Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Annotations

The use of Homer and Roman poet Virgil (1st C. BC) as models of storytelling was popular when Hume wrote. By 'oblique narration' Hume means the telling of a story, not through the narrator, but through a character in retrospect. In the Odyssey the story is framed around Odysseus' struggles to return home after the end of the Trojan War. In Virgil's Aeneid the divine origins of the Romans are presented through the adventures and struggles of Aeneas in his attempt to reach home after the Trojan War. The action of both the Odyssey and the Aeneid involves central figures in the midst of their journeys.