Editing Odyssey (section)

==Style==

=== Structure ===
[[File:Odyssey-crop.jpg|thumb|15th-century manuscript of Book I written by scribe [[John Rhosos]] ([[British Museum]])]]
The ''Odyssey'' has 12,109 lines composed in [[dactylic hexameter]], also called Homeric hexameter.{{sfn|Myrsiades|2019|p=3}}{{sfn|Haslam|1976|p=203}} It opens ''[[in medias res]]'', in the middle of the overall story, with prior events described through [[Flashback (narrative)|flashbacks]] and storytelling.{{sfn|Foley|2007|p=19}} 

The ''Odyssey'' is divided into 24 books. While some scholars have posited that these correspond to the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet, recent scholarship rejects the connection as an ahistorical fiction created by earlier scholars.{{Sfn|Pache|Dué|Lupack|Lamberton|2020|p=140}} The division was probably made long after the poem's composition but is generally accepted as part of the poem's modern structure.{{sfn|Lattimore|1951|p=14}} In [[Classical Greece]], some books or sections were provided with their own titles. Books 1 to 4, which focus on the perspective of Telemachus, are called the ''[[Telemachy]]''.{{sfn|Willcock|2007|p=32}} Some scholars suggest these were added in a revision of the poem, while others note that later parts would not make sense without them.{{Sfn|Jones|1996|p=48}} Books 9 to 12, wherein Odysseus provides an account of his adventures, are called the ''Apologos'' or ''Apologoi''.{{Sfn|Pache|Dué|Lupack|Lamberton|2020|pp=275}}{{Sfn|Most|1989|pp=15–16}} Book 22 was known as ''Mnesterophonia'' ({{Langx|grc|Mnesteres|italic=yes|label=none|lit=suitors}} + {{Langx|grc|{{wikt-lang|en|φόνος|phónos}}|italic=yes|label=none|lit=slaughter}}).{{sfn|Cairns|2014|p=231}} Book 22 is generally said to conclude the Greek [[Epic Cycle]], but fragments remain of a lost sequel known as the ''[[Telegony]]''. The ''Telegony'' aside, the last 548 lines of the ''Odyssey'', corresponding to Book 24, are believed by many scholars to have been added by a slightly later poet.{{sfn|Carne-Ross|1998|p=ixi}}