Parataxis Of Homer

Throughout the epic poem The Odyssey, Homer employs a technique called parataxis.

This technique is used frequently to identify characters in the book or explaining an event.

The poem not only covers the story of Odyssey. The poem not only covers the story of

Odysseus, but also touches upon other characters as well. By using parataxis, Homer can briefly tell and describe characters and events. Often, characters are identified by their relationships to others, a great deed they have accomplished, to hardships they have come across. In describing Odysseus in Book V, lines 97 to 115 of which lines 105 to 110 are paratactical, Hermes says “you have with you the man who is wretched beyond all the other men of all those who fought around the city of Priam for nine years, and in the tenth they sacked the city and set sail for home, but on the voyage home they offended Athene, who let loose an evil tempest and tall waves against them. Then all the rest of his excellent companions perished, but the wind and the current carried him here and here they drove him.” The original conversation between Hermes and Kalypso had little to do with Odysseus’s journey. Hermes in lines 97 to 115 tells Kalypso that Odysseus’s fate lie not on the island, but back home in Ithaka. The parataxis interrupts the line of conversation to inform the reason why Odysseus arrives here. It gives a glimpse the span of Odysseus’s journey and the fate of his companions before the story is told. In this instance, Hermes identifies Odysseus with the obstacles he has overcome.

At times, a parataxis of a certain character in one part of the poem help explain matters later on. In book XI, lines 281 to 297, Odysseus tells of Chloris, a beautiful maiden. Of those lines, lines 287 to 290 are paratactical, “Also she bore that marvel among mortals, majestic Pero, whom all the heroes round about courted, but Neleus would not give her to any, unless he could drive away the broad-faced horn-curved cattles of strong Iphikles out of Phylake.” It talks of Chloris’s daughter, Pero and the task that all suitors must accomplish before he can have her hand. Later on in book XV, another character is introduced. He is the son of the man who won Pero. Without mentioning

Pero or the task of the suitors in the earlier book, much more explanation would be needed to identify other characters. This parataxis links various character and their

stories.