Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Glossary
- Commentary
- Book One
- Book Two
- Book Three
- Book Four
- Book Five
- Book Six
- Book Seven
- Book Eight
- Book Nine
- Book Ten
- Book Eleven
- Book Twelve
- Book Thirteen
- Book Fourteen
- Book Fifteen
- Book Sixteen
- Book Seventeen
- Book Eighteen
- Book Nineteen
- Book Twenty
- Book Twenty-one
- Book Twenty-two
- Book Twenty-three
- Book Twenty-four
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Appendix C
- Appendix D
- Appendix E
- Appendix F
- Bibliography
- Index of Greek words
- Index of subjects
Book Two
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Glossary
- Commentary
- Book One
- Book Two
- Book Three
- Book Four
- Book Five
- Book Six
- Book Seven
- Book Eight
- Book Nine
- Book Ten
- Book Eleven
- Book Twelve
- Book Thirteen
- Book Fourteen
- Book Fifteen
- Book Sixteen
- Book Seventeen
- Book Eighteen
- Book Nineteen
- Book Twenty
- Book Twenty-one
- Book Twenty-two
- Book Twenty-three
- Book Twenty-four
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Appendix C
- Appendix D
- Appendix E
- Appendix F
- Bibliography
- Index of Greek words
- Index of subjects
Summary
Book 2 covers the second day (cf. Appendix A), which brings the Ithacan assembly announced the previous day by Telemachus (1–259; cf. 1.373–5), the preparations for Telemachus' trip (‘Mentor’/Athena promises to help him with a ship: 260–97; the Suitors ridicule his plan to go and hope that he will fare ill: 298–336; Euryclea, helping him with provisions, shows motherly concern: 337–81), and his secret departure (382–434).
1–5 According to the principle of ‘reverse order’ †, Telemachus, who was the last to go to bed, is the first to rise.
1 The beginning of a new day is almost without exception marked in the Odyssey, as is the end (1.423n.). The narrator has nine different ways to describe a sunrise: 2.1 = 3.404 = 491 = 4.306 = 5.228 = 8.1 = 13.18 = 15.189 = 17.1; 3.1–3; 5.1–2; 5.390; 6.48–9; 13.93–5; 15.56 = 20.91; 15.495; 23.344–8; and cf. 5.263, 279, where we find no sunrise but a number, ‘on the fifth/eighteenth day’. The present version is the most common one, which is also used by characters in their embedded stories: 4.431, 576; 9.152, 170, 307, 437, 560; 10.187; 12.8, and 316
2 The narrator refers to Telemachus by means of a periphrastic denomination †: ‘dear son of Odysseus’. It occurs fourteen times in the Odyssey, but this (and cf. 35) is the first instance; it prepares for the ‘assembly’ scene, in which Telemachus will first publicly present himself as Odysseus' son.
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- A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey , pp. 44 - 67Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001