Where are Odysseus and his crew going?
To the land of the dead
Who directed them to go there?
Circe
What does Odysseus promise to do for the "breathless dead" and Tiresias?
For the breathless dead he will sacrifice his best cow once he gets to Ithaca; and for Tiresias he will sacrifice his best looking black lamb.
Odysseus makes an allusion to Persephone.
What does he expect his listeners to be familiar with?
The story of how Hades kidnapped Persephone as his bride and forced her to live with him in the Underworld for 6 months of every year.
Who is Elpenor and where and how did he die?
He was one of Odysseus' men; he died at Circe's when he fell off a roof and broke his neck while drunk.
The repeated refrain of "Son of great Laertes" is which element of language?
Epithet (a short description that characterizes a person or thing)
What does Elpenor ask Odysseus to do for him?
That Odysseus give him a funeral when he gets back to Aeaea.
Who is Anticlea?
Odysseus' mother
Why is Odysseus so grieved to see her?
She was alive when he left Ithaca, but now she's dead.
Summarize the prophecy Tiresias foretells to Odysseus in lines 85-97.
On Thrinacia, no one must do any harm to Helios' cattle or all but Odysseus will die, and Odysseus will be lost at sea for years, and when he finally makes it home, he will be faced with many problems, and must kill the disresfectful suitors.
What does Odysseus' mother tell him?
That his wife and son are still grieving for him, his father has moved to the country to be alone with his grief, and she died of a broken heart after he had been gone for so long.
