1997/01/01 by Bruce Louden
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Media, Communication, and Education #Philippine History and Culture
paper · doi:10.2307/1088489
openalex publication_date 1997/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/07
is aware of itself as a poetic product.l As is increasingly recognized, Odyssey is often concerned with what Doherty calls the reflexive quality of work-what might be called its attention to its own reception.2 Such discussions note how Odysseus appropriates language and gestures of epic singer, functioning as an internal narrator within greater narrative. There is thus a general awareness that principal narrator identifies himself with Odysseus and vice versa. Necessarily, if an internal narrator, such as Odysseus, parallels certain tendencies of principal narrator, so some of internal audiences depicted in poem suggest parallels and connections with an external audience, even ourselves.3 In Odyssey, telling and hearing narratives are part of reception of guests. The hospitable host provides both environment as well as specific impetus for most of tale telling. The longest internal narratives are Odysseus' narration of his wanderings, delivered to Phaiakians, accounts Nestor and Menelaus give to Telemakhos, and those disguised Odysseus and Eumaios exchange with each other. All of these contexts are extended treatments of hospitality, in which an exchange of narratives is an element in type-scene.4 The Odyssey offers many other internal narratives, from Phemios' first song, songs of Demodokos, to Odysseus noting that he narrated his exploits to Aiolos,