The Adventures of Ulysses

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Prologue-Chapter 4

Reading Check

1. Who is the shepherd who is recruited to judge which of the goddesses is the most beautiful?

2. How many ships does Ulysses command?

3. In what country does Morpheus live?

4. Whom does Polyphemus tell the other Cyclopes is responsible for blinding him?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do the Trojans take the wooden horse inside the city gates?

2. Why are Ulysses’s ships not fully stocked with food and water when he sets sail back home to Greece?

3. What causes Poseidon to think that Ulysses’s men are trying to steal away his naiads?

4. What are the properties of the lotus flowers that Ulysses and his men encounter in Chapter 3?

5. How does Polyphemus trap Ulysses’s men in his cave?

Paired Resources

Le Cyclope

• This 1914 painting by Odilon Redon offers an unusual perspective on Polyphemus.
• This resource relates to the theme of Flawed Gods and Foolish People.
• How does this painting make you feel about the cyclops? What do the colors, composition, and style of this painting seem to suggest about him? How does Redon’s interpretation of Polyphemus compare to Evslin’s? Is Redon’s interpretation a reasonable one? Why or why not?