Reading Homer in The 21st Century

Reading Homer in the 21st Century
Author(s): Pura Nieto Hernndez

Source: College Literature, Vol. 34, No. 2, Reading Homer in the 21st Century (Spring, 2007),
pp. 29-54
Published by: College Literature
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ReadingHomerinthe 21st Century.

Pura Nieto
Hern?ndez
Unlike
the original audiences

that partic
in
the
the
oral
culture
of
Greeks,
ipated
in our day we access the two Greek epic
poems that have come down to us under the
name of Homer1
through the act of reading,
whether
in
modern
translations.
have
been
their
ten
their
to us
transmitted
status
canonical
texts,2
language
original
The Homeric
but
we
in our
culture
reason
have
and
to
or
Pura Nieto Hern?ndez

in Classics
University
of Salamanca
(Spain). She is currently a

Lecturer
in Classics
University
as writ
that
they are the result of a long tradition of poet

in oral performance,
and only
ry, developed
Even
into
writing.
secondarily put
though it
to demonstrate
to everyone's
is impossible
that
satisfaction
were
composed
the
without
there
their
writing,
style which
Iliad
and
and
the Odyssey
transmitted
initially
are characteristics
are best
understood
at the
her Ph.D.
in
poems
achieved
assume
obtained
in
and
if these texts started as oral compo

explained
terms just used,
sitions.3 The
"oral" as
to
in per
and
"written,"
opposed
"reception
as opposed
to "reading," need
"oral"
First
of all,
has very dif
qualification.
in English.
It can, for exam
ferent meanings
formance"

at Brown
30 College
34.2[Spring
Literature
2007]
there is a com
simply mean "spoken." Now,
even
most
in
the
formal
situations, we
speak,
in which we
that is clearly different from the way
pie, when
applied to language,
mon
awareness that, when we
use
language in a way
write.
In this sense, then, as means of communication,
"oral" can be taken as
of "written." But in our culture, as E. J. Bakker puts it "either
the opposite
. . .
comes with
even
its own set of associations,
medium
speech or writing,
its own mentality."
tion that underlies
In this regard, we could understand

"oral" as the concep
a discourse, and oppose
it not to written
but to "literate"
(2005,39).
Even today, in our heavily "literate" culture, most
linguistic situations lie
at some point or other on the continuum
between
the two extremes repre
the
sented by "oral" and "literate." In addition, as Bakker notes, we endow
terms "oral" and "literate" with cultural value "and we tend to consider texts
that are oral as to their conception
as
context,
'archaic'
simply
because
as crude
we
use
our
... or, in another
or primitive
own
sense
and
conception
of
as a norm"
relevant when
(2005, 42). All this becomes
writing
particularly
we
are evaluat
poetry, since
dealing with poetry, and particularly Homeric
to be read but was produced
that was never meant
only as
ing a discourse
our
not
In
is
"oral."
of
which
from
the
norm,
"literate,"
perspective
speech
else, different from our cultur
speak of "oral" poetry as something
that is, "literate" poetry. But in a society without
any use of writing
be simply poets, not
compose
poetry,
poets might
they would
"oral" poets, in the absence of "literate" poets to whom
they could be con
or "oral style," whose
trasted. The same could be said of "oral composition,"
sum, we
al norm,
in which
existence
makes
Concerning
"oralists" (who
sense only in contraposition

to a "literate" style.
a
hard
battle
has
been going on between
for
Homer,
years
at
moment
of
the
the intervention
of writing
exclude
any
or transmission
of the poems)
and those who
composition,
performance
the help of writing.
defend the idea that these poems were composed with
of traditional oral poetry as well as of
But numerous
studies on the workings
the concepts "oral" and
ordinary spoken language have helped us understand
a
more
as
"written" not
exclusive, but in
flexible, open way. In the
mutually
Greek archaic period writing must have been so different from our own con
between "orality" and "literacy" again
that the dichotomy
ception of writing
the Homeric
breaks down (Bakker 2005,45). Although
poems were put into
us
to
in that form (that is, they have been
and have been transmitted
writing,
we read them, that they retain
we
when
in
bear
should
mind,
"textualized"),4
should not simply
traits revealing their origin as spoken language.5 We
many
our conceptions
of "poetry" or "style"
transfer onto this kind of discourse
a quite different conception
of the use of language,
that has developed within
that
is, a "literate"
one.

PuraNietoHern?ndez 31
terms such as "formula," "ringcomposition,"

"typical scenes" (all of
some
or
at
level),6
"parataxis" and "additive syntax"
repetition
a
at
staccato
the syntactical level), are commonly
used
kind of
suggest
Since
which
involve
(which
to characterize
some thoughts
it is not otiose to include here

the "oral" style of Homer,
on these notions.The
work of Milman
groundbreaking
Parry
the
field of "oral poetry,"
and his disciple Albert Lord, which
inaugurated
concentrated
initially on the study of the "formula."7 High formulaic densi
it "oral" or not.8 It
the decisive criterion for considering
ty in a text became
in a way that "literate" texts do
is true that oral texts make use of formulae
the concept has been expanded
and
not, but from the time of Parry's work
to different evolving
in the
often according
trends and models
re-defined,
in
their analysis of language have found and
field of linguistics.9 Linguists
defined a series of basic units such as "word" or "sentence." The formulae we
these units: they are more
find in "oral" poetry fall somewhere between
than
aword but less than a sentence. In spoken discourse
in any language there is
another unit that seems to be more relevant than either the word or the sen
tence: it is variously
called "tone group" or "intonation
unit." It isWallace
to have paid due attention
to these "intonation
achievement
units"
and Egbert Bakker's to have applied Chafe's research to Homeric
poetry.10
a
Intonation units are usually four to seven words
long, they can constitute
or
some
to
sense
unit
need
make
syn
syntactical
complementation
complete
Chafe's
tactically, and in spoken language they are marked by intonation boundaries

intonation units are universal properties
of
and, often, by pauses. Although
can
into
in
be
metrical
ordinary speech, they
stylized
properties
special, poet
ical speech. In other words, the formulae of poetical
language coincide with
the
"intonation
units"
of
spoken
They
language.
are,
not
then,
so much
characteristic
feature of an "oral style" as a property of spoken language in
same can be said concerning
Homeric
syntax. The famous
general. The
or
Homeric
additive
is
better
ifwe compare it to
understood
parataxis
style
the way our own syntax is produced
in speech. For example, an expression
came this morning,
I gave him the letter" is very fre
such as "that boy, who
in
Instead
quent
spoken language, but would be unacceptable when written.
we would write
came this morning."
"I gave the letter to the boy who
in accord with
Homeric
the parameters
of
syntax seems also to operate
speech more
than the norms
of written
a Homeric
erty by comparing
effect of the movement
possible
him
with
in, for example,

in the battle
my
eyes
that
I have
language. We can ascertain this prop

in a conventional
translation to the
passage
as much
of the syntax in the original, preserved
Bakker's rendering of Iliad XXIV. 391-93:
gives
seen
men
him,
kudos,
also when
very
often
drawing
close
to
the

ships
as
32 College
Literature
34.2[Spring
2007]
he would
kill theArgives,
lacerating them with
sharp bronze. (Bakker 2005,
31)
Here
is Lattimore's
whom
rather literal version:
a time my
many
eyes
seen
have
in the fighting
where
men
win
glory, as also on that time when
he drove back the Argives

on their ships and kept killing them on the stroke of the sharp bronze.
And
here
an even freer
and more
"literate"
rendering
Never
not
I have
seen
him
with
my
very
by Fitzgerald:
surmise
eyes,
and often, on the field. I saw him chase

with
Argives
carnage
to
their
own
..
shipways
can appreciate that the flow of language in the original ismuch

closer to
sentences we tend to use
the way we all speak than to the perfectly balanced
in writing.
We
to convey
far I have attempted
is
like
and how
language
Thus
what
Homer's
Homer
is an intense
in Greek
one:
to a Greekless
itworks.
reader some
sense of
The
of reading
experience
the richness of the language at all levels,
and constructions,
the repetition of for
its directness,
the precision of words
mulae and formulaic elements or even of whole
verses, itsmetrical
nature, all
a
to rendering Homeric
very peculiar,
language
of Homeric
form of Greek. These particularities
idiosyncratic,
language, of
even
most
in
for
the
lost
the
excellent
translations
available.
course, get
part
even
of
fundamental
But
into other
these
features, transformed
deprived
and adapted to other cultural contexts,
words
the Iliad and the Odyssey are
these elements
still immensely
texts
Homeric
contribute
attractive. As
in their Greek
on Greekless
exert
they
groups of students who
power
diverse
a reader who
has
I have
original,
readers, which
read the poems
time with
spent much
often wondered
about
the
the
I experience
every year with
in English. How
is it possible
read in translation? Why
do people
to capture fully the joy of Homer when

a background
in classical culture or languages enjoy reading these
without
works? What
do these poems have that make them so universal, and so appeal
rendered in another language? What
do their stories have that
ing even when
can be transmitted
and which
touches readers beyond the language itself?
for their public.
Iliad and the Odyssey as texts are quite demanding
we start reading both poems we face a series of characters, both divine
The
When
and human, about whom

is said: no formal presentation,
practically nothing
can
true introduction
extract some information
is given. We
about the
characters from other speakers in the text, from the situations in which
they
no
are placed,
and also from
the epithets
and patronymics
that often

accompany
their names. Thus, for example,

we are told his wrath
the first verse of the Iliad mentions
Achilles,
is the subject of the poem and that he is the
is men
else. A few lines later, when Agamemnon
(1.7), his name is not even given: "the son of Atreus,
of whom
son of Peleus. Nothing

tioned for the first time
same happens
is presented
with
the introduction
of the first divine
son
as
Leto
Zeus. The text
the
of
and
character, Apollo.
only
assumes in the reader or listener of this poetry a lot of previous knowledge,
a knowledge
be shared by the poet and his public.11
that must necessarily
lord of men." The
He
in the context of Greek culture the ancestry of Apollo was well

Obviously,
of mythology
it is
known. Even today, with a very limited, basic, knowledge
to
main
narrative
of
the
line
both
follow
without
poems
perfectly possible
too much
trouble. But
poems are much

of the Iliad and Odyssey
the Homeric
more
than their basic
are, in fact, set against

storylines. The main actions
mass
of
stories
of a much
the human and
the background
larger
involving
divine characters that figure in the poems. In fact, one of the surprising fea
tures of this poetry for a first-time
reader is the richness and density of its
one
to
needs
read and re-read the texts to appreciate
contents, the fact that
all that is going on within
their lines and to reconstruct
all the information
that is either assumed or indirectly alluded to. Both poems present many sec
char
ondary plots that involve the main characters and hundreds of minor
of these stories are clearly expound
or
the poet, and constitute what we could call "para
ed by the characters
narratives";12 at other times, though, there are only obscure allusions, scat
tered throughout
the full story
the text, and it is very difficult to reconstruct
cases
text
In
from
the
of
Homer
it
alone.
these
is
obvious
that the
just
quite
assume
a
as
so
of
information
lot
well-known
the
that no
poems
by
public,
acters with
their lives and stories. Some
is needed.
explanation
to reading and "explaining Homer
If we limit ourselves
from Homer,"
the
the
Hellenistic
favored
scholar
it is
Aristarchus,13
following
principle
by
still possible to enjoy the poems as self-standing works of art, fully satisfying
even without
the support of a lot of external information.14 The many
lev
els at which
the poems develop
their narrative plots are sufficient in them
further
selves to achieve
two fundamental
in
goals: 1) to produce a basic coherence
the tale: the narrative, all in all, "makes sense," is a "whole." 2) to accumulate
a sufficient richness of elements,
levels, contrasts, parallels, etc., to keep the
interest and the attention of the readers or listeners. And yet, a reader who
as fully as possible
in the cultural ambience
that lies behind all
participates
the secondary narratives presented
in the poems will gain a much
deeper
of them. These
stories are, as Alden puts it "relevant
appreciation
secondary
in some way either to the interpretation
of their immediate
context or to
that of the main
narrative,
or to both"
(2000,1).
Often
the relevance

of these
34 College
Literature
34.2[Spring
2007]
stories
view
is ambiguous,
since the narrator presents
tells the story.When
of the character who
them as simply the point of

the tale of Agamemnon's
return home
unfortunate
is told in the Odyssey, it certainly creates suspense

and the outcome
of his trip. But it is also impor
to whom,
the story is told, by whom,
and under
Olson
1990
(as
showed).
about Odysseus's
behavior
tant to bear in mind how
which
circumstances
poetry was not born in a vacuum,

and highly developed
Greek
culture
Homeric
the rich
but rather in the medium

the end of
of
of
the so-called
"Dark Age" and the beginning

of the "Archaic Age."15 In the cultural ambi
that produced
the Homeric
poems there was a large mass of folk tradi
tions, legends, tales, and indeed other poems, epic poems that unfortunately
are now lost to us but about which we can still know
something
through
ence
and notices
in later authors. Besides
fragments
a full cycle of poetry
that
War
Trojan
produced
other
belong,
major
"mythical"
were
events
the major
episode of the
to which
Iliad and Odyssey
also
sto
in poems,
recounted
ries and cycles of poetry. Thus,

the set of legends centered on the city of
and the story of Oedipus
the subject of poems
and his family were
the Thebais and the Epigoni; several other poems
such as the Oedipodeia,
dealt with Heracles
and his exploits.16 The
subset of these poems which
Thebes
the Trojan War
dealt with
Epic Cycle. We
its
about
only
known
became
scant fragments
have
as the
collectively
this cycle, but are informed
in the tradition
from
contents.17
the Homeric
tradi
highly selective in regard to its contents,
isolated from that mass of cultural elements
and poetry, but
in it, and preserves traces of these other collateral traditions
rather embedded
and poems.18 The problem, of course, is to determine what kind of relation
Although
tion was not
the Homeric
and more
poems and those other works,
ship exited between
the
the
the
Homeric
and
of
between
poems
poems
Epic Cycle.19
precisely
on Homer,
or the reverse? The first problem we
Was the Epic Cycle modelled
in trying to answer this question
is that the dating of the Cycle remains
we
Even if
admit (as I think we
uncertain.20
should) that these were oral
and that they were coeval with
the
poems before they were put into writing,
meet
between
them is still difficult, given that we
poems, comparison
some isolated lines.
their
and
bare
resumes
of
plots
only possess
to the Epic
connection
The school of criticism that has taken Homer's
most
in
and
its
is
possibilities
depth
Neo-analysis.
Cycle
seriously
explored
Homeric
Burgess
provides
In more
explore
this
general
the
respect
motifson
a good
terms
influence
theories
the Homeric
of the purpose
definition
can
neoanalysis
of pre-Homeric
poems
are
described
on
material
the
concerning
be
effect
comparable.
and method
of
as a
willingness
the Homeric
poems.
folktales
But
of the school:
or Near
neoanalysis

to
In
Eastern
has
been
concerned
especially
it is represented
by
tain direct
references
with
tradition
the pre-Homeric
Because
Cycle.
the
a tradition,
neoanalysts
the Epic
to such
of this "Cyclic"
(Burgess 2001, 62)
also indirect
poems.
Iliad
as
the Trojan War
con
and Odyssey
often
of
that
propose
are
there
the Homeric
tradition within
reflections
to demonstrate
the strict d?pendance
of certain
has attempted
Neo-analysis
the achievements
Homeric
of this
passages on poems of the Cycle. Although
have not been
school should not be dismissed out of hand, its conclusions
accepted by oralists, since, following Parry and Lord, they believe this type of
to be impossible
in oral traditions.21
The question,
that had an
then, remains: is Homer
alluding to poems
existence as texts, or simply using in particular ways the richness of the "oral"
tradition of which
those other poems also were a part. As one commentator
allusion
puts
it:
is no way
There
ries
or
show
his
... whether
telling
The
poems.
particular
concern
it a sense
give
of
to
of
place
reaching
Homer
of
number
his
own
out
to
rest of
the
to common
here
references,
in a context
work
the
refers
these
sto
does
however,
of other
legendary
to
and
epics
world.
(Dowden
1996, 52)
should at this point
applied to the Homeric
We
By
the word
become
such
because
there
a fixed
have
archaic
text
"text"
a text
is a case
extremes
. .
Amongst
(Procloss
of
poems. Dowden
thanks
to
about
special
text
in an
(memorized)
preserved
these
summaries
for this). (Dowden
preserved
and utter
fixity
. . . lies a firm
of
only
the poems
narrative
and
of
it, not
fixes
writing
It is perfectly
possible
and Nagy,
noting
that Homer's
argued
tradition,
has
rhapsodes,
in an oral tradition.
fixed
fluidity
indeed
may
because
writing.
oral
by
in point,
total
...
poem.
but
writing,
of "text" and its value when
explains:
a fixed
to
I refer
is something
accentuation
to the notion
go back
lie various
standard
the Cyclic
sense
Between
levels
of how
epics may
of
the
to
the
own
two
semi-fixity.
the
serve
story goes
as a model
1996, 47)22
notes that the author of the poem must have

In regard to the Iliad, Dowden
had a sense of his own text.We cannot doubt that the making
of such a poem
a
events
and
deal
of
careful
in the nar
of
requires
good
planning
preparation
one
a
or
but
observe
here
that
Faktenkanon
order
fixed
of events
rative,
may
a
as
our
are
two very different things. And precise
and
full poem such
Iliad
that we face in comparing Homer with the poems of
ly one of the problems
the Cycle is that we have only a list of the events narrated in the poems, but
not those poems themselves, except for some scant fragments. Although
it is
common
uniform
to refer to the poems of the Epic Cycle collectively,

as if they were
some kind of unity, the truth is far from
and together constituted

36
34.2 [Spring
2007]
CollegeLiterature
this. The
Cycle
comprises
that are very different from

that were probably
its own particular
works
subject-matter,
quality, length, etc., works
different
times, and each of them bears
each other
in
composed
at
relationship
to
Homer.23
situation, then, is as follows: 1) The texts of the Homeric

poems fre
or
to
events
are
allude
characters
that
in
the
Iliad or
quently
only marginal
aswe know from other sources, had been much more
the Odyssey but which,
The
we can read the Homeric

in cyclic poems. 2) Although
developed
poems
without
of certain concrete pas
catching every allusion, our comprehension
is considerably
richer to the extent that
sages, and, in general, of the poems
we do. 3)We do not know whether
these references are to concrete
texts, or
even passages of texts, or simply evocations
of common motifs of the "tradi
tion concerning
the capture of Troy" set of legends. The problem
is, then, to
find an answer to two questions: "in Homer,
to a
how is a reference made
specific
item which
the text and which
lies outside
recipient will understand?

tional meaning?"
(Danek
And
how
the singer presumes

the
enriched with addi
is the text thereby
2002, 5).
of Homeric
is constituted
poetry
subject-matter
by what we call
we
to
In
this
should
bear
in mind
that
concept
"myths."
regard
always
an
a
not
us
is
Greek
rather
but
for
category,
"myth"
indigenous
practical way
a complex
to designate
of information
about the Greeks' own past created
The
to generation
and which
consists of amix
as "historical," "legendary,"
label variously
and transmitted
from generation
ture of elements
that we would
"religious,"
"ethnographic,"
etc.
"scientific,"
in a similar way to what

myths
cognitive
as "scripts": "A script is a predetermined,
stereotyped
a well-known
of actions
that defines
situation"
sequence
(Schank and
Ableson
1977, 41, ctd. in Rubin
1995, 24). Thus, for example, a statement
into a restaurant; they did not have fish" is perfectly
such as: "Richard went
the same is true of "Michael visited his doctor; he ordered
understandable;
We
understand
may
scientists have described
to work
some blood
tests."A statement however,

such as "Richard went
into a restau
some
to
he
ordered
blood
tests"
the
rant;
is,
least, surprising, and, in prin
say
a
lot of sense. The actions of the first parts of these two
ciple, does not make
statements evoke other actions and objects that are assumed by the listener,
even
if they are not explicit. A second property of scripts is that "members of

have considerable
about the kinds of routine activities
knowledge
can
use
to make inferences and
that scripts describe, and they
this knowledge
set expectations"
and the stories of mythical
(Rubin 1995, 24). With myths
a culture
similar happens. For example, the mention

of Achilles
something
in Iliad 1.1 as son of Peleus evokes at a certain level also his mother Thetis
characters
and their wedding
and problematic
union,
at least for participants

in the cul
same principle
a prominent
role. This
applies to
a
set
associations
with
them
full
of
and
which
formulas,
carry
noun-epithet
uses
sense"
their
"bear implications
literal
(Foley 1999, 4).24 Foley
beyond
to describe
this relationship
the term "m?tonymie"
But, as
(1991,23).25
ture where
had
Achules
are at the heart of wider

notes, "Metonymie
ranging
relationships
respect to the larger
strategies of epic poets to locate their discourse with
tradition and myth,
that find their expression
realms of human experience,
on a variety of levels and in a number of ways" (1995,102).This
property of
Bakker
the names
and stories of characters
For example, the simple mention

our minds a set of characteristics
applies also to modern

a
or novel
of vampire in amovie
of myth
that we
associate with
"myths."
evokes in
such a creature: aver
sion to garlic, long fangs, nocturnal

life, etc. It also creates in us a set of expec
tations about the behavior
of the vampire
himself
and of those who
we
encounter him. The kind of traditional story that
call myth contains also
many elements that do not have to be mentioned
specifically, since they are
taken as "known" by both the poet and the auditor or reader, and form part
of a culture. In the same way, par
of the shared knowledge
among members
can
in
the
elements
that "belong" or not
the
culture
ticipants
easily identify
in each of these narratives, since through the retellings of the story a set of
ref
has been created.26 To put it in Foley's words, "Traditional
expectations
an
transaction
of
enables
economical
with
the
meaning,
erentiality
extremely
concrete part standing for a larger and more complex whole"
modest,
(1999,
as a shared code between
poet and audience,
6). Traditional
referentiality,
from the formula
operates at every level of an oral traditional composition,
to the conception
of the whole
poem. This vision, thus, expands and enrich
es the narrow definition
of "formula" given by Parry. Foley expresses it in the
following way:
To put it telegraphically, "swift-footed Achilleus"
is traditional epic code for
a
It is an index
the mythic
of the Achaean
hero.
for his character,
entirety
nominal
that stands by prior
for the whole
of his personal
part
agreement
a traditional
it obeys
the metrical
strictures
uncovered
"word,"
ity. As
by
as part of the
and cooperating
with
system
Parry,
noun-epithet
behaving
more
to name Achilleus.
it conveys
But
other ways
much
than an "essential
idea",
serving
as much
more
than
to say "Achilleus." It summons

the Achaeans,
with
using
a telltale
simply
compositionally
convenient
way
the larger traditional identity of the best of
detail
to project
the
complexity
of
a character
a resonant and singular history in the epic tradition." (Foley 1999,210)
with the case of Achilles,

after hearing his name one expects, for
see
a
a bow, because
to
him
with
spear and not with
example,
fighting
some
of
stories
the
unlike
and
many
through
retellings
involving Achilles,
as an archer.
at Troy, this hero is never presented
other warriors
To continue

38
34.2 [Spring
2007]
CollegeLiterature
Epic poetry was, thus, a most
important vehicle for the transmission of
stories of the past,
reenacted
all this cultural baggage. Each performance
which were presented
and taken as truth. Homeric
poets hide themselves
in this tradition as the product of the
their text. Poetry is not viewed
as
as
a
of knowledge
much
creativity
reproduction
kept by the
conservative
The
character of epic language
and the transfer of
behind
own
poet's
Muses.
are fundamental
factors in maintaining
authority over the text to the Muses
are identical, since they all express the truth
the illusion that all performances
the
about the heroes of the past. In addition, audiences were familiar with
the chrono
main
characters and their basic stories and, in particular, with
logical order of events in those stories; they could, therefore, ratify the truth
of the tale.27 All this made
epic poetry an important factor of social cohe
are assumed to be the same, if repetition
creates tra
sion. If all performances
turn
creates
it
in
then variation, when
ditional referentiality, which
meaning,
we
a
of
Here
is
observe
basic
relevant.
again
principle
happens,
especially
is created through variation within
repeti
composition: meaning
Thus
(Scodel 2004, 49).
Foley writes, "The art of the Iliad and Odyssey
stems neither solely from the uniqueness
of the instance nor solely from its
Homeric
tion
but rather from their interaction"

traditional meaning,
(1999, 7).
tend to consider the Iliad and Odyssey as the most
traditional exam
We
at
rest (such as the
the
remains
of
of
and
look
the
Greek
epic poetry,
ples
as
the
mentioned
of
poems
before)
being poorer stuff28 But it is
Epic Cycle
extremely
tic quality
form.
There
difficult
to make
of those other
are,
though,
strong
poems,
certain
pronouncements
since we
reasons
have
to believe
on
them
that
nature
the
and
artis
in such fragmentary
the
other
poems
were
Iliad and Odyssey were highly innovative and raised

level.29
are very ambitious
in their con
To begin with, both Homeric
poems
we
rest
more
know of the
than what
of the epic tradition, and
tents, much
rather the norm, whereas

the tradition to another
not only by the sheer amount of information

included in them, but also by
a lin
Instead of presenting
this information
the way in which
gets organized.
events developed
ear succession
in so many
consecutive
of several major
(as the poems of the Cycle seem to have done), the Iliad and Odyssey
and
concentrate
their plots on one single action (the quarrel of Agamemnon
In addition,
in the Odyssey).30
Achilles
for the Iliad, the return of Odysseus
actions
the actions of the Iliad and Odyssey are only minor episodes in the whole
pic
ture of the Trojan War and its aftermath. And yet, although
they are much
more
limited and specific in their plots, they are at the same time far more
in their scope and their temporal dimension. Thus, even if the Iliad
its
(just one episode among many
presents
subject as "the wrath of Achilles"
action
in the larger story of the fall of Troy at Achaean
hands), and itswhole
ambitious

in effect relates the ten years of the war

lasts for only ten days, the poem
events
to
of future ones. The Odyssey,
and
allusions
past
projections
through
a
return home
in
about
the
difficult
of
too, although
poem
principle
us
in telling
the stories of many other
after the war, is far-reaching
Odysseus
a single
heroes who fought at Troy. This kind of all-embracing
scope within
seems
action
what we
know
to have been a Homeric

innovation; the poems of the Cycle, in
of them, were more Hrnited. In this sense at least the Homeric
novelties, very much

poems must have constituted
appreciated by their audi
ences. Telemachus
in
himself
the Odyssey expresses as a matter
of fact the
to
is his response
of the public for the newest
song.31 This
preference
stop singing the "Return of the Achaeans."
request that Phemius
Penelope's
Since this passage is placed at the very beginning
of the Odyssey, Telemachus's
statement seems programmatic.
Phemius s audience enjoys his song because,
says, it is new. But the audience of the Oydssey is hearing even
a
song in which Phemius's poem is already part of the past.32
song,
thus the Odyssey, a poem that seeks to become
the "Return Song" par
asTelemachus
a newer
And
and presents
itself as the final poem of the aftermath of Troy,
events
at the end of the war, and all other possible
all major
embraces
"Return Songs": we hear about the death of Achilles,
the Trojan Horse,
the
return
of
of
Nestor
and
safe
and
the
the
unfortunate
Menelaus,
destiny
Ajax,
end of Agamemnon.
this sort of ambitious
scope, the Odyssey, a
Through
excellence
narrative, places itself as the "final word" on the Troy

deeply self-conscious
tradition, and plays off the Iliad and several poems of the Epic Cycle (Aethiopis,
Hias Miera, Ilioupersis).
in the poems
is very much
of the temporal dimension
to their ambitious
are often
the
elements
that
scope.33 Among
taken for granted
in the Iliad and Odyssey,
and therefore need not be
events of the past, but also of the future. Past
in detail, are many
explained
and future are here used as relative terms in regard to the time of the main
The
treatment
connected
narrative
of
the
poems.34
Homeric
characters,
both
men
and
gods,
are
his
they have a past, a present, and a future. Stories from the past come
here
and there through the text. Some are of little immediate
up
importance
for the main plot, and serve mainly
for characterization
and individualiza
torical:
that reflect the origins and life

tion, for example, the biographical
vignettes
at-home of many minor warriors, which
the poet introduces at the moment
of their deaths. Any one of these episodes has very little bearing on the action
of the Iliad, and yet, taken together, they contribute
the
greatly to making
it is: not only the poem of the quarrel between Agamemnon
and
but also the poem of the Trojan War. The descriptions
of these men's
previous histories, of their time at home before the war, introduce another
into the poem that contrasts strongly with
world
the main narrative of bat
Iliad what
Achilles,

40 College
34.2[Spring
Literature
2007]
are also away for the poet to arouse pathos: these warriors
are not
or
names
a
men
a
a fife
in
but
had
and
who
list,
history
just numbers,
simple
a
now
common
that is
lost.35 They follow
traditional pattern and show many
ties. They
at the same time, they present original combinations

of
elements, whereas,
those elements
and may be just created ad hoc, to fit a concrete passage.36
in length too; sometimes
show variation
they are just a few words, or
They
a full tableau. Contrast, for exam
a single verse; other times, they constitute
home
brought death to Elatos/ whose
ple, "The lord of men, Agamemnon,
had been on the shores of Satnioeis' lovely waters, /sheer Pedasos"
(VI. 34
35)37 with
two passages:
the following
Diomedes
the great
of
a dweller
been
in
war
Yet
comers./
there
was
and
[Euryalos]
his
went
down
Axylos,/
a man
Arisbe,/
son, who
Teuthras'
in
rich
substance
had
none
henchman
in pursuit
of
now
these
of Aisepos
stand
him
before
and
all
keep
stripped life from both of them,
and Diomedes
Kalesios....
to
and
since in his house by the wayside he entertained
the sad destruction,
Axylos
cut
strong-founded
friend to all humanity/

off/
cry
(IliadVl.
and
12-18)
Pedasos,
those
whom
the naiad/
/ Boukolion
himself
nymph Abarbare had born to blameless Boukolion.
was the son of haughty Laomedon, / eldest born, but his mother conceived
him in darkness and secrecy. /While
shepherding his flocks he laywith the
and
/
and
she
lover
her,
conceiving bore him twin boys. But now
nymph
son unstrung the strength of these and the limbs in their glory,
Mekistios'
/ Euryalos,
and
stripped
the
armour
away
from
their
shoulders."
(Iliad VI.
21-28)
occasions,
though, the stories from the past do not seem to
created
ad
have been
hoc, but rather to be fully traditional. Often
they are
are
seems
no
to imply the audi
details
given, which
simply alluded to and
are
them. In addition,
ence's familiarity with
they
normally much more
On
other
of the plot. In this category we could place

important for the development
case in Thetis's
We
have a paradigmatic
histories of the Homeric
sup
gods.
son
on
to
of
her
Achilles
that
will
result in the famous
Zeus
behalf
plication
or design, which
is the motor
of the Iliadic plot. As Achilles
to
mentions
when
her
she is in a position
intervention,
requesting
explicitly
ask Zeus's help on his behalf, since she had done a big favor for Zeus in the
to her. Thetis,
the
indebted
past, and the god is therefore
summoning
Zeus's
will
and
Briareos, had liberated Zeus when Hera, Poseidon,
are
in
to
tried
bind
the
all
had
that
(note
war)
they
pro-Achaean
gods
him (1.395-407).The
addressing Zeus directly, uses a
goddess, though, when
"if ever before in word or action / I did you
much more vague formulation:
Hundred-handed
Athena
favor among
the immortals"
(1.503-04)
which
falls within
the traditional

pat
tern for the beginning

the exis
of a prayer.38We cannot be sure that without
tence of such debt Thetis would have felt confident of securing Zeus's help.
Zeus and his brother Poseidon
in the Iliad offers
The tension between
in the past ismeaningful
for the pres
another case in which what happened
ent. Poseidon
possible. We have just

conspires against his brother whenever
of Hera, Athena
and Poseidon
evoked in 1.395
the conspiracy
to
are
Zeus
about
the
wall
the Achaeans
InVII.446 Poseidon
complains
mentioned
407.
InVIII.201-07
a new
to him
Hera
conspiracy; but here

joins forces with Hera to
love with Zeus in order to put him to sleep, and
deceive
to fight on behalf of the Achaeans
Poseidon
takes the opportunity
(352 ff.),
to Iris when,
instructions
in the next
the
attack
himself
Zeus's
(384).
leading
to stop Poseidon from fighting,
show again the rival
book, she is dispatched
the brothers, "since I say I am far greater than he is / in strength,
ry between
building.
Poseidon
refuses to join
Zeus; Hera makes
proposes
in. In book XIV
Poseidon
and elder born; yet his inward heart shrinks not from calling himself
the
in
of
others
shudder
before
me"
his
me, though
(XV. 165-67). Poseidon,
equal
affirms his equality with his brother, invoking the
reply to Zeus's message,
distribution
of powers among the three sons of Cronus,
no. Great
"No,
if he will
force
in rank.
Since
he
though
me
we
my
against
are
that he
is, this
three
me,
will,
was
divided
the lots were
Iwhen
forever;
us
among
Hades
drew
three ways,
earth
and
high
the
lot of
Olympos
I am no part of the mind
the mists
given
his
domain.
let him absolutely
and
the
darkness,
sky, in the cloud and the bright air.

are
common
to all
three. Therefore
of Zeus. Let him in tranquillity
and powerful as he is stay satisfied with

And
each
shaken drew the grey sea to live in
and Zeus was allotted the wide

But
equal
to Kronos,
by Rheia
lord of the dead men.
Zeus, and I, and the third isHades,

All
is too much
am his
who
born
brothers
said
has
his third share.
stop frightening me, as if Iwere
mean, with his hands." (IliadXV185-99)

issue of Zeus's supremacy and the distribution
of power among the sons
is behind
of Cronus, which
the rivalry of the brothers,
is mentioned
in
one
another passage, this time by the poet himself, who
explicitly opposes
sons of Cronos, hearts divided against
brother to the other; "Two powerful
on the fighting warriors"
each other, were
bitter
agonies
wreaking
The
and "Indeed,
(XIII.345-56)
was
Zeus
the
but
father,
the two were

elder
born
of one
and
knew
generation
more"

and a single
(XIII.354-55).
42
34.2 [Spring
2007]
CollegeLiterature
Poseidon mentions
his time as a servant to
fail to perceive
again his resentment
against
means
who
him
ofthat
servitude.
Zeus,
punished
by
But human characters too have events in their past that turn out to be
Therefore,
Laomedon
in XXI.441-57
in Troy, one cannot
when
for the main
several points in the poem, for

of the past in which
the Trojans
example,
as treacherous
showed themselves
and unable to keep their word. Thus, at
V.648-51
the treatment of Heracles
Sarpedon mentions
by king Laomedon.
s
to
Heracles
Laomedon
had enrolled
help and promised
give him horses in
a
sea monster
that was attacking their coast. But
payment for ridding Troy of
never fulfilled his promise,
Laomedon
and, as Sarpedon
puts it: "he (sc.
crucial
plot of the poem. At

characters evoke moments
different
did destroy Ilion the sacred / through the senselessness of one man,
Heracles)
an evil word for good
treat
the haughty
who
Laomedon,
gave Heracles
we
and Apollo
read that Laomedon
treated even Poseidon
ment."39 Later on,
the same way. Poseidon,
in a reproachful address to Apollo,
recalls the event:
a
the two gods served king Laomedon
for one full year, Poseidon
building
make
the city impregnable,
his
that would
wall
shepherding
Apollo
seasons brought
on the time for our
the changing
flocks.40 "But when
and made void /
Laomedon
violated
labour / to be paid, then headstrong
all our hire, and sent us away, and sent threats after us" (XXI.441-57).
to sell the gods as slaves. Laomedon's
wanted
Indeed Laomedon
complete
a precedent
norms
for
constitutes
of reciprocity
for
elementary
disregard
reason
of
Menelaos's
the
Greeks
Paris-Alexander's
why
betrayal
hospitality,
and
Trojans
are
at war.
intention
in this speech is not to let Apollo
forget the way
a similar
to
were
The
mind
the
situation
treated
they
Trojan king.
by
brings
on
to
in
Menelaos.
the
earlier
When
address,
poem,
by Agamemnon
in
is on the point of sparing the life of the Trojan Adrestos
Menelaos
rebukes him: "Dear brother, O Menelaos,
exchange for ransom, Agamemnon
Poseidon's
so tenderly / with
are you concerned
these people? Did you in your house
treatment
like
/
from
the
the
best
of
get
Trojans?" (VI.55-57). Agamemnon,
nature
mind
the
in
treacherous
of
bears
Poseidon,
continually
underserving,
con
in
this
is
that
deserves
consideration
There
another
the Trojans.
passage
his aristeia (episode of an individual warrior's prowess in bat
nection. During
two Trojans,
and
Peisander
captures
that
had
indicates
Antimachus
The
poet
Hippolochus,
to Troy by
the treasure brought
taken more
gold than any others from
the return of
Alexander when he carried Helen
away. He had also opposed
to Menelaos. When
is on the point of killing his two
Helen
Agamemnon
tle)
in Book
XI, Agamemnon
sons of Antimachus.
sons, they again make

"If
in truth
you
are
an offer of ransom,
the
sons
of wise
to which
Agamemnon
Antimachus,

replies,
that man
who
that Menelaos,
among
who
came
on
be murdered
should
so
once
now
your
as envoy
the
with
nor
spot
shall
mutilation
assembled
the Trojans
punish
Odysseus,
godlike
let go
the
them
advised
to the Achaians,
back
shame
of
father."
your
(Iliad
XI.138-42)
words
Agamemnon's
underscore
again
the
nature
untrustworthy
of
the
do not honor
their contracts; when offered hospitality, they pay

Trojans.They
an
it back by stealing away the wife and treasures of their host;41 and when
a
to
the
the purpose of achieving
peaceful end
embassy is sent to them with
conflict
These
ple who
to kill the envoys.42

to building up an image of the Trojans as peo
passages
cannot be trusted, whose word
is "evil" (as Sarpedon
characterizes
they propose
contribute
or
Laomedon's),
has
no
value.43
a second important point for the

short speech makes
Sarpedon's
reader or hearer of the Iliad, namely, that, due to the treacherous behavior of
the Trojan kings, a Greek hero, Heracles,
destroyed the city in the past; Troy,
can
the
be
taken
Greeks.44
therefore,
again by
is a third category of events of the past that have bearing on the
There
But
present of the poem: events in which

gods and
of Paris is one of those
other. The Judgment
it nevertheless
directly only at XXIV.28-30,
to
Paris
and more
lends
and Helen,
Aphrodite
interacted with
events. Although
lies behind
the
generally
and Athena.45
the resentment
These
humans
against Troy shown by Hera

at different moments
stories are mentioned
er greatly contribute
to justifying
Greek mistrust of the Trojans. When
the Achaean
attack
each
mentioned
support
to the Trojans,
that
and
of the plot but togeth

against Troy and the
IV
the Trojans break the truce in Book
a
their
behavior
is, then, expected.
inspired action),
(by divinely
In the Odyssey too, past events of gods and humans extend their influ
over the present. The last stages of the Trojan War
ence as a kind of mortmain
and
and its aftermath, the return of other heroes, are developed
thematically
serve as justification
actions and events in the poem.46 We have
for many
in 1.325 ff. about the return of the
Phemius
mentioned
the
of
song
already
return
stories of Nestor, Menelaus,
and the
and other heroes
Achaeans,
The unfortunate
of Agamemnon,
who
4.351-586).
(3.130-92,
homecoming
is killed upon arrival by his unfaithful wife Clytaemnestra
and her lover
casts a permanent
return
shadow over the outcome
of Odysseus's
Aegisthus,
in the first part of the poem, and helps to justify Odysseus's
carefully planned
events of the lastmoments
in the second.47 Many
of Troy are also
vengeance
at
the poem, such as Achilles's
death (5.308-10;
touched upon throughout
24.36-92
his elaborate
funeral
and
the games
in his honor

are also men
44
34.2 [Spring
2007]
CollegeLiterature
the Trojan Horse
8. 499-520),
the dispute of Ajax and
(4.271-89,
armor
events
the
for
of
Achilles
narrated in the cyclic
(11.553-65),
Odysseus
s
return
Miera
Was
and
poems
protracted
gives him expe
Woupersis. Odysseus
tioned),48
and prepares him for the situation he will be facing at home. His past
son of Laertes and father of
as ruler of Ithaca, as husband
to Penelope,
is precisely what moves
this hero forward, to continue his voy
Telemachus
to return to that past situation
it back home. Odysseus wants
age, to make
rience
as he des
that is continually
evoked through the poem, and, paradoxically,
toward his future. His
perately tries to get back to his past, he advances more
is a collosal effort to get things back to the way they were, only to discover
that things have dramatically
changed. When Teiresias reveals his future in the
comes
to terms with
the changes and is himself
underworld
scene, Odysseus
and wanted
changed: his past, as he remembered
is dead, his father is alienated from
His mother
are under siege.
and household
it, does not exist anymore.

social life, and his wife, son,
in the devel
In spite of their similar scope, and their similar ambitions
and
their
inclusion
Iliad
and the
their
of
the
of
past events,
opment
plots
the two poems
Odyssey also present major differences. One point in which
in current scholar
and which
is not stressed enough
very differently
treatment
is
future.
The
often
their
of
the
Iliad
refers, through prophe
ship
to events that postdate
the end of the poem, above all
cies and anticipations,
behave
to the death of Achilles

aftermath.
and the fall of Troy and its immediate
are
events
that are
There
also intimations of the future in the Odyssey, but all
the
in the Odyssey, unlike the Iliad, come to full realization within
predicted
of the future that go beyond
of the poem. Projections
temporal framework
limited to the predic
the time covered by its own narrative are practically
s death, which
has some bearing but whose
tion of Odysseus
importance
cannot be compared with the weight
of Achilles's
attached to the predictions
death
in the Iliad.
The
founded
different
behavior
on a difference
episode
of Achilles's
against
Greeks
the Achaeans,
mythical
of the two poems in regard to the future may be

in their plots. The Iliad, centered on the
and his subsequent wrath
Agamemnon
of scope
dispute with
is also a poem about a collective

enterprise: the war of
in the Greek
the last major
constitutes
and Trojans, which
episode
the narrative of the Iliad binds
tradition. In the character of Achilles
three different, and traditional, themes: the quarrel of the best war
in a war, the loss of a very close friend, and
the figure of authority
of a wish which, when
the fulfillment
granted, causes greater unhappiness
leads to Achilles's wish to see the
than before. The quarrel with Agamemnon
to
himself
honored
be
defeated
and
by Zeus. Zeus grants it, but, at
Trojans
when Achilles's best friend, Patroclus, takes the
the Achaeans' worst moment,
together
rior with

hero's place in battle and is killed by the Trojan champion Hector, Achilles
in
realizes what kind of price he has paid for that wish. When
Achilles,
aware
is
kills
he
is
that
he
accel
for
the
death
of
Hector,
Patroclus,
vengeance
the point
erating his own death. In addition, the narrative has already made
was
that Hector
Troy's only hope. Once he is dead, the city will fall. Thus, by
the plot turn in such complex ways, the narrator of the Iliad has pro
a great deal of suspense and even despair.
a poem
that contains
between
the three events of Hector's death, Achilles's
Because
the connection
making
duced
and
death, and the fall ofTroy has been carefully prepared through prophecies
in fact ending with
of the future, the Iliad, although
the funer
anticipations
al of Hector, brings to a close all the main lines of its narrative (Achilles's and
Troy's stories).
The war's aftermath, the return of the Greek heroes to their homeland,
is known, but very little more beyond
this point. It is to that world of the
that Odysseus's
aftermath ofTroy
homecoming
belongs. The Odyssey, then,
of Odysseus.
unlike the Uiad, narrates an individual endeavor: the Return
is restored to his household
Once Odysseus
and has eliminated his rivals in
and regains power in Ithaca, the poem comes to a close. There
is no
else: nothing
is said about the future of the
further interest in anything
Telemachus.
about
Odyseus's
lineage, nothing
town
In this paper, I have tried to provide readers in the 21st century with
two great works
not for readers
assistance in appreciating
composed
in
but for listeners almost three millennia
that
their own time,
ago?works
some
moreover, were heir to a long tradition of oral poetry and were two of many
such compositions,
all of which
have been lost save for some few fragments
and
late
summaries
oral composition,
syntax, may make
to
In
students.
ing epics
of
their
contents.
Some
of
understanding
nature
the
of
such as the role of formulas and the use of conversational

the poems that we inevitably read as texts more accessible
we
addition,
interacted with
can
other
recover
to
elements
example, allusions to known myths from

the occasion of recitation, or the different
some
extent
the way
surviv
the
of the tradition, distinguishing,

for
stories
little
created
for
spontaneous
functions of anticipatory
prophe
In this way, by a patient and sympa
cies in the two great epics themselves.
thetic engagement with
these poems, we may gain some sense of how they
were originally
received as part of a network of oral poetry that made pos
richness
sible the inexhaustible
of the poems we
have.
Notes
1
Although
many
other
tend to consider Homer

though
most
scholars
would
compositions
were
transmitted
to us under
his
name,
we
the author of only the Iliad and the Odyssey, and this even
agree
that
the
two
poems
are not
by
the

same
author.
46 College
34.2[Spring
Literature
2007]
But
the
truth
Homer,
ation"
and
2 See Bakker
and
uniform
see no
critics
Rutherford
no
have
simply
the name
of
as R.
is that,
"We
when
seeWest
of "Homer"
persona
other
other
way
oral
known
to account
recent
that have
this
the "cre
(1999).
also
been
striking
put
uniformity
regular
into writing.
Some
than to postulate
the
dictation of the text in theVIII c. (see, among others, Janko [1992,29]). Other
ars
a different
prefer
vision
the
of
facts
and
of
speak
on
titles
On
was."
texts, in addition, aremuch more
texts
for
some
of
Homer
and where
(2005, ix).The Homeric
than
it in a review
put
idea who,
schol
see,
textualization;
progressive
especially, Nagy:
The
fundamental
as a matter
be viewed
tion.
...
onto
oral
accepting
3The
one
of
and written
of
the
the use
tions
about
about
the
of
oral
previous
the
support
the
precise
relationship
a confident
of these poems
evolu
cannot
simply
(1998,
72-73);
others,
the
or
be mapped
of
composition
Iliad
even
Odyssey
texts to their oral traditional background
of
composition
I am as skeptical
our
between
final
instead
of writing.
in the
transmission.
could
2001,113)
in Pavese
of Homeric
questions
of writing
in terms
is
itself. What
the Odyssey
opposites
(Nagy
consider
tradition,
relationship of the Homeric

thorniest
polar
composition
intervention
oral traditional background,

to
as
respectively."
oral
and
the Uiad
less multiformity
'uniformity'
poetry
defense
without
impossible
and
of multiformity
concept
of
uniformity'
of relatively
Multiformity
a radical
See
is the
here
question
as 'the remarkable
described
in part because
scholarship.
the poems,
and
as
"I will
Foley,
texts of
to many
I believe
For
an
claim
their
and
poems
is
issue
ques
special
is insufficient
that the evidence

4).
the
complex
no
make
the Homeric
. . ."
(1999,
pronouncement.
to
It is connected
informed
expo
sition of several possibilities, see Scodel (2002, 42-64).

4On the
concept of textualization applied to Homer, seeNagy (2001, esp. 110
where
he
proposes five different stages of "textualization" for the Homeric
11)
Cantilena
poems.
(1997, 150-51) expresses his disdain for those who uncritically
to
the
and the Odyssey the category of "text," which allows them to
Uiad
apply
demonstrate
and
the "unity"
confirm
in that respect.
lematic
5We
overstress
cannot
See
performance.
the
fact
of poems
that
which
are, due
were
the poems
born
to their
in the
origins,
context
prob
of
live
Foley,
In the case of a living oral tradition,

the very act of performance
bears special mean
...
can be
an
case
In the
of
textualized
tradition,
oral-derived,
performance
ing.
a
some of the same signals, but now
to written
transposed
rhetorically,
using
keyed
In either
the event of
channel.
situation
that guides
readers to the correct
libretto
see also Bakker
enables
the exchange.
real or rhetorical,
(Foley 1999,6;
performance,
2005, 59-60)
6
Repetitiveness
mentioned
groups
of words,
is one
times
several
full verses,
see recently Clark
of Homeric
salient characteristic
in what
themes,
It operates
follows.
epithets,
(2004), with previous
full
at many
scenes,
etc. On
style, which
different
repetition
literature.

will
levels: words,
in Homer
be
7 "A
of words
group
an essential
idea",
express
8 The
-a method
mula
other
criteria
theme,
ence
of
similes,
according
test for deciding
litmus
of analysis
such
with
developed
structure
ring-composition.
a poem
a strong
of
defense
"hard"
p.37).
9 Clark
and
mula,
of most
current
See
Parryism.
(1998, 66-71). Cantilena
modifications
of
Parry's
(1997)
and
a radical
approach
(below
studies,
survey of these different conceptions
to the
introduction
traditional
by
in Homeric
trends
further
(2004) offers a good
a clear
composition
is the for
In addition,
1964,19)
(Notopoulos
criticism
by Parry.
is the by-product
of oral composition;
the pres
as recurrent
type-scenes,
catalogues,
genealogies,
For a recent reappraisal of these tenets see Pavese

offers
in character
standards
namely,
to
conditions
(1971,13).
is oral
exacting
work,
Parry's
which
patterns
typological
or not
whether
from
emerged
paratactic
same metrical
under
the
employed
to
definition
Parry's
regularly
of the for
question.
10 Inwhat follows I am
heavily indebted to Bakker's work (especially 1997 and
but
2005,passim,
especially p. 48 with further references).
11
"If, though, we consider a listening audience who did not know this story
already, the beginning of the Iliad is extremely demanding. The hearer must follow
the story while reconstructing its antecedents" (Scodel 2002, 40).
12Alden defines the term as
follows, "secondary narratives related by the poet's
characters and also the interludes related in the voice of the poet himself which do
not
the progress
advance
of
the main
narrative"
(2000,1).
13Aristarchus
(mid-second century B.C.) used the termed saph?nizein "make
clear, clarify."This saying of his ismentioned
by Porphyry in his Homeric Questions
to
also
D
II.
297.16.
See
Scholion
5.
385.
(Iliad)
14 Scodel
(2004,48). I agree with Danek,"I believe this to be something which
to
kind of good Hterature" (2002, 3-4).
every
applies
15The
is as problematic
of Homer
dating
as other
as the use
such
questions
or
not of writing in the composition of these poems or the exact location where this
took place. Positions vary within the extremes of dating the composition of the Iliad
from as early as the IX c. B.C. (Ruijgh) to as late as the first half ofVI c. B.C. Most
mainstream
critics,
though,
of the VII
or
the beginning
from
archaeology,
realia,
a date
to consider
tend
c. B.C.
as the most
the Greeks'
language,
the
around
likely
own
on
end
account
etc.
tradition,
of
For
c. B.C.
the VIII
of many
arguments
criticisms
of
dating in theVIII c. see Burgess (2001, 3 and chapter 2); Burgess is among the pro
ponents of a late date for the Homeric poems (VI c. B.C.). He bases his argument in
the
absence
complete
of
scenes
of Homeric
representations
in the plastic
arts before
the end of theVII c. B.C. and their scarcity before 550.Whatever

the exact date of
as
we
of
the
Iliad
and
such
know
the
tradition
that gave
them,
composition
Odyssey
rise
to
them
16 To
three
was
judge
much
by what
legendary
Persis, Nostoi,
older,
cycles
Odysseia,
going
has been
only:
even
back
transmitted,
the Trojan
Telegonia),
cycle
the Theban
to
times.
Mycenaean
the heroic
poems
were
(Kypria, Mas, Aithiopis,

cycle
(Amphiaraou
concerned
Uias Mikra,
with
Uiou
exelasis, Oidipodeia,

48
34.2 [Spring
2007]
CollegeLiterature
Thebais,
the Heracles
gamos, Aigimios,
transmitted
whose
Hesiod,
and
Epigonoi),
halosis, Keykos
cycle
works
not
do
pros Teleboas
(Amphitryonos
Aspis, Herakleia).
1998,
(Pavese
include
heroic
to assume
It is safe
that
another
existed
cycle
that
says
epic,
heroes died in either Thebes or Troy, fighting for Helen

which shows that he and his audience were familiar with
47).
mache, Oichalias
85)
race
the
of
(Works and Days 650-57),

epic stories (Scodel 2002,
around
the Argonaut
"if
story,
the
shipArgo is 'famous to all' (Odyssey 12.69), and thatmust be where our Odyssey got
the Clashing Rocks and even the whole Circe story" (Dowden 2004, 197).West
(2002) speculates on the possibility of a Corinthian epic cycle formed by poems such
as the
Titanomachy,
the Corinthiaca,
the Europia,
and
of Eumelos of Corinth.
17The
Chrestomathy by Proclus contained
The
was
Chrestomathy
unfortunately
of this work
description
were
Chrestomathy
a resume of the poems of the Cycle.

we
lost. All
know
it comes
about
from
the
(XI c.A.D.). But a few excerpts from the
given by Photius
in early manuscripts
reproduced
the name
to us under
transmitted
of
the
Iliad,
the
including
sum
mary of the TrojanWar section of the Epic Cycle. Probably the best recent survey on
the Epic Cycle and the tradition of the Trojan War is Burgess (2001), who analyses in
detail
all
information
the
Not
available.
beyond
Homer,
myths
known
on many
or
Pindar,
tragedians,
that
of
the poems
literary works
of
collection
comprehensive
is attributed to Apollodorus
includ
and authors
(Burgess 2001, 45).
of Trojan War
motifs
also the evidence
of artistic
representations
as such
came
into existence
itself
the
(2001,
12-19).
Cycle
explains
18 "The Greek
not
was
the sto
knew
and singers
tradition
voracious,
only
epic
bor
but many
Indeed
the epics
of Thebes
and Troy,
others.
of the great wars
examines
Burgess
how
and
ries
rowed
the
as the
such
as the Library, which
s resume
Proclus
only
ed in it, but also the imprint left by the Cycle
from
materials
of
difficulties
comments
that
plethora
survived"
of
tradition,
but
songs,
are two
the
This
other
hand,
developed
demned
unlikely
allude
extensively
on
on
the poems
necessarily
of
about
to "Cyclic"
existed
the Epic Cycle

on dating
depends
with
the only
what
only
is relevant.
47). On
2004,
(Scodel
Danek
traditions,
any
two
long epics
Homer
mentions
On
since
certainty
Homer's
from
have
which
from
silences
the case of Iphigeneia's sacrifice, omitted

to one,
this issue. According
for many
that preceded
. . . and
as
interpolations
material
are
the Homeric
tradition
that "Cyclic"
defined
not
silent
views
entirely
is very
view
be
the Odyssey
keeps
extreme
are based
Cycle
poems
view,
and
Iliad
he
never
course,
(1996, 52-53) who mentions
dition.
ment
the
also what
19 There
mony
of
12). On
(2002,
Dowden
Iliad 1.
Epic
references
"can,
they
their own
tales"
expand
to pre-Homeric
in Homer
to
stories
other
defining
poems
reasons. We
material
them.
artistic
and not
Not
that
influenced
the poems
these
the Homeric
any genuine
the
tra
that the Homeric
existed
allusions
in particular
date. According
before
seen
apparendy
all of
evidence
at early
have
of
the poems
on
in a widely
be con
can
testi
gives ample
extreme
to a second
poems.
the Homeric
2001,132-33)

Such
an argu
poems.
(Burgess
the
see
in
2^
extreme
vaguely
their
in the Archaic
time
precise
firmed
even
or
texts,
as
Foley,
scholars
the need
either
it. (Burgess
for
Bosnia): "it is, in fact, true that
to be
discovered.
come
contrasts
this with
which
myth
we
that which
analogous
of presentation
the method
of how
representatives
is, a list of facts
or
events
the
situation
story
is the
goes,"
take place
lies outside
the
in Homer
find
same"
is what
of Neo-analysis
that
anything
the
a
to
sense
is con
This
across
"there are impressive examples
with
acquainted
be
never
two passages of two different
epic, in which
a constellation
outspoken
that
Faktenkanon,
. .have
12). He
(2002,
2001,11)
can
texts
I myself.
stories"
exemplum?even
"firm
and standard
the most
the need
than
concrete
even
is assumed
have
fol
and Davies,
underscore
should
as a reference between
two
between
then, we
mythological
22
This
of
and
an audience
text. Here,
variance
date. Rather
in the Serbian Christian
observable
where
Most
between
and
could be interpreted
Bernab?
the fragments,
stance or
take an agnostic
seek a specific date, I conceive
over a period
in oral performance
traditions
of
a circumstance
not only defies
for poetic
composition
Such
relationship
Lord
by
positions
Age.
of
(speaking of the oral poetry of Muslim
one-to-one
which
editors
on dating. This
also challenges
but
dating
21Danek
no
recent
on the matter.
dogmatism
setde on a seventh-century
as developing
composition
to avoid
of
two most
the
Notably,
low different
(13).
one
Kullmann,
and
(1960
calls
1984)
to an established
according
order.
23
as we
it from
to
is later
the Aethiopis,
n.16
above).
(Pavese
24 "And
dition,
that
former
and
his
has
so
audience,
the
also
traditional
in which
form
that
"any
of
reading
the
presupposes
the other hand, another
noun-epithet
of the specific
and
predecesor
as a whole
the here
is the
and
now
function
of
actualization
shared
the
for
the
the
tra
inspiration
of
the per
between
. . . evokes
expression
it
by Proklos,
as text"
(1996,
Homer
(2001, 149-52). On
considered
to us
it is reported
and
Homer,
been
importance
for which
"To
Foley,
they
26 Dowden
formed
encountered
instantiation
read
implications,
stand
pars pro
ditional referentiality"
Of
the matter narrated in the Cypria
concludes
that
something
in a particular
epithet
(Bakker 1995,102).
25 See
text,"
with
as the
just
epic performance
than
that is larger
is, a whole
exceeds
context"
and
in the
in dialogue
see the criticisms of Burgess
poem,
vastly
Dowden
resume,
. . Therefore,
.
them.
than Homer,
48). But
cyclic
Iliad
Proclos's
show it preparing events in readiness for (specifically) the Iliad, to refer
Cypria will
back
the contents of the Iliadwith
By comparing
know
to
Homer's
behind
take
into
toto, the part
account
for
signs
is to
the
otherwise
the whole."
tap
This
into
their
hidden
idiomatic
associations
is what
he
"tra
calls
(1999, 7).
of the whole
of Greek
speaks
mythology
and retellings
of the story
by all the tellings
inform,
7-9). All
(1992,
retellings
previous
of a story.
as
that
and
constituting
each
an "inter
person
give
sense
ever
has
to,
every
one can not

this kind of repetition
direct
regarding
speak of a reference,
or allusion. Yet on the other hand
it should be clear that what we have here
course,
quote,
is nothing
other
than a type of intertextuality?a
type of intertextuality,

however,
as
50
34.2 [Spring
2007]
CollegeLiterature
it has been
as an infinte relationship
texts,
among
by Julia Kristeva,
namely,
is itself read as a text. (Danek 2002, 8)
of texts to a world which
defined
as a relationship
27
Finkelberg has demonstrated that in the Homeric

language truthful narrative
is associated with chronological sequence and point-by-point
telling (1998,131-60).
The
order
chronological
tal datum;
cf., Kullmann's
events
the main
of
in the
outline
a story
of
Faktenkanon.
28 This view was

already sponsored by Aristotle, who
quality of Iliad and Odyssey.
rest. He
was
did not
a whole
section
for
which,
a definite
the Cypria
poets,
they
one, has a multiplicity
that
of the war
(2001,44).
the Trojan
sees,
or
Theseid,
already
similar
also of Heracles
story
of
must
all
53-55).
by art or
In writing
instinct,
who
the
an Odyssey,
. . . instead
the Iliad,
an action
same way
as he
he did not make
his
traditional
story
a Heracleid,
have written
in the
just
of
expresses
Burgess
represented
the poets
the authors
2335)
(1996,
the Cycle
last is what
was one man,

Heracles
that, because
they suppose
be one story. Homer,
understood
however,
evidently
his hero
and also of
Odyssey
poems
the mistake
point
quite well, whether
rest in every other respect.
all that ever befell
of
view,
poems;
1984,
(Bywater
Aristotle's
therefore,
in it.This
of parts
done.
he brings
in as episodes.
or else of an action
period;
however,
or one
see Dowden
originality
war
conviction
One
Iliad have
and Little
was
incidents,
treat of one man,
Homer's
30 This
of the other
many
the other
although
On
to the
marvellous
proof of Homer's
superiority
even with
in its entirety,
the Trojan war
it
though
one
out
As
it
and
end....
he
has
is,
beginning
singled
to deal
attempt
with
the superior
highlights
a further
have
of the whole;
... As
29
... we
then
Herein,
is a fundamen
sl
the
this
excels
the
cover
the poem
of doing
that, he took as the subject of the
a unity of the kind we are describing.
with
(Bywater 1984, 2322)

31
more
give
applause
"People,
surely, always
to circulate
the
listeners"
among
1.351-52).
(Odyssey
32
in this passage,
"The
Ford
perceives
irony
the
'fames
highlight
It is also
of men'
for Homer's
109).
(1992,
the Odysseys
important
But,
as
were
audience
I
that
whereas
Telemachus,
wife"),
over her. See further my
authority
forthcoming),
33 The
and Crielaard
Homeric
poems
is the
of
character
latest
as
epic
the people
who
and the one

man
enjoy
absent
"Penelope's
the
aftermath
this
stopping
he
rather
passage
on
news
recent
and
the
final word"
as the young
paper
rumor
follows,
as "the
ors (that is the 'bad guys" of the poem)

"good
/ which
song
fundamental
fresh
in what
explain
self-presentation
to bear
in mind
that
it appears in the looking glass of epic.What were
poetry of the past is reversed when

heroes"
to
song
the
to
of Troy.
the suit
it is Penelope
is, is trying
song"
are
for
serves
to establish
(Nieto
(the
his
Hern?ndez
(2002, 241-42).
have
also
been
often
described
their scope than the poems of the Cycle. See Burgess
as more
(2001,162) with
ography.

Panhellenic
in
further bibli
34 There
Homer
The
that
with
presented
35 See Basset
36 "Because
untraditional
was
use
them
in
Homeric
37 All
nature
more
2001,
two
and
the Odyssey,
of
the
past
the
to
present,
in Homer;
instead,
we
155).
Iliad
for Homeric
typical
Elsewhere
he
the
poetry
remarks
that
creation
of
it was
for
than
these
"ad
cre
hoc"
poetry are always limited to details and do not involve important

to note
is important
existence
outside
traditional
that we
Homeric
even
is that,
the
limits
of
cases
These
ways.
if the
the
exemplify
earlier:
mentioned
is created
story
the
poets
again
the
Iliad,
basic
is created
meaning
the occa
for
include
them
and
of
principle
vari
through
(Scodel 2004, 49).
repetition
38 Some
the
93-94).
probably
composition
ation within
of
time.
the
or of
is poetry
of
conception
expansive
(Burgess
(49). What
has no
and
the
detail
ations in Homeric
myths
sion
cyclical
in
time
of
aim is very different from mine.
between
epic
divisions
(1938-2003,
of
poetry"
Cyclic
on whether
clear-cut
treatment
the
concerning
a paper whose
(2002, 266-82),
are no
there
observations
interesting
concentrates
author
show
are
are
in Crieelard
are
passages
scholars believe
in Lattimore's
quoted
translation.
and Achilles
that Thetis
have a further motivation
to
a strong
case with
a
Zeus
avoided
Zeus.
Thetis
and having
marrying
son would
her on account
child with
of a prophecy
that her
be stronger
than his
In consequence
he married
father.
Thetis
off to a mortal,
and deprived
her
Peleus,
feel
have
they
of immortality
son, Achilles,
(Slatkin 1991). This
story, though,
39 See n. 43
infra on the expression "evil word"
were
horses
of great
once
granted
value.
to Tros,
from
this
(V.265.69).
40 Poseidon
without
touches
expresses
with
glutted
defilement
wherewith
at all of
the hard
the
son
(my highlighting).
strain which
Zeus
and
Ganymedes,
therefore
of Laomedon
knowledge
this
upon
issue
again
putting
in Troy,
tells
Laomedon
the wide
are
brows
the finest
the
the
defiled
of hospitality,
nor go
short
violation
war
of Zeus
story
mares
at VII.452-53,
noises,
stole
under
but
there
me,
wretched
loud-thundering,
never
"you
haughty
Trojans,
of all that other
shame
and
and your
hearts
dogs,
the guest's
god, who
utterly sack your steep city" (XIII.621-25).

42This
also in III.205-24: Antenor,
embassy ismentioned
them
of
and himself, built the wall ofTroy.
grim
you
anger
the
tangentially
he says the two gods, Apollo

to be
for his
that
the sun and the daybreak; and the lord of men Anchises
breed,
41 Menelaus
are from
"These
recompense
of all horses beneath

horses
them"
is never explicitly
in Homer.
mentioned
but
omits
the
attempted
knew
some
the man who
no
fear
day will
hosted
murder.
43The formulation kak?i muth?i "evil word" is

unique. No other muthos is ever
characterized in the Iliad as kakos.The word is used with a determination in the gen
itive on several occasions, with the following distribution. Among
the Trojans, in
addition to the passage about Laomedon which we are discussing (kak?i enipape
muthoi/, end of the line, V.649) it is used only for Alexander
Alexandroio, beginning of the line (III.87;VII.374, 388). Among
it used in of the whole group once (muthonAkhaion,Vll.406),
(three times, muthos

the Greeks, we find
of Odysseus
(once,

52 College
Literature
34.2[Spring
2007]
muthon epain?santes Odyss?os theioio, 11.335), and of Diomedes
(three times, muthon
= IX.51 =
It
is
Diomedeos
VII.404
also used for three
711).
agassamenoi
hippodamoio
Dios
end
Zeus
de
muthon
of
the
(once,
line,VIII.412); Athena (once,
gods:
sph' ennepe
of
the
line
Ath?nai?s
and
muth?i
1.221);
beginning
Apollo, (once, peithomenos muthoisin
to see
It is interesting
case of characters
hekatoio" XX.295).
Apoll?nos
is used
of the Trojans
only
are not
to be
their muthoi
that
in the
In
trusted.
case
the
this
about
of
type
we
whom
of Laomedon
text
the
then,
expression,
are certain
that
this
confirms
fact by the unique addition of the adjective kakos.

44The sack of
atXIV.250-51.
Troy by Heracles is also mentioned
45On this
passage see Davies (1981).
46 It is often mentioned
that no event of the Iliad is repeated in the Odyssey. The
was
Monro
formulated
thought
by
(1901).J. Maitland (1999), in a study of Poseidon,
rather
proposes
between
continuitity
divine figure. I have myself

two
poems.
47 From
time
the
in all likelihood
at least
poems,
the
of
suspense
the
treatment
in the
this
of
of this type between
the Underworld
in the end. But
triumph
increases
story
Agamemnon's
to
visit
of Odysseus's
he will
two
the
explored elsehwere connections
the
readers
the
that
know
in the first books of the poem,

in the
whereas
action,
it is an important factor in building identification of the reader with

victory. Thus, it helps to create the joyful mood of the last books.
48Achilles's death was narrated at
length in the Aethiopis.
second
part
the hero's final
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