80. Q. Technically described, what is Homer’s verse? A. Dactylic hexameter.
81. Q. What is a dactyl? A. A foot of three syllables, of which the first is long and the other two short.
82. Q. In dactylic hexameter how many of these feet are there in a line? A. Six.
83. Q. Name a classic English poem written in dactylic hexameter? A. Longfellow’s “Evangeline.”
84. Q. What does the “Odyssey” mean? A. The poem of Odysseus, or Ulysses, king of the island of Ithaca.
85. Q. When Troy was taken for what place did Odysseus and his followers sail? A. Ithaca.
86. Q. On their way, to what land were they driven? A. That of the Cyclops, a savage race of one-eyed giants.
87. Q. Here, what did Odysseus do to the Cyclop Polyphemus? A. He put out the one eye of the monster, after he had eaten six of the hero’s comrades.
88. Q. What did Poseidon, the god of the sea and father of Polyphemus, do in revenge? A. He doomed Odysseus to wander far and wide over the sea to strange lands.
89. Q. When the “Odyssey” begins, ten years after the fall of Troy, where is Odysseus? A. In the island of Ogygia, at the center of the sea, where for seven years the nymph Calypso has detained him against his will.