their proper value to a large number of books here and on the
Continent that at present enjoy considerable reputations.
Furthermore, and this perhaps is an advantage better worth
securing, he will find that many puzzles of the "Odyssey" cease
to puzzle him on the discovery that they arise from
over-saturation with the "Iliad."

Other difficulties will also disappear as soon as the
development of the poem in the writer's mind is understood. I
have dealt with this at some length in pp. 251-261 of "The
Authoress of the Odyssey". Briefly, the "Odyssey" consists of
two distinct poems: (1) The Return of Ulysses, which alone the
Muse is asked to sing in the opening lines of the poem. This
poem includes the Phaeacian episode, and the account of Ulysses'
adventures as told by himself in Books ix.-xii. It consists of
lines 1-79 (roughly) of Book i., of line 28 of Book v., and
thence without intermission to the middle of line 187 of Book
xiii., at which point the original scheme was abandoned.

(2) The story of Penelope and the suitors, with the episode of
Telemachus' voyage to Pylos. This poem begins with line 80
(roughly) of Book i., is continued to the end of Book iv., and
not resumed till Ulysses wakes in the middle of line 187, Book
xiii., from whence it continues to the end of Book xxiv.

In "The Authoress of the Odyssey", I wrote:

the introduction of lines xi., 115-137 and of line ix.,
535, with the writing a new council of the gods at the
beginning of Book v., to take the place of the one that was