A Poetics of Competition in Conjugal Bedroom Conversation in the "Iliad", the "Odyssey", and the "Argonautica"

Both aggressive and non-aggressive strategies of competition pervade the poetics of the "Iliad", the "Odyssey", and the "Argonautica", shaping the expression of narrator-ethos and implicit standards of poetic quality. Studying a poetics of competition in scenes of conjugal bedroom conversation in Il. 3.421–448, Od. 23.295–343, and A. R. 4.1068–1111 benefits understanding of the text-immanent strategies employed to achieve and advertise the superior quality of these poems. The poetics of competition in Il. 3.421–448 can be read against Middle-Eastern poetry and the Epic Cycle, that of Od. 23.295–343 against the Iliad and perhaps lost Nostoi-traditions, while A. R. 4.1068–1111 engages not just the Odyssey, but also Herodotus 3.134 f., the "Dios apate" in Il. 14, and Peripatetic and Alexandrian scholarship.