Manners and Talking

The Odyssey is full of dialogue. Actually, it is more like long monologues said in response to each other because most speakers tend to drone on forever before finally taking a break so that the other person may speak. This behavior leads to awkward conversations or discussions, at least from the reader's perspective, and is one of many speaking mannerisms shared by pretty much every character in the epic. One of these mannerisms is the constant use of Homeric epithets. Characters often address other characters with their epithets, including when they are talking to that character. This behavior seems rather formal to be used so frequently, especially in light conversation. It appears that epithets are natural to the characters, and thus they do not find it awkward when they hear them all of the time. A more specific tendency of the characters is to address right at the beginning of a monologue their opinion of the previous speaker, usually saying that the other person spoke well or questioning them for speaking such nonsense. For example, Leocritus starts his response to Mentor's monologue, "Rabble-rousing fool, now what's this talk? / Goading them on to try and hold us back! / It's uphill work, I warn you" (Book 2, 274-276). These and many other specific mannerisms sort of provide a strict manual of speech. This formulaic way of talking makes all characters sound the same (other than the differences in the actual content of their words and arguments). This of course makes sense considering that The Odyssey is an epic, and even the dialogue has to sound poetic like the narration, so every character speaks like the author. Interestingly, the characters are sometimes mentioned to speak at various degrees of quality despite them all talking the same way. For example, Menelaus once compliments Telemachus, "Not even an older man could speak and do as well" (Book 4, 228). Apparently the characters are not aware of how similar they sound to each other.