Introduction to Western Literature and Arts (西洋文學概要)

1st Semester, 2005

Quiz 3: Homer's The Odyssey, Books I, IX, X

I. Fill in the Blank

  1. In the prologue to the story of Trojan War, the goddess who presents a golden apple “for the fairest” in the wedding banquet of King Peleus and the nymph Thetis is   1  . And the person that is chosen to judge who is the fairest goddess is    .

  2. The Odyssey contains four groups of stories. The names for these groups are The Great Wandering,    3  ,    4  , and Odysseus at Ithaca.

  3. The controlling theme in Odysseus's adventures was the tension between the sense of honor and the necessity of concealment. Odysseus had stayed with Kalypso for    5    years.

  4. According to the epic tradition, in the beginning of the poetry, the poet will ask for the help of Muse. This convention is called    6   And the telling of the story begins in the middle is called       7         

II. Short Answers:

The following two passages are extracted from The Odyssey. Read the passages closely, and try to answer the questions:

(1) Who is the author of this work?
(2) What form of literature does this work belong to?
(3) In what situation do these passages appear?
(4) In what way does these two passages relate to the theme of The Odyssey?
(5) In what way do these passages reveal the personality of Odysseus?

       Passage A:

“Cyclops, you ask me for my famous name. I will tell you
Then, but you must give me a quest gift as you have promised.
Nobody is my name. My father and mother call me
Nobody, as do all the others who are my companions.”

      Passage B:

“Cyclops, if any mortal man ever asks you who it was
that inflicted upon your eye this shameful blinding.
tell him that you were blinded by Odysseus, sacker of cities.
Laertes is his father, and he makes his home in Ithaca.”