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Our hero has made it on to Scheria.
He's on this island far away.

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We start to learn now, as he makes his
movement from this, edges of the island

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where he meets Nausicaa and her friends.
When he moves from there into the center

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of this town this city.
He sees something really amazing.

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This place is a little bit strange.
It's not quite like a normal citadel.

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That we will hear more about as Odysseus
goes on, on his adventures.

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And we've seen now represented.
Presented in Telemachus's journyes as he

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goes around and sees Nestor's palace or
Menelaus's palace.

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The Phaeacians have a slightly different
kind of reality that they live in.

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They are far away and they don't mix all
that well with others we're told.

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They're at the world's frontier out of all
human contact.

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We're told on page 174 at the bottom in
book seven.

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There's plenty of food there.
The crops are irrigated by springs.

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There's a kind of natural irrigation
system that's happening.

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There's gentle wind.
These that bring ripeness in all seasons?

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So that you have these lush, almost
magical orchards that just produce fruit.

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It just kind of comes up out of the depths
without extra toil having to be exerted in

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order to get the food, to get the food
out.

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We'll hear later, at the close of book
eight, of their magic boats.

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They have boats that actually steer
themselves.

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They don't have steersmen in their boats.
Their boats just kind of know by will

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where they're supposed to go.
And then maybe something to focus on in

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terms.
Wasn't strangest, the strangest of all is

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the idea that the Gods talked to them.
Face to face.

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You hear about this on page 186 in book
seven, that the Phoenicians have ability

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to talk face to face with the gods.
Usually, they don't disguise themselves

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when they come and talk to the
Phoenicians.

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This is really weird, when humans have
direct views of gods.

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Usually, there's trouble in mind.
There's a story of Zeus and Semele that,

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all you all will know, that a young mortal
girl who has a tryst with Zeus convinces

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him to show.
Him, to herself in all his full glory and

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he says no, please don't make me do that,
when he does, she gets incinerated because

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of how amazingly glorious Zeus is.
Similarly, we will hear other kinds of

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stories of humans getting in trouble by
getting in too close to gods as the, as

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the coarse advances.
Then also remember we made a mention when

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we talked about marriage of [inaudible]
that in an earlier mythic time even you

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know.
Prior to myth, myth in the beta stage.

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There are some tales of just kind of
normal human god interactions.

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They went to parties together.
They shared meals together.

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We hear about that in the marriage of
Piles and Thetas.

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Later on, we're gonna see a really
interesting episode of this portrayed in

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Hesiod's Theogony.
That's gonna be the story of Prometheus.

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So, you know that things get a little bit
messy when it comes to that interaction as

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well.
But for the, the Phoenicians.

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They seem to have this easy rapport with
the gods face to face.

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They really put them in this mythic space,
that's already kind of Mythic for myth.

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It's Proto-mythic, it's beta myth, it's
the early side of things.

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So they have this easy back and forth.
They are though while they're removed from

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others, they are though extraordinary
sailors.

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And this sailing capacity, this sailing
prowess, brings them what sailing prowess

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always does.
Extraordinarily rich trade, and tremendous

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amounts of wealth.
There are fabulous riches described as

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Odysseus approaches, the, the palace of
King [inaudible].

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There's amazing stuff that he runs into.
A detailed description and a lavish

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description, such as we have not yet seen.
This scene, where the, the wealth of the,

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of the palaces is described, gives us a
chance to talk about one of the common

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Homeric techniques of telling the story
that are really useful for us to focus on

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to get the most we can out of this
tech-myth.

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Homer uses a technique called ring
composition.

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And in ring composition, some specific
thing.

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Here, labelled A is articulated in the
story.

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And then there's a long digression.
Here represented with B.

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Where we talk about something that is
related to this usually specific physical

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thing we just ran into, and then we'll
know that we're done with the digression

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when we mention A again.
So sometimes he might say "and then the

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general picked up that sword.
That sword which was handed down many

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generations earlier to his grandfather and
his grandfather and got passed down to

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him.
That sword is the one he picked up now."

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So usually we will have an articulation of
the physical object, we'll have long

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digression, and then another articulation
of the physical object to finish off the

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XXX.
Thought to be a very useful aid for those

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that are doing.
In a world of formulaic presentations of

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poetry, so if your memorizing something
and you're trying to get it going and then

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you want to talk about your digression and
then you want remind yourself and your

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audience that you're done with the
digression, just mention that thing that

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you did in the beginning.
It tells you that it's the time to get

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out.
Now this technique is used in great effect

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when Homer is describing the riches at the
palace of King Alkinoos.

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So let's just take time to look at a
little bit from book seven using Fagels's

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translation.
Now as Odysseus approached Alkinoos's

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famous house, a rush of feelings stirred
within his heart, bringing him to a

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standstill even before he crossed the
bronze threshold.

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A strong radiant.
A radiance strong as the moon or rising

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sun came flooding through the high roofed
halls of generous King Alcinous.

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Walls plated in bronze crowned with a
circling frieze glazed as blue as lapis

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ran to the left and right.
From outer gates to the deepest court

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recesses and solid gold doors enclosed the
palace.

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Pretty striking the description of what
he's walking in to.

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And in fact the description goes on and
lots of details are brought out.

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We hear about the threshold that he's
standing on is actually (itself made off).

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Bronze.
The door posts and the lintel are made of

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silver.
The handles on the door are made of gold.

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There are gold and silver dog statues on
either side of the door that were made by

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[himself.
They're immortal and never die.

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They're guard dogs made of gold and
silver.

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There are many thrones in the palace.
One is just not just good enough.

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And each of them is decorated and draped
with beautiful fine fabric, that's, of

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extraordinarily fine quality.
Then there are golden statues of boys that

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are there for torch holders.
There are 50 servant women screwing

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around.
And there are magnificent In orchards and

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vineyards stretching for acres, that just
fertilized themselves.

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So, we hear this long, long digression on
tales of the extraordinary wealth of

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Alkinoss's Palace, that's visible to
Odysseus's eyes.

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At that point then, at the end of this
digression, bottom of page 183 and 84 in

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Fagles, in the middle of book seven, such
were the gifts the glory showered down by

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the gods on King Alkinoss's realm.
And there Odysseus stood, gazing at all

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this bounty.
A man who borne so much once he had his

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fill of marveling at it all, he crossed
the threshold quickly, strode inside the

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palace.
So with our ring composition, we have an A

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and a B, and an A.
The A is our threshold and the digression

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in B is our long and detailed tales of
wealth and A again is our threshold.

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The way that Homer uses this, look at what
he's done.

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The usefulness of this ring composition
and it's characteristic of the Homeric

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technique.
We have Odysseus enter into the palace and

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we basically see it through his own eyes.
He walks in, hits the threshold and then

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he's just overwhelmed.
And in that marvelous one or two seconds

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of Odysseus getting the visual,
overwhelming.

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Impression of wealth in Alcinous's Palace.
In that short time Homer goes on and on

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and on in narrative description.
And then reminds us at the end of it that

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actually what we've just done is paused
with Odysseus for a moment on the

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threshold.
But what we've been able to hear is this

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giant explosion in Odysseus's mind of
Deep, registering of this powerful,

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emotional kind of element, elements of
perception that Odysseus gets.

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So, time is able to actually expand and
explode inside of these rings.

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We'll have a mention of something, there
may be a long memory that comes back to

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us, someone, and a mention of it at the
end.

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That memory of course comes back.
In an instant, but the representation of

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it in Homer's poetry goes on for some
lavish amount of time.

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So Reins provide a way for Homer to dilate
certain very pregnant scenes to let us

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pause for a moment usually inside of
someone's head as something grand happens

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right before our eyes.
And in this case there's nothing that's

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gonna be quite as grand as Alcinous's
Palace.

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It's extraordinary.
So Odysseus is entering into a world of,

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of tremendous, tremendous wealth.