In Book 8 of the Odyssey, what does the blind poet Demodocus' presence and his singing do for the story?

Stephen Holliday

Demodocus, whose name means "beloved of the people," has several important
functions in Book 8, not the least of which is that Demodocus gives us a clear picture of the
importance of the bard in Bronze Age oral culture. In addition, his songs about Odysseus and,
more important, Odysseus's reaction to those songs, prompt the key question from Odysseus's
Phaeacian host, King Alcinous, "Who are you?"

Like , Demodocus is
blind, and many scholars have identified him as Homer because the parallels are striking--a
skilled poet, blind, who is able to recite the complex history of the Trojan War and Odysseus's
role in that war. In the first song, for example, Demodocus

. . . told of the quarrel/between Odysseus and Peleus's son, Achilles,/and how they had
clashed with violent words at a banquet, and secretly Agamemnon, that king of men,/ was glad to
see that the best of Achaeans were fighting. . . . (8:74-78)

This story, which does not appear anywhere in The

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