Book 1

Questions

1. How are the suitors behaving in Ithaca while Odysseus is away?
2. What disguise does Athena don when she visits Telemachus in Ithaca?
3. What advice does Athena give Telemachus?
4. Who is Antinous?
5. Who attends Telemachus as he prepares for bed at the end of Book 1?
6. Who or what does the poet ask for help to tell the story of Odysseus?
7. Which god has made Odysseus's journey so difficult?

Answers

1. The “brazen” suitors are eating and drinking the household’s provisions and carousing.
2. She disguises herself as “Mentes” (or “Mentor”), a trusted (male) friend of Odysseus.
3. To call an assembly and tell the suitors to scram; set sail in quest for Odysseus; and kill the suitors if necessary
4. One of the brazen suitors who mocks Telemachus
5. His nurse, Eurycleia
6. The muse
7. Poseidon