Performance and rivalry: Homer, Odysseus and Hesiod

Among the several episodes at the end of the Odyssey to arouse the suspicious notice of scholarship,1 the ‘recapitulation’ (23.310–43) has attracted its fair share of criticism. Odysseus’ précis of his adventures to Penelope has been deemed (inter alia) unnecessary, cursory, selective, and even unique in summarizing his wanderings in oratio obliqua, for everywhere else those narratives are put into the mouth of the poem’s main character.2 Of these objections, the last is at least interesting, because it focuses on the poet’s decision to narrate Odysseus’ précis not in direct speech, but in his own, third-person voice. This article will argue that his decision should be understood within the broader context of the relationship between the poet and Odysseus.3 Seen in this light, the recapitulation can reveal much about Homer’s conception of his craft, and his attitude towards other (competing) aoidoi