Homer · c. 700 BC
Questions on the text, each answered in the book’s own words, with the minute you hear it.
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Answer Helios Hyperion, the Sun
“fools, who devoured the kine of Helios Hyperion; but he took from them the day of their returning.”
Answer Calypso
“did the queenly nymph Calypso, that bright goddess, keep back in her hollow caves, yearning that he should be her husband.”
Answer Poseidon
“And all the gods pitied him save Poseidon; but he continued to rage unceasingly against godlike Odysseus until at length he reached his own land.”
Answer Among the far-off Ethiopians
“Howbeit Poseidon had gone among the far-off Ethiopians—the Ethiopians who dwell sundered in twain, the farthermost of men”
Answer Aegisthus
“Among them the father of gods and men was first to speak, for in his heart he thought of noble Aegisthus, whom far-famed Orestes, Agamemnon’s son, had slain.”
Answer Hermes
“sending Hermes, the keen-sighted Argeiphontes, that he should neither slay the man nor woo his wife”
Answer Atlas
“a goddess, daughter of Atlas of baneful mind, who knows the depths of every sea, and himself holds the tall pillars which keep earth and heaven apart.”
Answer His own land
“But Odysseus, in his longing to see were it but the smoke leaping up from his own land, yearns to die.”
Answer Polyphemus
“because of the Cyclops, whom Odysseus blinded of his eye— even the godlike Polyphemus, whose might is greatest among all the Cyclopes”
Answer The nymph Thoosa
“and the nymph Thoosa bore him, daughter of Phorcys who rules over the unresting sea; for in the hollow caves she lay with Poseidon.”
Answer Ogygia
“let us send forth Hermes, the messenger, Argeiphontes, to the isle Ogygia, that with all speed he may declare to the fair-tressed nymph our fixed resolve”
Answer Mentes, leader of the Taphians
“In her hand she held the spear of bronze, and she was in the likeness of a stranger, Mentes, the leader of the Taphians.”
Answer Draughts
“They were taking their pleasure at draughts in front of the doors, sitting on the hides of oxen which they themselves had slain”
Answer Telemachus
“Her the godlike Telemachus was far the first to see, for he was sitting among the wooers, sad at heart, seeing in thought his noble father”
Answer In a polished spear-rack against a tall pillar
“he bore the spear and set it against a tall pillar in a polished spear-rack, where were set many spears besides, even those of Odysseus of the steadfast heart.”
Answer Gold
“Then a handmaid brought water for the hands in a fair pitcher of gold, and poured it over a silver basin for them to wash”
Answer Phemius
“And a herald put the beautiful lyre in the hands of Phemius, who sang perforce among the wooers”
Answer To Temese, for copper
“on my way to Temese for copper; and I bear with me shining iron.”
Answer Rheithron
“My ship lies yonder beside the fields away from the city, in the harbor of Rheithron, under woody Neion.”
Answer His mother
“My mother says that I am his child; but I know not, for never yet did any man of himself know his own parentage.”
Answer Dulichium, Same and Zacynthus
“Dulichium and Same and wooded Zacynthus—and those who lord it over rocky Ithaca, all these woo my mother and lay waste my house.”
Answer A deadly drug to smear his arrows
“went Odysseus in his swift ship in search of a deadly drug, that he might have wherewith to smear his bronze-tipped arrows”
Answer Twenty
“Man with twenty rowers the best ship thou hast, and go to seek tidings of thy father, that has long been gone”
Answer Nestor, at Pylos
“First go to Pylos and question goodly Nestor, and from thence to Sparta to fair-haired Menelaus”
Answer Yet a year
“If so be thou shalt hear that thy father is alive and coming home, then verily, though thou art sore afflicted, thou couldst endure for yet a year.”
Answer Flying upward as a bird
“So spoke the goddess, flashing-eyed Athena, and departed, flying upward as a bird; and in his heart she put strength and courage”
Answer The return of the Achaeans from Troy
“he sang of the return of the Achaeans—the woeful return from Troy which Pallas Athena laid upon them.”
Answer Icarius
“And from her upper chamber the daughter of Icarius, wise Penelope, heard his wondrous song”
Answer Two
“she went down the high stairway from her chamber, not alone, for two handmaids attended her.”
Answer The loom and the distaff
“Nay, go to thy chamber, and busy thyself with thine own tasks, the loom and the distaff, and bid thy handmaids ply their tasks; but speech shall be for men”
Answer Eupeithes
“Then Antinous, son of Eupeithes, answered him”
Answer Polybus
“Then Eurymachus, son of Polybus, answered him”
Answer The price of twenty oxen
“Her long ago Laertes had bought with his wealth, when she was in her first youth, and gave for her the price of twenty oxen”
Answer Eurycleia
“and with him, bearing blazing torches, went true-hearted Eurycleia, daughter of Ops, son of Peisenor.”
Answer A fleece of wool
“So there, the night through, wrapped in a fleece of wool, he pondered in his mind upon the journey which Athena had shewn him.”
Answer Flashing-eyed
“Then the goddess, flashing-eyed Athena, answered him: “Father of us all, thou son of Cronos, high above all lords”
Homer, The Odyssey, Book I, in the English of A. T. Murray, The Odyssey with an English Translation, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press / William Heinemann, 1919), from the Perseus Digital Library’s edition of that text. Public domain in the United States (published 1919); the Perseus digitisation is CC BY-SA 3.0.