CLA160H1 Study Guide - Nostoi, Phemius, Odysseus
Document Summary
I respect you, demodocus, more than any man alive - surely the muse has taught you, zeus"s daughter, or god apollo himself. How true to life, all too true you sing the achaeans" fate, all they did and suffered, all they soldiered through, as if you were there yourself or heard from one who was. Epeus built with athena"s help, the cunning trap that good odysseus brought one day to the heights of troy, filled with fighting men who laid the city waste. Sing that for me - true to life as it deserves - and i will tell the world at once how freely the muse gave you the gods" own gift of song. This is a speech by odysseus to the phaeacian bard (aiodos) demodocus. This passage shows odysseus taking decisive control of his own image among the phaeacians.
