When I was translating the first book of the Iliad last semester, my professor often pointed out the flow of the narrative. In a way, it flowed backwards. The poet told you something, and then told you the reason behind it. For example, in the very beginning, Achilles is angry, he is angry because there was a disagreement with Agamemnon, there was a disagreement because Agamemnon would not give back his girl, and he had to give back the girl because her father was a priest of Apollo and asked it of him. I have not noticed the same pattern in book 10 of the Odyssey. Now, I never translated any other parts of the Iliad, so I do not know if the same flow is used in the rest of the books. However, if it is not, could this indicate a difference in poet?
Very compelling point, Kathleen!
The larger narrative structure of the Odyssey in a way, does this very thing, but perhaps with more sophistication. Odysseus is all the way to the Phaiacians–almost home–announces himself as a much-suffering man–before he recounts backwards the trials that made him so.