2. What is the purpose of the many allusions to the legend about the homecoming of Agamemnon?

3. What outstanding personal qualities enable Odysseus to survive all his dangerous adventures and to surmount all obstacles to return home safely and regain his old status?

4. What are some of Odysseus' weaknesses?

5. What is the significance of the blind bard, Demodocus, who entertains at the banquets of King Alcinous to historians?

6. What role does Athene play in the Odyssey? Why is she often considered its main female character?

7. When does the dramatic climax of the Odyssey take place? Is this before or after reunion of Odysseus and Penelope? Why?

8. Who is Odysseus' enemy and why?

9. What is Telemachus' problem?

10. Why is Odysseus' choice to raid the land of the Cicones, Ismareus, a bad choice? What impression do you get of Odysseus from this encounter?

11. What do you think is Odysseus' worst action of his wanderings and why?

12. Why is the "Odyssey" a story read by so many after years and years?

13. Why is Odysseus looked to as a powerful representation of the mythic hero?

14. In what ways are the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" similar? In what ways do they differ?

15. Explain how Homer uses chronology in telling the story of Odysseus.