The Odyssey Book 1
What is Athena's role and what does she advise Telemachus to do?
Athena advises Telemachus to gather a crew and sail to Pylos and then to Sparta in search of information on Odysseus. She tells Telemachus that he must avenge his father by killing the suitors that dishonor the estate, as Prince Orestes avenged the death of his father King Agamemnon by killing his father's murderer.
Which gods/goddesses are helping Odysseus? Which gods/goddesses are against him?
Athena is the main goddess helping Odysseus; Poseidon is against him.
Who is the narrator?
Homer
Who is Penelope and what is her role?
Penelope is Odysseus' wife and she is the queen of Ithaca.
Who has taken over Odysseus' house and what is the problem?
Suitors have overtaken his home, saying that Odysseus is dead. Thus, they demand Penelope to pick a suitable husband from the suitors.
How is Telemachus defined and described in Book 1? .
Telemachus is still maturing as a man. He's only 20 and had just been born when his father left for the Trojan War. He is devoted to his mother and maintaining his father's estate.
Summarize the plot on the information you have so far.
The story begins 10 years after the end of the Trojan War. All of the Greek heroes except Odysseus have returned home. Odysseus languishes on the remote island Ogygia with the goddess Calypso, who has fallen in love with him and refuses to let him leave. Meanwhile, a mob of suitors is devouring his estate in Ithaca and courting his wife, Penelope, in hopes of taking over his kingdom. His son, Telemachus, an infant when Odysseus left but now a young man, is helpless to stop them. He has resigned himself to the likelihood that his father is dead. With the consent of Zeus, Athena travels to Ithaca to speak with Telemachus because she predicts that Odysseus is still alive and will soon return to his home. She advises Telemachus to call together the suitors and announce their banishment from his father's estate. She then tells him he must make a journey to Pylos and Sparta to ask for any news of his father. After this conversation, Telemachus encounters Penelope in the suitors' quarters, upset over a song that the court bard is singing, which makes Penelope more miserable than she already is. Telemachus then gives the suitors notice that he will hold an assembly the next day at which they will be ordered to leave his father's estate. Two defiant suitors rebuke Telemachus and ask the identity of the visitor he had just been speaking to. Although Telemachus suspects that his visitor was a goddess in disguise, he tells them only that the man was a friend of his father.
How many different ways is Odysseus described in Book 1?
godlike, arrogant, lonely, homesick (and many others)
