This chapter supplements the general points made in Chapter 3 with some of the more specific characteristics that ancient scholars discovered in the speeches of Homer in particular.

SPEECH INTRODUCTIONS AND THEIR FUNCTION

Homeric speeches are normally introduced and capped by speech formulae, which have a function similar to quotation marks in a modern text. At the same time, the speech introduction allows the narrator to give an idea of what the speech is going to be like. As a note on the line that introduces Odysseus' first speech to Nausicaa puts it:

The note makes two observations. Firstly, the speech introduction provides the reader with a standard which he can apply to the speech (the implication probably being that this helps him to orient himself). Secondly, however, the information whether or not the speech fulfils its purpose is given only after the speech (e.g. in the capping formula).

The general point about Homeric speech introductions is made by Porphyry with considerably more detail and the explicit statement that this is a standard feature of Homeric speeches. The long note first states the general principle: