Name: Tipon, Valerie H.

Course Year & Section : BSAB II-A

Literary Analysis

Title: The Odyssey

I. Previewing. Before reading the text, answer the following guide questions.

Guide Questions

Who wrote the text? Homer

Describe the life of the
author. -The author credited with composing The Iliad and The
Odyssey who is arguably the greatest poet of the ancient
world. Historians place his birth sometime around 750 BC
and conjecture that he was born and resided in or near
Chios

II. Context Clues. Highlight at least 5 unfamiliar words and highlight or underline the
words from the text that will lead you to the meaning of the text

Unfamiliar Words Context Clues

1. Shore Odysseus manages to swim to shore, and he find
himself in the land of Phaecians
2. Arrogant Penelope feels unable to send the arrogant and
unmannered suitors away
3. Threatened Odysseus begs for food from the suitors, who abuse
and threatened him.
4. Disguise Telemachus learn in his father in disguise
5. Intervenes Athena intervenes and brings peace

III. Elements of Story

A. Characters

Identify the characters from the short story and describe each

Characters Description
1. Odysseus The protagonist of The Odyssey. Husband of Queen
Penelope and the father of Prince Telemachus.
Though a strong and courageous warrior, he is most
renowned for his cunning. He is a favorite of the
goddess Athena, who often sends him divine aid, but
a bitter enemy of Poseidon, who frustrates his
journey at every turn.
2. Poseidon God of the sea. As the suitors are Odysseus’s mortal
antagonists, Poseidon is his divine antagonist. He
 despises Odysseus for blinding his son, the Cyclops
Polyphemus, and constantly hampers his journey
home.
3. Calypso The beautiful nymph who falls in love with Odysseus
when he lands on her island-home of Ogygia. Calypso
holds him prisoner there for seven years until
Hermes, the messenger god, persuades her to let
him go.
4. Penelope Wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus.
Penelope spends her days in the palace pining for
the husband who left for Troy twenty years earlier
and never returned.
5. Telemachus Odysseus’s son. He is a natural obstacle to the
suitors desperately courting his mother, but despite
his courage and good heart, he initially lacks the
poise and confidence to oppose them.
6. Eumaeus The loyal shepherd who, along with the cowherd
Philoetius, helps Odysseus reclaim his throne after
his return to Ithaca.
7. Athena Daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom, purposeful
battle, and the womanly arts. She often appears in
disguise as Mentor, an old friend of Odysseus.
8. Laertes Odysseus’s aging father, who resides on a farm in
Ithaca. In despair and physical decline, Laertes
regains his spirit when Odysseus returns and
eventually kills Antinous’s father.

B. Setting

Identify the setting of the story. Describe it.

Setting (Place and Time) Description

Greek Island of Ithaca Ithaca is a rocky Greek island to the left of the mainland. This is Odysseus’ home

IV. Summary

Ten years after the fall of Troy, Odysseus is still not returning to his native Ithaca. With
permission from Zeus, Athena arranges for his release from the island of the beautiful goddess
Calypso, and he sets sail on a makeshift raft. He reveals his name to Polyphemus and starts his
personal war with Poseidon. He is tricked by Circe and turned into pigs, but with the help of
Hermes, he metamorphoses the pigs back into men. He and his men reach Calypso's island,
where they are welcomed by the Phaeacians and reunited with Telemachus, Eumaeus, and
Philoitios.

Penelope proposes a contest to marry the suitor who can string a great bow and shoot
an arrow through a dozen axe heads, but the suitor Antinous reveals his identity and leads the
massacre of the suitors, aided only at the end by Athena. Outside of town, he visits his ailing
father, Laertes, and with the encouragement of Athena, he strikes down the ringleader,
 Antinous' father. Before the battle can progress any further, Athena orders peace between the
two sides.

V. Connecting

Making Connections
A. Text to Self
1. What personal experience One of the significant ways the Odyssey is relevant to the modern day
can you relate to the text? is through its examination of mortality,
2. Describe how the text and
your life are connected? As through this we can see how the text teaches us to respect the
dead, but also how in turn the text suggests we live our lives

B. Text to Text

1. What other text can Don Quixote

you relate to the text?

2. Explain how these The hero of Cervantes classic Spanish novel has much in common
texts are connected with Odysseus: both go on epic journeys, and both are prone to
inflating their tales of heroism and survival
C. Text to World

1. What events in your The story of the Odyssey is relates to the passage through life and the
surrounding you may importance of love and family and home.
relate to the text?

2. Describe the event Just like Odysseus, we all have long-term and short-term goals to
and its connection to realize. In life, we all want something we long for and will work
the text? relentlessly until we reach that objective, like Odysseus’ ambition to
reach his wife and son in Ithaca.