Structure

Much having traveled in the funkier realms of Ac-
ademe, aboard a grungy elevator car,
deus ex machinareversed, to this ninth-floor
classroom, its windows grimy, where the noise of traffic,
poluphoisboio-thalasses-_like, is chronic,
we've seen since February the stupendous candor
of the Iliadpour in, and for an hour and a
quarter at the core the great pulse was dactylic.
Amy Clampitt

This opening octet of Clampitt's "HOMER, A.D. 1982" is in itself a fine example of new
structure created within and playing off of an older structure, in this case, the traditional
sonnet form. I like to imagine Homer as an individual living at the end of a great oral
tradition, a genius in command of a flexible and complex poetic form. It was the
librarians in Alexandria who divided the Iliadand Odysseyinto twenty-four books
apiece, one book for each letter of the Greek alphabet, but they were only recognizing the
structure inherent in each of those epics. Diagrams in the Norton Critical Edition of the
Odyssey(1sted.) give one sort of clear picture of the inherent structure (Books 9-12, 439;
Book 8, 440).

Another sort involves the time of the action. Although the events narrated by the poet or
told by a character take up the ten years between Odysseus's departure from Troy and his
arrival on Ithaca (seven years with Calypso, one with Circe, etc.), the action of the
Odyssey itself takes approximately six weeks:

Book 1 . . . . . . 1 day
Book 2 . . . . . . 1 day
Books 3-4 . . . . 4 days
Book 5 . . . . . 25 days
Books 6-7 . . . . 1 day
Books 8-12 . . . 1 day
Books 13-14 . . 2 days
Books 15-16 . . 3 days
Books 17-19 . . 1 day
Books 20-23 . . 1 day
Book 24 . . . . . .1 day

How convenient it is that the number of books in the Odyssey—24—divides so easily into
a number of balanced parts. For example, Books 1 and 13 share many similarities (both
are beginnings, of a sort). But Books 1 and 24 also share similarities (in both Athena
intervenes to dramatic and immediate effect). What argument might you make for
dividing the epic into thirds, 1-8, 9-16, 17-24? Scholars from early times have noticed
these parallelisms and others.

It may also be helpful to see the epic in a diagram (below). Notice how the order of
Telemachus’s story in Books 1-4 is in reverse order of his father’s story in the epic as a
whole. If space allowed, we might add information to the diagram about all of the various
recognition scenes throughout the epic and about the ways in which the four middle
groups of four books each has its own patterns within its own smaller unit. And, if you
are interested in rhetoric and speech, consult the appendix in Lombardo’s translation of
the Odyssey(2000), in which are listed all of the epic’s speeches, who gives them, and
when.

Odyssey
___________I___________
II
TravelHome
(1-12)(13-24)
_________I___________________I_________
I IIIII
TelemachusPhaeaciaOdysseusIthacaPalaceResolution

(1-4)(5-8)(9-12)(13-16)(17-20)(21-24)
______I____________I______
IIII
HomeTravel Action:Words:
(1-2)(3-4)slayingsreconciliation
____I____(21-22)(23-24)
II______I___
MenelausNestorII
(3)(4)PenelopeNeighbors
(23)(24)