The Odyssey opens with Odysseus already held on Calypso's island in the twentieth year since he left Ithaca, while the gods debate his return. What does starting here make the poem's opening?

Homer begins with Odysseus already stranded, so the reader has to place his earlier adventures in order. Which of these happened first in the story's own time?

A novel opens with a boy's birth and school years in order, then in a later chapter returns to a scene from his childhood. What is true of its structure?

In Books 9 to 12 Odysseus sits at King Alcinous's table and tells of the Cyclops, Circe and the Sirens. What does this long telling do for a reader?

Because the poem starts so late in the story, some events reach the reader only through a character's own account. Which of these does a reader learn that way rather than watch happen?

Homer does not show Odysseus at all in the poem's first four books. Whose journey to Pylos and Sparta fills them instead?

"Endure, my heart; yea, a baser thing thou once didst bear, on that day when the Cyclops, unrestrained in fury, devoured the mighty men of my company." (Book 20, trans. Butcher and Lang). Which conflict does this show?

"Truly every shape of death is hateful to wretched mortals, but to die of hunger and so meet doom is most pitiful of all." Eurylochus, Book 12, trans. Butcher and Lang. What does he weigh against angering a god?

His raft smashed, Odysseus drifts and swims for two nights and two days in the open swell before he sights the Phaeacian coast (Book 5). Which type of conflict does this stretch turn on?

For three years Penelope weaves a shroud by day and unravels it at night, saying no Achaean woman must be able to count blame in her (Book 2). Which type of conflict is she in?

"So spake they uttering a sweet voice, and my heart was fain to listen, and I bade my company unbind me, nodding at them with a frown." Odysseus at the Sirens, Book 12, trans. Butcher and Lang. What conflict is this?

Calypso offers that Odysseus would 'never taste of death' if he stayed, yet he answers that he longs 'day by day to fare homeward' (Book 5, trans. Butcher and Lang). What values does his choice set against each other?

Sailing clear of the cave, Odysseus shouts his real name back at the blinded Cyclops although his men beg him to keep silent (Book 9). What does that boast cost him?

The blinded Polyphemus prays to Poseidon that Odysseus may never reach home. Why does that prayer carry such weight in the poem?

For most of the Odyssey an outside voice tells the story, but Books 9 to 12 are spoken by Odysseus himself to his Phaeacian hosts. What narrative technique is that?

While Odysseus sits weeping on Calypso's shore, the poem reports Zeus and Athene talking on Olympus. What does that show about the poem's outside voice?

Odysseus narrates Books 9 to 12 himself, and no other member of his company survives. Which of these does that choice keep from the reader?

Just landed in Ithaca, Odysseus tells a young herdsman he is an outlaw from Crete, and Homer says plainly that he 'spoke not the truth' (Book 13, trans. Butcher and Lang). What does this illustrate?

"But of Scylla I told them nothing more, a bane none might deal with, lest haply my company should cease from rowing for fear." Odysseus, Book 12, trans. Butcher and Lang. Why does he withhold this?

A single story can both begin in the middle of the action and use a flashback later on.