Student Name: _____________________________ Period: _____ Date: ____________

An Introduction to the Odyssey

Directions: Please answer each of the following questions in complete sentences.

Note: You will lose points if your answers are NOT in complete sentences.

1. Who is credited with gathering all the great-war stories of Greece together as an
Epic, and what are they called?

2. What is the name of the first epic, and what is it about?

3. Who was the Trojan War between?

4. What was the cause of the Trojan War, as told in the Iliad?

5. Who is Helen, and what did she do?

6. What is the name of the second epic, and what is it about?

7. What is an Epic?

8. Fill in the blanks for the following sentences:

The Iliad is the primary model for the epic of ____________________________________.

The Odyssey is the model for the epic of __________________________________________.

9. According to the Iliad, why did the Greeks attack Troy?

10. What was the outcome of the Trojan War?

11. How were heroes thought of in Homer’s day?

12. How is Odysseus different from other “heroes?”

13. What were the names of Odysseus’ wife and son?

15. How did Odysseus feel about the Trojan War?

Student Name: _____________________________ Period: _____ Date: ____________

16. Who thought of the famous wooden-horse trick that led to the downfall of Troy?

17. How did the Trojan Horse lead to the downfall of Troy?

18. What is the theme of the Odyssey?

19. What is Telemachus threatened by?

20. Fill in the blanks for the following sentences:

While Telemachus is in search of his ___________________________________,

Odysseus is in search of a way out of what we might today call his

_____________________________________________.

21. What are myths?

22. What is an alter ego?

23. Who is the god that works against Odysseus?

24. Who was Homer?

25. How were the Iliad and the Odyssey originally told?