This is how the books of the Odyssey are structured: TROY ---- 1. Kikones (innocent city is ambushed) 2. Lotus Eaters (temptation, delay) 3. Cyclops (monster) 4. Aeolus (greedy crew delays journey) 5. Laestrygonians (monster) 6. Circe (temptation) 7. HADES 8. Sirens (temptation) 9. Scylla (monster) 10. Cattle/Sun (greedy crew delays journey) 11. Charybdis (monster) 12. Calypso (temptation, delay) 13. Phaecia (innocen…
This is called a Chiastic structure (from the greek letter chi which looks like an X - i.e., the shape the chiastic structure makes if you indent each succeeding level). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiastic_structure "These often symmetrical patterns are commonly found in ancient literature such as the epic poetry of the Iliad and the Odyssey."
How Do We Know That Epic Poems Were Recited from Memory?
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Re: How Do We Know That Epic Poems Were Recited from Memory?
#62This is how the books of the Odyssey are structured: TROY ---- 1. Kikones (innocent city is ambushed) 2. Lotus Eaters (temptation, delay) 3. Cyclops (monster) 4. Aeolus (greedy crew delays journey) 5. Laestrygonians (monster) 6. Circe (temptation) 7. HADES 8. Sirens (temptation) 9. Scylla (monster) 10. Cattle/Sun (greedy crew delays journey) 11. Charybdis (monster) 12. Calypso (temptation, delay) 13. Phaecia (innocen…
This is called a Chiastic structure (from the greek letter chi which looks like an X - i.e., the shape the chiastic structure makes if you indent each succeeding level). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiastic_structure "These often symmetrical patterns are commonly found in ancient literature such as the epic poetry of the Iliad and the Odyssey."
I've been thinking about this and Shakespeare's King Lear may be an example of this as well.