Title: The Odyssey
First published: 1999
Description: Most studies of the Odyssey's narrative structure have focused on limited patterns in individual books of the epic or in sequences within books. In this work, Bruce Louden uncovers an extended narrative pattern that runs throughout the whole Odyssey.

Looking at such elements as characters' names, challenges faced by Odysseus, the structure of the proem (the poem's first ten lines), and roles assigned to the poem's female characters, he identifies a large sequence of successive motifs, repeated in full three times in the Odyssey, which provides the underlying skeletal structure for nearly all the poem's plot.

Based upon his close reading of the epic's structure, Louden offers new interpretations of the poem, exploring the role of divine hostility in the narrative and locating the Odyssey within a mythic subgenre in which a deity's anger at the impiety of humanity results in the survival of a single just man out of an entire community.

This bold rereading of the Homeric epicthe first attempt in years to map in detail the poem's overall structure - considerably enriches our understanding of the Odyssey's design and meaning.
Subjects: Greek Epic poetry, History and criticism, Epic poetry, Greek, Ancient Rhetoric, Odysseus (Greek mythology) in literature, Rhetoric, Ancient, Narration (Rhetoric), Technique, Oral-formulaic analysis, History, Homer, Epic poetry, history and criticism, In literature, Poésie épique grecque, Histoire et critique, Ulysse (Mythologie grecque) dans la littérature, Analyse des formules orales, Narration, Rhétorique ancienne, 18.43 ancient Greek literature, Literature, Odyssea (Homerus), Vertelkunst, Volksdichtkunst, Odyssey (Homer), Poesie epique grecque, Ulysse (Mythologie grecque) dans la litterature, Rhetorique ancienne
People: Homer
Time periods: To 1500
LC classification: PA4167 .L68 1999