Para-Narratives in the Odyssey

Readers coming to the Odyssey for the first time are often dazzled and bewildered by the wealth of material it contains which is seemingly unrelated to the central story: the main plot of Odysseus'' return to Ithaca is complicated by myriad secondary narratives related by the poet and his characters, including Odysseus'' own fantastic tales of Lotus Eaters, Sirens, and cannibal giants.Although the...