Book 5 summary

Question 1

What happens at the start of this book?

Answer 1

The Gods assemble on mount Olympus

Question 2

What does Athena say at the assembly?

Answer 2

• She implores Zeus to help Odysseus, who was such a kind and just ruler, and is now trapped in Calypso’s house

Question 3

What does Zeus instruct of the gods?

Answer 3

• He instructs Athena to bring Telemachus home unharmed
• He tells the messenger god Hermes to tell Calypso to release Odysseus from captivity

Question 4

What does Zeus order?

Answer 4

That Odysseus will sail home with great pain and difficulty, and that he will arrive at the land of the Phaeacians, who will speed him home with vast treasures in tow.

Question 5

What does Hermes find on Ogygia?

Answer 5

• The Nymph singing and weaving by a fire in her cavern in the woods
• Odysseus is sitting on the beach and crying

Question 6

What does Hermes tell Calypso, and how does she respond?

Answer 6

• Hermes tells Calypso that Zeus commands her to release Odysseus.
• Calypso angrily shouts that the gods become jealous when goddesses sleep with mortals, even though they often sleep with mortal women
• She claims to love Odysseus as a husband and has even offered him immortality.
• Nevertheless, she agrees to let him go.

Question 7

How does Odysseus react when Calypso tells him she’s letting him go?

Answer 7

• He is suspicious
• Calypso swears an oath not to harm him, and they share a meal

Question 8

How does Calypso warn Odysseus?

Answer 8

• She tells him that if he knew the suffering ahead of him, he would stay with her and be her immortal husband, as she cannot be less fair than his wife

Question 9

How does Odysseus react to Calypso’s mention of Penelope?

Answer 9

• Odysseus replies that Penelope is not as fair as Calypso, yet he still yearns for home
• They fall asleep in each other’s arms…

Question 10

What does Odysseus do the morning after finding out he can go home?

Answer 10

• He sets to work making a raft with Calypso’s tools.
• When he finishes, Calypso gives him provisions and he sails away

Question 11

What happens when Odysseus is sailing away from Ogygia?

Answer 11

• He sails for seventeen days until he sees the island of the Phaeacians.
• However, Poseidon spots him and grows angry at his good fortune

Question 12

What does Poseidon do when he spots Odysseus?

Answer 12

• He sends down a terrible storm.
• Odysseus begins to fear death and wishes he had died a hero’s death on the battlefield instead.
• A wave throws him from the ship and pulls him under, but he resurfaces and clutches his splintering raft

Question 13

What happens to Odysseus as he holds onto his raft?

Answer 13

The goddess Ino sees him and takes pity

Question 14

How does Ino help Odysseus?

Answer 14

• She gives him a magical scarf that will make him temporarily immortal, and tells him to swim to shore
• Once he reaches land, he must throw the scar back into the sea without looking

Question 15

What happens once Odysseus has received the scarf?

Answer 15

• Odysseus does as Ino says
• Poseidon decides that Odysseus has suffered enough, and lets him go
• Athena controls the winds so that they blow Odysseus to the Phaeacian shore

Question 16

How long does Odysseus float for, and what happens when he sees land?

Answer 16

• He floats for two nights and two days
• At the dawn of the third day he spots land, however, waves and sharp waves separate him from shore.

Question 17

How does Odysseus get on-land?

Answer 17

• A wave throws him against the rocks, Athena inspires him with the strength to cling on but a wave drags him back into the sea
• Athena inspires him again, and he swims along the shore looking for a safer place to land
• He prays to Poseidon, and the god brings him to a safe place to climb onshore

Question 18

What does Odysseus do when he gets on land

Answer 18

• He throws himself onto the beach
• He remembers to throw the scarf back into the sea
• He crawls into the woods and falls asleep