literary context

• Oral tradition


  Passing down stories verbally through generations
• Homeric question


  Debate on the authorship and composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey
• Friedrich Wolf


  In 1795, proposed that multiple people composed the Iliad due to its length and complexity
• Millman Parry


  In the 1930s, suggested that the repetitions in the epics aided oral composition and iliad so long it must have been multiple composers
• Rhapsodes


  Performers who recited excerpts from Homer's works at public events
• Library of Alexandria


  written copies of iliad here 3rd century BC, where text was standardised into the 24 books
• how did the iliad evolve

  hundreds of years of tales transmitted with bards
• what makes iliad a greek epic


  dactylic hexameter, distinct dialect, conventional formulaic phrases
• what can we infer ab homers audience

  already familiar with trojan war stories, no exposition or explanation in the iliad
• what do we know about iliad & odysseys writing

  by greek/s in ionia 725-700BC
• historical theory ab homeric epics transcription


  people thought homer wrote the texts down
• debates around homeric question

  how was iliad composed, was homer one person
• reasons iliad had many composers

  inconsistencies and repetitions show many poems joined
• homeric unity arguments


  so skillful must be from one mind
• how was iliad transmitted

  writing was still developing, rhapsodes recited extracts at festivals