The Placement of ‘Book Divisions’ in theIliad

Abstract

All editions and translations of Homer'sIliadpresent the epic as a series of twenty-four segments always marked off in the same places. In this respect theIliadconforms to, and seems even to originate, a practice in which narratives of any considerable length are almost always presented in marked segments, usually calledchapters.Similarly, dramas, except very short ones, usually run as a series ofactswhose dimensions are determined in the composition (i.e., not afresh with each performance). Acts may be marked by curtains, intermissions or briefer pauses, or other variations in the performance: in ancient Greek drama the segmentation is unmistakeably marked by the placement of choral lyrics (Arist.Poet.1452b). It is not exactly clear why the chapter and the act should be so indispensable, but authors and audiences alike know intuitively that they are. Yet many scholars since antiquity have believed that theIliadand theOdysseyoriginally lacked marked segmentation, and that the now-familiar presentation was imposed upon them later by someone other than their composer(s). Even today, when few scholars see profit in analyzing theIliadandOdysseyinto earlier and later strata, the so-called 'book divisions’ continue to offer a tempting target for analytic criticism.