A word, phrase, or image that returns several times throughout the work, tied to a character or an idea, and gains meaning with each return.
In the Odyssey
and that life leave me after I have seen my goods, my maids, and the great high-roofed house.
The wish to see one's own house before dying already appeared when Athena spoke of the smoke of Ithaca, and it now returns on the lips of the hero himself. The repetition shows that the longing runs through the poem and stays the same in Odysseus.
Book VII: The palace of Alcinous, Odysseus
and this was not to be fulfilled: we were lost through our own recklessness.
Book X: Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, and Circe, Odysseus
you have in your breast a mind that no spell can bind. You are certainly Odysseus, the man of many turns,
Book X: Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, and Circe, Circe
Alas, what land of mortals have I reached this time? Will they be violent, savage, and unjust, or hospitable, with minds that fear the gods?
Book XIII: The arrival in Ithaca, Odysseus
so spoke, and the much-suffering godlike Odysseus was glad, because she was drawing gifts from them and enchanting their spirits with soft words, but her mind was planning something else.
Book XVIII: Irus and the suitors, the narrator
go to your room and attend to your tasks, the loom and the distaff, and tell the maids to busy themselves with their work; the bow will be a matter for men, for all, and above all for me, since the power in this house is mine.
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