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Copyright of Gerion: Revista de Historia Antigua is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Conversations can reveal the shifting nature of power relations between speaking characters. Especially in epic tradition, which includes a high proportion of speech and hence speech exchanges, the different characteristics of a character's speeches across similar scenes allow for different evaluations of their effect on the interlocutors. This paper focuses on the presentation of Athena's (and consequently her interlocutors') role in a number of divine councils (Iliad, Odyssey and Argonautica) by examining her words both in terms of the speech mode used and its particular style as well as the various types of power incorporated. Her repeated presence in councils shows her use of different speech elements in her talking through which she either foregrounds or challenges the type of power she possesses in her relations with others. These speech and power-related elements affect her characterisation and reveal her dynamic textual role across epics. Intertextual and intratextual links within epic tradition disclose more clearly the variability of relational speech and power patterns across a character's words and their consequences for the shaping of the speaking character's role in a given scene and across similar scenes within the epic genre, which retrospectively have an impact on the ultimate narrative end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]