SPATIAL FORMS AND PATHS

In my preceding analyses of individual battle sequences in Books 12–17, I have emphasized the visual components that organize the action both in the poet's presentation and in the audience's comprehension of a complex set of events played out on the battlefield. My survey has demonstrated how Homeric narrative can be understood not only in temporal but also in spatial terms. Indeed, certain episodes reveal their full significance only when their spatial dimensions are taken into account. In discussing Homeric scenes of combat, I have drawn attention to the verbal cues that show how the poet of the Iliad “saw” in his mind's eye and made visible to his audience the complex actions of his characters within a spatial and temporal framework. The basis of my reconstruction has been the verbal signposts, especially deictic markers (“left,” “right,” “now,” “later,” “near,” “far”) used by the narrator and his characters as well as certain other narrative devices (perfective and imperfective verb forms, similes) that effect transitions from one sector of the action to another.