishment from the gods if they do not leave. After Athena’s visit gives him courage,… read more