1. How does Achilles exemplify the Homeric ideal of a man as "a speaker of words and a doer of deeds"?

2. Nestor is the only one of the Greeks to return home to a happy situation.

Does this mean that he is the ideal hero?

3. Graves's characterization of Odysseus is complex. As Graves portrays him, is Odysseus resourceful or unscrupulous? Eloquent or sophistical?

Long-suffering or the cause of suffering?

You may also wish to compare Graves's Odysseus to other pictures of the man, such as in canto 26 of Dante's Inferno or in Alfred Tennyson's poem "Ulysses."

4. Women in this story are queens, wives, and slaves. How is each of these situations materially different from the others?

5. What effect does the element of the supernatural have on the story? Would the outcome of the story be any different without the activity of...