Remember, your answers should reflect that you have READ and THOUGHT critically about the text. No short two-sentence "answers" that say nothing except general statements my eight year-old niece could make because they are so obvious.
Please use specific scenes / quotes from the text to justify your responses.
1. What do Calypso (Book 5) and her island represent within the overall story? How might she be an ambiguous character within the text? How might Calypso be a kind of "anti-Penelope?"
2. The central characters of Books 6-7 are Naucisaa, Arete and King Alcinous. What do they (along with where they live) represent in Odysseus's journey (remember, these are the first characters he meets after Calypso - how does this move represent the beginning of his "journey home"?).
3. Book 8 introduces Demodocus, the blind singer. This book introduces what important theme into the work (that we have already discussed, but here is it quite obvious). How does Demodocus become a "key player" in Odysseus's journey home? Why?
4. Book 9 with its Cyclops is one of the most famous episodes of 'The Odyssey.' What do the Cyclops represent? How does what he represents indicate a kind of "starting point" for Odysseus's trials on his journey? Why the need for these trials? How do you interpret Odysseus's statement that he is "Nobody"?
5. How is Book 10 in many ways the "opposite" of Book 9? Aeolus and the Laestrygonians represent what themes? Why do they both cast him away?
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