stories

• Homer includes many stories within the main narrative
• main is the flashback of 9-12
• the stories are a useful took for the oral poet to build his poem
• some are in the form of Odysseus' 'lying tales' which he tells on his return to Ithaca
• he delights in making up tales
• perhaps audience members liked detecting the lies
• provide suspense - O could be found out and they are rich in dramatic irony
• other stories take the form of digressions, such as the bow (21) and the scar (19)
• they have a dramatic purpose in freezing the action at a crucial point and provide more evidence of his heroic past