The Odyssey Test Review Key
Vocabulary:
Match the word to its definition below.
1. Aloof __D____
2. Archetype ___U___
3. Ardor___L___
4. Climax__F____
5. Cower___G___
6. Epic___BB___
7. Epic hero__AA____
8. External conflict___O___
9. Guile___S___
10. Guise___I___
11. Implacable__B____
12. Impudence___H___
13. Internal conflict__P____
14. Invocation__Y____
15. Jostle___A___
16. Lavish___C___
17. Muses__X____
18. Myth___W___
19. Oral Tradition___V___
20. Plot__E____
21. Plunder___Q___
22. Ponderous__T____
23. Renowned___J___
24. Shroud___N___
25. Structure__Z____
26. Shun___K___
27. Tumult__M____
28. Valor__R____
A. To bump, push, or shove roughly, as with elbows in a crowd.
B. Impossible to satisfy or soothe; unyielding.
C. To give generously; provide in abundance.
D. Emotionally distant; uninvolved; uninterested.
E. The sequence of events in a story.
F. The point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in a story.
G. To crouch or shrink back, as in fear or shame.
H. Speech or behavior that is aggressively forward or rude.
I. Outward appearance; false appearance.
J. Famous; widely known.
K. To keep away from; avoid.
L. Passion; intensity or emotion; enthusiasm.
M. Commotion; uproar.
N. To cover, as with a veil or burial cloth; conceal.
O. A conflict where a character struggles against some outside force.
P. A conflict that takes place within the mind of the character.
Q. To take (property) by force, especially in warfare.
R. Great courage, especially in battle.
S. Slyness; craftiness; skillful deception.
T. Having great weight or bulk; heavy.
U. A character, an image, a pattern of events, or an idea that is common to human experience.
V. Literature that is passed from one generation to another by performance or word of mouth.
W. A traditional story with no known author.
X. Nine goddesses who preside over the arts and sciences and inspire those who show talent in
these areas.
Y. A request to a muse to provide inspiration.
Z. The way an author organizes images, ideas, words, and lines.
AA. Traditionally a male character whose main goal is to save his nation or its people during a
time of crisis.
BB. A long narrative poem, written in a dignified style, that celebrates the adventures and
achievements of one or more heroic figures.
Part I:
Word bank:
Cyclopes
Odysseus
Lotus Eaters invocation
giant rock slab
Phaeacia
Homer opens with an__________________invocation__________, a call of inspiration
to the muses. Then he tells the story of__________Odysseus_______________, who is
washed up on the island of _______________Phaeacia____________, where a princess
discovers him and takes him to her father, who feeds and clothes Odysseus. Odysseus tells
them how he came to be on their island.
Odysseus and his men came to the land of the ______Lotus
Eaters_____________. Any man who ate the Lotus lost his will to leave that land, and
Odysseus had to force them to leave.
Then they arrive at the land of the ______________Cyclopes___________. They
come across a cave, and begin going through the Cyclops’s things while he is away. The
Cyclops returns and shuts the men in the cave. He will not let them out, and they cannot move
the___________giant rock slab______________ that seals the door; the Cyclops is the only
one strong enough. So Odysseus forms a plan. He gets the Cyclops drunk so that he passes
out, then using a hot, sharpened pike, blind the Cyclops. The next day they tie themselves to
the bellies of the Cyclops’s sheep and escape. As they sail away, Odysseus yells back at the
Cyclops, taunting him.
Part 2:
Word bank:
cattle
wax
Charybdis
Circe’s
regret
Scylla
Sirens
survive
Odysseus and his crew set sail from __________Circe’s_______________
island. Odysseus uses ______________wax_____________ to plug his men’s ears so they
cannot hear the irresistible song of the______________sirens______________, and he tells
the men to tie him to the mast. As they pass____________Scylla____________________ (the
sea monster) and__________________Charybdis___________ (the deadly whirlpool), Scylla
devours six men. Odysseus seems to feel more__________regret______________________
about these deaths than about the others, perhaps because he doesn’t warn the men about the
sea monster.
They travel near Helios’s island, and Odysseus lets the men go ashore. The crew are
stranded on the island for a month while terrible storms rage. The desperate crew members kill
some of the god Helios’s____________cattle____________________for food after using all
their provisions and hunting fish and seabirds on the island. In revenge for the cattle, Zeus
sends a squall to destroy the ship. Odysseus is the only man
to__________survive_______________, and after nine days adrift, he lands on the island of
Ogygia, where the nymph Calypso detains him.
Part 3:
Word bank:
Arrow
Beggar
bow
marry
revealed
Telemachus
Odysseus reveals his identity to___________Telemachus___________, his son. Then,
disguised as a_________beggar_______________________, Odysseus returns to the
manor. Penelope sends for the beggar to discover if he has news of Odysseus. She reveals
problems she has had during her husband’s absence. She sets the suitors to a test (string
a_____________bow_____________ that belonged to Odysseus and shoot
an_____________arrow_____________ through the small openings of 12 axe heads in a row)
and promises to_____________marry_______________ the winner. When the beggar
succeeds, his identity is_____________revealed___________________ .
Part 4:
Word Bank:
Antinous
impudent
Odysseus
Penelope
revenge
Telemachus
Odysseus kills ________Antinous________________________(the most
_______________impudent____________ suitor) with an arrow. The other suitors react
angrily. Odysseus insists on___________revenge_________________; the suitors decide to
“go down fighting.” Odysseus, _______________Telemachus___________,and two herdsmen
kill all the suitors. _____________Penelope_____________sets a secret test for
Odysseus. She says the bed that he built was removed for their room, knowing the only way
that this could happen is if the bed was taken apart, as it was built by
_______________Odysseus________________to fit around a tree growing through the room.
When he proves that he is Odysseus, the two are joyfully reunited.