Fronto

Abstract

The Odyssey is arguably the µnest tale in Western literature, and the telling of it skilful in narrative detail and subtle in psychological understanding; yet it contains more apparent incoherences than the Iliad. These are not particularly familiar to English-speaking readers, as few Homerists of the analytical persuasion have written on the Odyssey in English. However, in Germany there has been a great deal of work, arguing that the Odyssey as we have it contains relics, echoes, or hints of other versions of the tale of Odysseus' return. Even Schadewaldt, who was convinced himself and convinced others of the unity of composition of the Iliad, thus e ¶ectively bringing an end to a century of German scholarship, was nevertheless driven to an analytical explanation of the Odyssey, specifying two successive composers. There have been other authoritative analysts in recent years, in addition to the old style analysis contemporary with that of the Iliad, of, for example, Kirchho ¶, who in•uenced D. L. Page's The Homeric Odyssey (Oxford, 1955). Georg Danek is a scholar at the University of Vienna, where Professor Hans Schwabl has continued the µne tradition of Albin Lesky. D. has been known up to now especially for his doctoral dissertation Studien zur Dolonie (published in 1988), in which he solved the problem of Iliad 10, or at least came as near to a solution as seems possible at this time (see CR 39 [1989], 178-80); he has now produced a huge book on the Odyssey, which may turn out to be just as important. His model is Kullmann's Die Quellen der Ilias (Wiesbaden, 1960), for he too is dealing with the material behind his epic; but his method is di ¶erent. Almost the whole of the book, from p. 29 to p. 505, consists of a running commentary on the Odyssey book by book, discussing issues as they occur. He has read very widely, especially in the numerous contributions that have appeared in the last few decades. He is also, from proximity, extremely well informed about the South Slavic heroic poetry which has since Milman Parry acted as comparative literature to Homer, though his extensive bibliography surprisingly omits the µnal contributions of A. B. Lord in this µeld: Epic Singers and Oral Tradition (Ithaca, 1991) and The Singer Resumes the Tale (Ithaca, 1995). Epos means the Odyssey, but also previous epic versions of Odysseus' return, and Zitat means, not verbal quotation, but a habit of the author to allude to ('cite') alternative versions, whether actual (i.e. known to him and in many cases to his audience also) or potential. D. considers it probable that in other tellings of the tale Odysseus and Penelope got together at an earlier stage than in our poem and together The Classical Review

‘In both our languages’: Greek–Latin code-switching in Roman literature

“… 14. The commentary based on this text, Van den Hout (1999), is rich (though again not without faults, see Holford-Strevens, 2000; Zetzel, 2000), and refers directly to VdH by page and line number, rendering this edition of the text indispensable. …”