The Poetics of the Bath in the Iliad

Abstract

ORAL COMPOSITION AND TRADITION have inscribed themselves in the text of the Iliad and Odyssey at different levels: the language is formulaic and the composition rests on type scenes. Referring to Parry, Edwards claims that type scenes are even more significant for oral poetry than formulaic diction.2 Not only particular scenes, but the whole of the Iliad's narrative can be analyzed as resting on the permanent recreation of typical scenes out of traditional material, with varying degrees of individuality. In this article, I will deal with a particular type scene, the bath. While scholarship has paid much attention to the bath in the Odyssey,4 I will turn to the Iliad. The observation, made for the Odyssey, that the bath is embedded in the ritual of hospitality and followed by a feast scene does not hold true for the Iliad.

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