The Adventures of Ulysses

Prologue-Chapter 4

Reading Check

1. Paris (Prologue)

2. Three (Chapter 1)

3. Libya (Chapter 3)

4. Nobody (Chapter 4)

Short Answer

1. They believe that bringing the horse inside the city will devalue it and cause Poseidon to turn against the Greeks. (Prologue)

2. His men insist on taking with them the gold and jewels they have looted from Troy, and this takes up some of the room meant for food and water. (Chapter 1)

3. When they lighten the ships by throwing gold and jewels overboard, the naiads are attracted to the glittering and come close to the ships to flirt with the men. (Chapter 2)

4. The lotus is a flower that tastes like delicious honey and causes those who consume it to stay in a perpetual state of dreams and sleep. (Chapter 3)

5. He moves the rock that serves as a door to his cave and then waits for the hungry men to be lured inside by the smell of roasting goat. Once they are inside, he rolls the rock back into place, trapping them. (Chapter 4)

Chapters 5-8

Reading Check

1. Aeolus (Chapter 5)

2. A giant (Chapter 6)

3. A stag or deer (Chapter 7)

4. The island of the Sirens (Chapter 8)

Short Answer

1. Poseidon clinks his bracelets together, making the men think that the bag has coins in it. (Chapter 5)

2. Aeolus realizes from the sequence of events that Poseidon hates Ulysses, and this makes Aeolus too afraid to help Ulysses again. (Chapter 5)

3. The men beach two ships to repair them, but while they are on the island, a group of cannibal giants rushes down to the beach, killing and eating most of the men and smashing up both ships. (Chapter 6)

4. Circe seems to welcome them, allowing them to bathe and then offering them food. But the porridge she gives them turns them into pigs. (Chapter 7)

5. Ulysses’s home is overrun with men who have come to pursue marriage with Penelope. (Chapter 8)

Chapters 9-13

Reading Check

1. Two (Chapter 10)

2. Zeus (Chapter 11)

3. Kill them (Chapter 12)

4. Elysian Fields (Chapter 13)

Short Answer

1. The ship’s path toward the south is blocked by rocks that follow the ship no matter how Ulysses tries to circumvent them. Finally concluding that they have been sent to block him from escaping the dangers foretold by the ghosts, he gives up and sails toward Sicily instead. (Chapter 9)

2. He plugs their ears with wax so that they will not hear the Sirens’ song. (Chapter 10)

3. Scylla grabs two of the ship’s oars and uses them to pull the ship close. Then she grabs six men with her tentacles and devours them alive. (Chapter 11)

4. Eurylochus claims that the gods have taken pity on them and that they have found and killed some stags. (Chapter 12)

5. She shows him how Penelope and Telemachus are doing, and then she shows him scenes of his own heroism from his recent adventures. (Chapter 13)

Chapters 14-16

Reading Check

1. Seventeen (Chapter 14)

2. Athene (Chapter 15)

3. Artemis (Chapter15)

4. Ten years (Chapter 16)

Short Answer

1. She loans Ulysses her unsinkable veil. Wrapped in this veil, he can swim the two days to Phaeacia. (Chapter 14)

2. He swims along the rocky shore until he finds the mouth of a river. He swims upstream into the river and can get out on the riverbank. (Chapter 14)

3. He uses Athene’s shield with the Gorgon face on it to turn the sailors to stone as they return into the harbor at Phaeacia. (Chapter 15)

4. Ithaca is controlled by the suitors, who are his enemies. Ulysses needs to gather information and assistance before attempting to take back control of Ithaca, but he does not want his enemies to be aware of his presence until he is ready to strike. (Chapter 16)

5. Ulysses, pretending to be a beggar who once knew her husband, tells Penelope that Ulysses himself suggested that she might become a war widow and that, if this happened, she should hold an archery contest and marry the winner. The contest gives Ulysses a chance to attack and ultimately kill all the suitors. (Chapter 16)