Book 1 book 2 book 3 book 4 book 5 book 6 book 7 book 8 book 9 book 10 book 11 book 12 book book 14 book 15 book 16 book 17 book 18 book 19 book 20 book 21 book 22 book 23 book 24 themes all themes fate, the gods, and free will piety, customs, and justice cunning, disguise, and selfrestraint memory and grief glory and honor. Troy is a foreign city near the black sea, where the greek army. Themes and colors key litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in the odyssey, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Ithaca is a rocky greek island to the left of the mainland. It takes place in the tenth year after the trojan war. Summary and analysis book 1 athena inspires the prince summary homer opens the odyssey with an invocation to the muse of epic poetry and asks for her guidance in telling the story of a man who has experienced many twists and turns of fate and has suffered many hardships. An outline the first four books of the odyssey largely.
The odyssey is one of two major ancient greek epic poems attributed to homer. Odysseuss house is overrun by greedy suitors who have infested the place. Books 12 the odyssey is an epic journey, but the word journey must be broadly understood. This study guide consists of approximately 76 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of the odyssey. Son of odysseus and penelope, first 4 books are about him. One of the contemptible, villainous suitors who voices his opinion often. This is so important to them because whoever marries her becomes king by transfer of her power.
Homer opens the odyssey with an invocation to the muse of epic poetry and asks for her. The mediterranean coast during the bronze age approximately the 12th century b. Free study guidethe odyssey by homersettinglist of. As we did the gods, and now in this place you have great authority. The odyssey books 14 summary and analysis gradesaver. About the odyssey the odyssey summary character list glossary themes quotes and analysis books 1 4 books 58 books 912 books 16 books 1720 books 2124 symbols, allegory and motifs metaphors and similes irony imagery the fractal structure of epics literary elements related links essay questions quiz 1 quiz 2 quiz 3 quiz 4 citations. Telemachos is totally awed by the place, and he cant help but. Books 14 focus upon odysseus son, telemachos, his efforts to expel the suitors of his. The poem is set about 500 years earlier, around 1200 b. Its very possible that homer based his heros wanderings on real geography but. In these locations odysseus and telemachus negotiate the subtleties of the. The god hermes, sent by zeus in book 1, arrives on ogygia, where calypso has trapped odysseus. Eidothea, one of the resident nymphs, advised him to capture the god of. Homer even gives us a metaphor for the poems tone, when he compares odysseus stringing his bow to a singer tuning his lyre book xxi, lines 404411.
Princes and nobles from ithaca and the surrounding islands who take up residence in the house of odysseus waiting for penelope to choose a new husband. Telemachus sets up the axes and then tries his own hand at the bow, but fails in his attempt to string it. The poet imagines this time as a golden age in which kings enjoy extraordinary wealth, warriors possess almost superhuman strength, and women are supernaturally beautiful. Odysseus, the reader is told, is the only greek survivor of the trojan war who. The epic focuses, of course, on odysseuss nostos return home or homeward voyage, a journey whose details a greek audience would already know because of their rich oral mythic tradition. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
Summary and analysis book 1 athena inspires the prince. Start studying the odyssey characters and places, books 112. Eumaeus hut is a tiny house in the countryside where eumaeus lives and takes care of odysseus swine. Check out our revolutionary sidebyside summary and analysis. A mountain in greece where the greeks believed the gods. Scholars have tried to correlate various places in the odyssey with real locations in the mediterranean, but theres a lot of guess work involved in this. In books 912, odysseus narrates the story of his travels in the years after the.
The odyssey is an epic journey, but the word journey must be broadly understood. Penelope gets odysseus s bow out of the storeroom and announces that she will marry the suitor who can string it and then shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axes. The setting is a geographical potpourri of what was important, mythologically, in homers time period. Book one of the odyssey is set on calypsos island, ogygia. Homer opens the odyssey with an invocation to the muse of epic poetry and asks for her guidance in telling the story of a man who has experienced many twists and turns of fate and has suffered many hardships. Sing to me of the man, muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of. The odyssey characters and places, books 112 flashcards quizlet.
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