Narrative Technique of Early Greek Literature

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1. The second song of Demodokos in the Odyssey(8.266-369) is the story of Ares and Aphrodite's adultery, which is characterised by an emphasis on contrivance, witty treatment of the gods, a light-hearted tone. This song takes the structure of a story within-a-story. By this device of embedding, it focalises the basic themes of the whole epic, namely, Odysseus troubled journey home. The discussion concentrates on this function of thematic dualism and convergence in Book 8, but has wider implications in that it relates to a leitmotif of the Odyssey as a whole.2. One of the most controversial problems about the Hymn to Apollo concerns the composition and unity of the hymn. The digression of the Typhon episode (305-355) has been regarded as an interpolation. However, structurally and thematically the hymn can be described as a unity, the digression of the dragon being linked with the rest of the hymn by the devices of repetition and nesting or embedding that constitute the narrative technique.3. Hermes has perhaps the most complex character of any deity in Greek mythology. The narrative techniques used in the the Hymn to Hermes have an important influence on the presentation of the characters and on the structure of the text. The narrative characteristics of this hymn are : (1) the illustration of the conflict with Apollo in the form of that between inferior and superior ; (2) the development of a plausible and satisfying aetiological relation ship between narrative and cult, delineating the variety of Hermes attributes, and most particularly, his elusive and ambivalent personality. The main theme and the theme of the repre sentations of Hermes nature are thus interrelated, and both relonate with each other, like a contrapuntal melody.