Despite the care which has obviously been bestowed on its composition, this is…an odd opening for our Odyssey. It covers only a third of the poem (V–XII), not very accurately, and gives disproportionate emphasis to a single incident…[And] the suitors' sins are of far more importance for the poem as a whole than those of Odysseus' comrades. Moreover…Odysseus' wanderings do not take him much among the cities of men (3), but far from human society. None of the speciosa miracula which we associate with Odysseus…is mentioned. We do not expect a comprehensive summary of what is to come; but if the poet's purpose was, as it would be natural to suppose, simply to indicate enough of his theme to catch his audience's attention, his choice of detail is strange.