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Question 2 • CMS 2025-2026 English I CREDIT RECOVERY

Which excerpt from The Odyssey best shows that the ancient Greeks greatly valued the idea of home?

Answer

What of those years of rough adventure, weathered under Zeus? The wind that carried us west from Ilium brought me to Ismarus, on the far shore, a strongpoint on the coast of Cicones.

And this new grief we bore with us to sea: our precious lives we had, but not our friends. No ship made sail next day until some shipmate had raised a cry, three times, for each poor ghost unfleshed by the Cicones on that field.

They fell in, soon enough, with Lotus-Eaters, who showed no will to do us harm, only offering the sweet Lotus to our friends— but those who ate this honeyed plant, the Lotus, never cared to report, nor to return:

My home is on the peaked sea-mark of Ithaca under Mount Neion's wind-blown robe of leaves, in sight of other islands—Dulichium, Same, wooded Zacynthus—Ithaca being most lofty in that coastal sea,

Explanation

The excerpt in D names Odysseus’s home, Ithaca, and describes its location among the surrounding islands. By identifying home so specifically, it shows how important returning to and belonging to one’s homeland is. The other excerpts focus on battles, losses, or the Lotus-Eaters rather than on home.

AI-written and checked against the verified answer.

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