Homer's Narrative Techniques by Amy McGready

The Stories of Agamemnon in Homer's Odyssey - S.D. Olson - These aren't actual quotes btw, I'm paraphrasing :)

2017-12-12 09:35:00 UTC

-Homer uses the tale to 'mislead, frighten and intrigue the audience.
-Aristotle believes that a poet can alter a story as he likes but cannot change the basic 'facts' like names, storylines etc.
-The aim of this tale; The Oresteia is to stir up anxiety within the audience when it comes the ending of The Odyssey and to make it not have a seemingly predictable ending.
-The addition of Clytemenstra in The Oresteia adds tension, and causes the audience to question Penelope.
-Homer repeats and extends the uses of the Aeguisthus paradigm to create dramatic irony and to give a sense of foreboding throughout the poem.
-The tale is also used for the audience to question the outcome of the poem.
-The Oresteia is a reminder to the audience that Odysseus will eventually return home, even if the outcome of his nostos isn't necessarily determined at first.
-It's also for suspense, tension etc. to engage the audience.

The Peril of Song - Z. Biles

2017-12-12 09:35:50 UTC

Paraphrasing - Songs represent kleos to the characters in the poem, so the characters use songs to determine how much kleos they have
Telemachus gains information about his father the same way the bard speaks to the muses.
The characters are living in the world of hero trying to become heroes themselves. Their desire for kleos puts them in dangerous situations

The Devious Narrator of the Odyssey - S.Richardson

2017-12-12 09:36:38 UTC

"The narrator [...] who appears objective and perfectly reliable, frequently misleads his listeners/readers by raising false expectations, making surprising shifts [and] concealing facts"

Homer entertains - P Jones

2017-12-12 09:37:44 UTC

P Jones discusses how in the Iliad there is a lot of battle scenes which all come down to the same basic principles but with slight differences between them.
"this sort of plan is obviously very useful for an oral poet. It gives him a framework within which to compose. He does not need to worry about the general direction of the scene and can concentrate all his energies upon the details

The progression of the lion simile- William.T.Magrath

2017-12-12 09:38:03 UTC

quotations.
-Agathe Thomson has argued that the violence associated with bird imagery and omens from the second through to the twentieth book increases noticeably.
-The simile is more abstemiously used in the odyssey as the poem itself is less dependent on poetic devices.
-Two of the similes are repetitions
-These lions engage in activities similar to those of the illiadic lions and there are strong formulaic, metrical and verbal ties between the similes of the two prides.
-Its movement from anticipation to climax.
-The only victimized lion (simile) is book4 line 791-793
- The second appearance of the lion simile reinforces the image for the audience and provides a parallel through antithesis, in Penelope as the passive mate for odysseus as the active lion.
-(not how its worded in article)Michael Nagler has used the term anti-charismatic when discussing odysseus' transformation into a beggar.
-homer unites odysseus and Penelope through similes.

Tell Me, Muse... Story-telling in the Odyssey- Karen Ni Mheallaigh

2017-12-12 09:38:46 UTC

"Right from the start of the poem, we find stories connected with identity the process of discovering who you really are." <-links to nowadays and the audience.

"In many ways , the Odyssey is about the telling of stories. A significant portion of the poem is devoted to extended story-telling."
<- links to nowadays how we can associate with the characters.

The Humour of the Odyssey - A.Bowie

2017-12-12 09:39:41 UTC

The narrator is an omniscient character so they provide the audience with the knowledge that the characters within may not possess. Therefore making it generally humorous for the readers rather than the characters.

Homer uses double entendres to create humour.

it is unusual for an epic

The Devious Narrator of the Odyssey - S.Richardson

2017-12-12 09:39:56 UTC

"...leading the narratees to expect a certain action or occurrence and then either delaying that expected next step or depriving us of it altogether"
Examples Richardson gives: PARAPHRASED
- Delays meeting Odysseus until Book 5 and instead we meet Telemachus
- The Phaeacians are made to see seem unfriendly so we expect a fight but when we meet them they're pretty nice
- The lies Odysseus makes up about moving the Suitors' weapons make it seem like there will be a fight but the Suitors don't even notice

The Formulation of the Revenge Motif in the Odyssey - F. W. Jones

2017-12-12 09:40:29 UTC

The tale of the revenge itself was not to be begun until fully half the recitation was over, and yet the whole poem aspired to that consummation. pg 195
The theme of revenge is announced as the curtain rises on Scene 1, after the prologue in heaven. pg 195
Athene reiterates the certainty and nearness of revenge in Book One, line 281. This declaration of war sums up the central drives of the exposition: the development of Telemachus' character, the help of the gods, and the theme of revenge. pg 196
The highest dramatic level of the exposition is reached with the omen from Zeus, a symbol of fulfilment vouchsafed to the hero's son at the crisis of the emotions Athene's plan has roused in him. pg 197
The first triad intensifies three themes concurrently: Hybris, Nostos and Revenge. Each visualisation of the vengeance makes the suitors' guilt more grave, Odysseus' return more specific and his vengeance more crushing. pg 198

Formal analysis of recognition scenes in the odyssey - Peter Gainsford

2017-12-12 09:45:37 UTC

the recognition scene is all about reunion and is an integral part of the nostos-narrative of the epic. odysseus' nostos takes place at multiple levels: it is not just about a geographical return, first to Ithaca, then to his house, then to his bedroom; nor is it confined to the political restoration that is enacted by the laughter of the suitors and by odysseus' resumption of his status as king of Ithaca. even the final appeasement of Poseidon, of which odysseus reminds us in 23.264-8444, is not the central objective of the nostos-narrative.

Formulas, metre and type-scenes- Matthew Clark

2017-12-12 09:49:52 UTC

The names of many characters or the words for common objects are repeatedly linked with particular adjectives or modifying expressions, whole lines are repeated. Many passages of several lines (such as messages) may be repeated word for word.

The Criticism of an Oral Homer- J.B Hainsworth

2017-12-12 09:51:55 UTC

"Served us well for many generations...Homer... very special case"
"The oral poem properly speaking is knowable only through its performances. There is no real/ original form, any more than there is such a form of a... ballad tone."
"As literature, it doesn't whether a story is original or inherited, just that if it is a good vehicle for the poets purpose."

Formal analysis recognition scenes in the Odyssey - Peter Gainsford

2017-12-12 10:05:11 UTC

The second half of the odyssey features a set of type-scenes that I term recognition scenes, which are represented nowhere else in Archaic poetry. There are fifteen such scenes throughout Of. 13-24. They are defined by a common set of motifs in a fairly stable sequence, and therefore fall into the category of 'typical scenes', described originally by Arendt and explored and explored more recently by Lord, Edwards, Reece and others. This article presents the most detailed formal analysis to date.

Bardic performance and Oral Tradition in Homer - R Scodel.

2017-12-13 17:29:58 UTC

"... singers, although members of the audience may request or object to a particular song, do not adapt their narratives for individual audiences" .
" To be sure, both bardic performances and other narratives, when fully successful, enchant their audiences, who listen in silence. The idealized bards of the epic are preeminently skilled at such enchantment, so that Eumaeus compares Odysseus to a bard because his tales are so enthralling".