posts comments

Odyssey, Book 4 Notes

Lacedaimon

Major concepts:

  • Greek hospitality
  • Helen and her stories of Troy
  • Menelaus's return from Troy
  • Menelaus's news of Odysseus
  • Menelaus's reaction to Helen's stories
  • Proteus
  • Plot to kill Telemachus

Study Guide Questions:

  1. How do Menelaus and Helen compare to Nestor as hosts?
  2. What clues cue Menelaus and Helen that Telemachus is Odysseus's son?
  3. How does Menelaus represent himself as responding to his wanderings on the way home to Sparta?
  4. What is Menelaus's opinion of Odysseus?
  5. Why does Menelaus still value and accept Helen, even though her elopement to Paris led to the Trojan War?
  6. What is impressive about the palace of Menelaus and Helen?
  7. How does Menelaus's story of Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, serve as an instructional tool for Telemachus in his quest to find his father?
  8. Why is information withheld so frequently?
  9. What does Penelope learn in this book?
  10. Describe Antinous's plan to kill Telemachus.

0 comments: