The Politics of Aesthetic Experience in Odysseus' Apologoi

Abstract:In Books 9 and 10 of the Odyssey, Odysseus' companions promote the equal distribution of the spoils of their return voyage. This article argues that, as part of their commitment to social equality, the companions experiment with egalitarian modes of spectatorship and dining during the Aeolus and Lotus episodes. In these aesthetic encounters, the companions subvert Odysseus' position as the focus and focalizer of the narrative. The companions thus serve as an internal audience, figuring for the poem's external audiences an alternative form of narrative experience that resists the poem's centripetal orientation around the homecoming of a single, elite protagonist.