Blood and iron
Subtitle: stories and storytelling in Homer's Odyssey
By: by S. Douglas Olson.
Series: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava.; 148
Publisher: Brill; Brill Academic Pub
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Leiden; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
Subjects: Homer; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Odysseus (Greek mythology) in literature; Epic poetry -- Stories, plots, etc; Storytelling in literature; Storytelling -- Greece; Rhetoric, Ancient
Genres: Stories, plots, etc.
Description: Blood and Iron is an exploration of the role of gossip, rumor and storytelling in the society depicted in the Odyssey and in the real world in which the poem was performed. It includes extensive analysis of Homeric narrative technique, with particular attention to the way the singer creates tension in a largely traditional tale.

Individual chapters treat discrete, generally very traditional literary and historical problems, including the significance of the term kleos, the presentation of Telemachos, the internal chronology of the poem, the nature of Homeric kingship, and the role of violence in the ancient Greek family. The book will be of importance for anyone interested in the literary content or storytelling technique of Homeric epic, as well for historians of the late Dark Ages.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-252) and index.