Homer Beside Himself: Para-Narratives in the Iliad

Students reading the "Iliad" for the first time are often bewildered by the sheer volume of information on apparently unrelated subjects which it contains. In this book, Dr Alden offers advice on how to read the "Iliad" through the relationship of major paradigms to the events of the main narrative.
Students reading the "Iliad" for the first time are often bewildered by the sheer volume of information on apparently unrelated subjects which it contains. The central narrative seems to unfold very slowly, and to be complicated by long speeches containing stories which might be interesting in themselves, but which seem to have no relevance to anything else. In this book, Dr Alden offers advice on how to read the "Iliad" through the relationship of major paradigms to the events of the main narrative The first section offers a full-length study in English of the paradigmatic functions of secondary narratives and minor-key episodes in the "Iliad". None of these are irrelevant or merely ornamental: rather each is carefully selected and altered if necessary, to reflect on significant episodes of the main narrative and act as guides to its interpretation. The second section offers a general reading of the "Iliad" arising out of Phoenix's advice to Achilles in Book 9.