Samuel Butler

“ Nevertheless, a certain similarity of style and feeling between the "Odyssey" and all the poems of the Epic cycle is certain to have existed, and indeed can be proved to have existed from the fragments of the lost poems that still remain. In all art, whether literary, pictorial, musical, or architectural, a certain character will be common to a certain age and country. Every age has its stock subjects for artistic treatment ”

“ Literature which, though written, is intended mainly for recitation before an audience few of whom can read, exists only on condition of its appealing instantly to the understanding, and will, therefore, deal only with what the hearer is supposed already to know in outline. ”

“ Perhaps the prettiest example of unconscious cerebration in the "Odyssey" is to be found in the opening line of "Od." iii., which runs ἠέλιος δ ̓ ἀνόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα λίμνην, which is taken from "Il." V. 20, Ἰδαῖος δ ̓ ἀπόρουσε λιπὼν περικαλλέα δίφρον. One is at a loss to conceive how a writer so apparently facile should drift thus on to an Iliadic line of such different signification except as the result of saturation. It is inconceivable that she should have cast about for a line to say that the sun was rising, and thought that Idæus jumping off his chariot would do. ”

“ The writer may take any part of the stock national subjects that he or she likes, and within reasonable limits may treat it according to his or her fancy, but it must hitch on to the old familiar story, and hence will arise a certain similarity of style between all poems of the same class that belong to the same age, language, and people. ”

“ They are wanted so as to explain who the people are of whom we are to hear in the body of the poem; their position is perfectly natural; the Achæan catalogue is prepared in Nestor's speech (n. 360-368) ; Homer almost tells us that he has had assistance in compiling it, for he invokes the Muse, as he does more than once in later Books, and declares that he knows nothing of his own knowledge, but depends entirely upon what has been told him *; the lines quoted or alluded to in the "Odyssey" are far too marked to allow of our doubting that the writer knew both catalogues familiarly ”

“ It is also evident that she is not making a résumé of other people's works; she is telling the story de novo from the point of view of herself, her home, her countrymen, and the whole island of Sicily. Other peoples and places may be tolerated, but they raise no enthusiasm in her mind. ”

“ II. 184 we find that Ulysses had a servant from Ithaca named Eurybates, but he does not seem to have been hunched in the shoulders; on reading further, however, we immediately come to Thersites, "whose shoulders were hunched over his chest" ("Il." II. 217, 218) . Am I too hasty in concluding that the writer of the "Odyssey," wanting an additional detail for Penelope's greater assurance, and not finding one in the "Iliad," took the hunchiness off the back of the next man to him and set it on to the back of Eurybates? ”

“ The second of the two passages above referred to is "Iliad" XXIV. 621-651, which runs: http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/aoto/img/23400.jpg
Professor Jebb is disposed to attribute "Il." XXIV. to the writer of "Il." IX., which he does not ascribe to Homer. I regret that I can go no further with him than that "Il." XXIV. and "Il." IX. are by the same hand.
It is beyond my scope to point out the slight and perfectly unimportant variations from the "Iliad" which are found in some of the Odyssean lines to which I have given a reference ”

“ I will now go on to examine the passages in "Il." XVIII. which the writer of the "Odyssey" has wholly or in part adopted. They are:—
"Il." XVIII. 22-24,
ὣς φάτο τὸν δ ̓ ἄχεος νεφέλη ἐκάλυψε μέλαινα ἀμφοτέρῃσι δὲ χερσὶν ἑλὼν κόνιν αἰθαλόεσσαν· χεύατο κὰκ κεφαλῆς χαρίεν δ ̓ ᾔσχυνε πρόσωπον.
These lines are found "Od." xxiv. 315-317 except that as they refer to an old man, instead of, as in the "Iliad," to a young one, χαρίεν δ ̓ ᾔσχυνε πρόσωπον has become πολιῆς ἀδινὰ στεναχίζων. The first of the three lines occurs also in "Il." XVII. 591. ”