The Odyssey: Structure, Narration, and Meaning

by Bruce Louden

Bruce Louden's bold re-reading of the Odyssey—the first attempt in years to map in detail the poem's overall structure—offers new insights into the artistry of Odysseus' mythic voyage and enriches our understanding of Homer's masterful craftsmanship. Louden's groundbreaking work uncovers an extended narrative pattern, repeated in full three times, which reveals the poem's underlying skeletal structure. This organizational analysis helps to explain the existence of several characters or episodes sometimes dismissed as extraneous, as late additions, or even as corruptions to Homer's original intent. In addition, Louden's discovery strengthens the suggestion that the Odyssey was the product of oral tradition. By repeating this sequence of successive motifs, a single, improvising bard could explore a variety of complex ideas within a poem as long as the Odyssey.

Though centrally concerned with the form of Homer's rich and complex plot, Louden's study is not exclusively, or even primarily, formalistic. His investigation involves the study of characters' names, challenges faced by Odysseus, the structure of the poem, and roles assigned to the poem's female characters. Louden's comprehensive achievement gives the reader a fresh perspective on the role of divine hostility and the artistry of an epic survivor on his timeless journey home.

Genres: Poetry

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 1999

Reviews

[Bob R Bogle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mathematical theorem is proven once and for all time by a mathematical proof, QED. It is never open to reconsideration. The matter is decisively demonstrated. The case is closed. A scientific theory is backed up and supported by a wealth of observation and empiric evidence; however, it is never assumed to be true: it always remains falsifiable, or at least subject to modification as new knowledge or insight is taken onboard. A perpetual tentativeness clings to scientific theory, which contributes to its elegance and beauty. It is testable and allows for predictions to be made based exclusively on merit. If those tests or predictions prove untenable, then the theory is liable to revision, or even to rejection and replacement by a more inclusive theory which better accounts for all new observations. In the common marketplace of ideas what we call a theory is usually a working idea concerning the immediate world in which we live our lives: our individual minds fashion operative if flexible notions to account for human behavior and for the apparent rules governing society and culture. Proof is unnecessary to how we negotiate our day-to-day lives: all, or nearly all, evidence is circumstantial, and our grasp of it is speculative. So we make it through our days. But what is literary theory?

This is not the occasion for a discussion about the many types, or flavors, of literary theory. In brief, they may be considered a group of tools found in the bibliophile's toolkit which may be used to examine any text, which is a technical word for a story. Using different literary theories, any single text may therefore be examined in any number of different ways. These tools are not mutually exclusive: there is not any particular theory (tool) which is right or wrong for any given text. We'll think of a literary theorist not like a mathematician with his proofs, and not like a scientist with his ever-expanding and evermore accurate understanding of nature, but more like a prosecuting attorney, building up a case from a combination of facts contained within the text, from inferences concerning the text and sometimes its author. The goal of the literary theorist is to present a case which is sufficiently solid to persuade the jury (usually, the readers of an article written by the literary theorist) that his own story about an original text is credible. And as young Stephen Dedalus once pointed out in Ulysses, it is unnecessary for the theorist to actually believe his own theory, which must only be persuasive to be considered successful.

Which brings us finally to Bruce Louden's 1999 book The Odyssey: Structure, Narration and Meaning. Louden has reexamined a classic book which has been reexamined by a long line of experts for literally thousands of years, which has been analyzed from every possible angle using every possible branch of literary theory. The project Louden has set for himself is akin to someone writing yet another Amazon review for a popular bestseller which already has hundreds or thousands of reviews and one must ask: why bother? Of course this is what a classicist literary theorist must do, and so it is imperative that he find a fresh way of looking at an ancient text. In this, at least, Louden is successful. His point of view is fresh and, at least to a degree, it is persuasive.

Louden's achievement is this. He identifies a certain extended narrative pattern which structures the shape of (most of) the entire Odyssey. I will quote the entire narrative pattern here (found on page 2 of Louden), because it is essential to understand all of Louden's arguments (i.e., his case presented to the jury), and because it will be so impressive to anyone who has read Homer's Odyssey including, presumably, anyone still reading this small reviewlet:

"Odysseus, as earlier prophesied, arrives at an island, disoriented and ignorant of his location. A divine helper appears, advising him how to approach a powerful female figure who controls access to the next phase of his homecoming and pointing out potential difficulties regarding a band of young men. His identity a secret (as approach to the female is perilous), Odysseus reaches her, finding a figure who is initially suspicious, distant, or even hostile toward him. She imposes a test on him, whereupon Odysseus, having successfully passed the test, wins her sympathy and help, obtaining access to the next phase of his homecoming. Their understanding is made manifest in her hospitable offer of a bath. Furthermore, Odysseus is now offered sexual union and/or marriage with the female. However, conflict arises between Odysseus and the band of young men. The young men abuse Odysseus in various ways and violate a divine interdiction. The leader of each band has the parallel name of Eury___; the band's consequent death, earlier prophesied, is demanded by a wrathful god. A Divine consultation limits the extent of the death and destruction."

Louden demonstrates how the elements of this controlling narrative pattern are repeated, with comparatively small variations, three times throughout the Odyssey: on Circe's isle of Aiaia, at Scheria, where Odysseus interacts with Nausicaa and her mother and the Scherian athletes, and finally back at Ithaca, where Odysseus deals with the suitors and with Penelope. This pattern which Louden has identified is impressive, as it offers a framework by which numerous odd peculiarities of the Odyssey suddenly come into focus and make more sense. Incidents occur in the Odyssey not at the whim of Homer, but according to controlling narrative principles. In addition, miniature versions of the narrative pattern may also be found, and sometimes, as in the case of Odysseus' time spent trapped on Calypso's isle of Ogygia, they run in reverse order.

Well, Louden's thesis is pretty exciting for its illuminating potential. At some point, however, as when listening to a prosecuting attorney spinning out his reconstruction of a crime, a somewhat nagging doubt may enter into our thoughts. To what degree has Louden indeed identified a controlling Homeric narrative pattern, and to what degree has Louden himself constructed this pattern and then proceeded to interpret the original text in the optimal manner to conform with the niceties of his proposed Loudenic pattern?

Do we believe Louden's theory of the Odyssey? Or in the end, does it matter if we believe it or not? Is belief important for a successful literary theory? Certainly Louden's theory is not testable; it is not falsifiable; it makes no predictions which can be verified about how other successful epics must work.

The opening chapter of The Odyssey: Structure, Narration and Meaning is impressive, fascinating and compelling. Unfortunately, the rest of the book gets us quickly into the weeds of the argument, lost in the minor details of the Odyssey which can best (only?) be appreciated by a classicist scholar. It becomes, that is to say, rather dull. Still, Louden's thesis remains quite interesting and, in its way, exciting. I'm uncertain it's fully persuasive, but it's certainly worth thinking about.