Question

What theme is best revealed by this conflict? 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.   answer choicesSadness can destroy people.One must mourn before moving on.Many lives are lost too soon in battle. People are haunted by lost souls.

Answer 1

One must mourn before moving on.

In the lines, the speaker talks about how they grateful that they still had their lives, but they were grief-stricken that their friends' lives had been lost. Before setting sail, they recognize the dead by raising a cry, three times. The best theme choice is that one must mourn before moving on. The ships do not leave port until they have mourned and saluted the lives of their friends who were lost. The other options aren't correct. There is no indicated that sadness destroyed anyone. Even though the speaker talks about the lives lost, he does not speak of them as being lost too soon. The last option is also not correct as there is no mention of lost souls.

Answer 2

One must mourn before moving on.

Step-by-step explanation:

This passage, taken from The Odyssey by Homer, describes a scene in which the speaker (Odysseus) and his men had escaped with their lives from the land of Cicones, but at the moment they are greatly saddened because many of their friends did not survive. The survivors, however, need to move on but Odysseus encourages them to mourn and honor the dead before advancing: 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. Therefore, the theme, which refers to the central message, moral or lesson not explicitly stated of a story, that is best revealed by this conflict is that “one must mourn before moving on.”