Homer and the Origins of Literature Who was Homer and why and how did his poems get written down?

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Homer and the Origins of Literature Who was Homer and why and how did his poems get written down?

5 Key Points of Lecture 1.Who Was Homer? 2.What is the Homeric Question? 3.Homer and the Origins of Writing 4.The Man Who Overcame Death 5.Why Is This Important?

Who Was Homer? We know nothing for certain about Homer His work shows a knowledge of the Greek World and Near East Written BCE from oral tradition. Later tradition has him born in Republic of Turkey (Asia Minor) Stories circulate about him in the Greek world saying he was blind and told “all the best stories.”

Homer is credited with having composed two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey The Iliad is set over the course of several weeks, during the ninth year of the Trojan War. Its principle theme is “The Wrath of Achilles.” But the texts are really the culmination of a long tradition going back years before the 8 th century. The Odyssey narrates the return of Odysseus to his home after 20 years. It is filled with folktales.

What was Homer’s world like? Homer and oral composers like him probably sang their songs to the social elite at banquets and athletic events. His audiences were probably mostly male We do not know when or where poems as long as the Odyssey and Iliad may have been presented

Homeric Values Vocabulary \ 1.Areté Excellence, virtue, or what makes and individual the best or among the best. 2.Timé Honor, material symbol of status among others, (prize, booty, trophies). 3.Kleos Glory or Fame, understood as public opinion, or what others say or remember.

A few MORE Homeric Values… 4. Hubris -One’s pride or ego, usually used in challenging others or to allow oneself to feel uplifted. 5.Xenia generosity and courtesy towards strangers/hospitality and good faith upon travelers. 6.Philia -”brotherly love” – friendship and kindness towards family

Most Scholars Now Agree on the Following... Homer did exist He was an oral poet He was illiterate

But how did Scholars Even Come To Agree On These Three Things? It all begins with what is known as the The Homeric Question is: How did the poems originate? Could a bunch of short poems have been put together to make a longer poem? Some scholars felt that the work was too long to have been composed without writing. We have 16,000 lines of the Iliad and 12,000 lines of the Odyssey But Homer’s world does not contain writing...

The Homeric Question By the 1920’s, scholars had come up with two basic answers to the Homeric Question Option #1 Many “Homers” singing tales which later became a coherent whole. Option #2 One single, very gifted individual was responsible for both poems. In the 1930’s a scholar named Milman Parry changed the debate by studying oral poets in what is now the former Yugoslavia...

Homer and the Origins of Writing The poems exist for us today, but they come from a largely oral tradition and were created by a system that is hostile to writing Writing is known to the Greeks as “the drug of forgetfulness, silent but speaking”. It seems as if writing was invented around 800 BCE, the exact time when Homer’s poems were composed Now the Greeks no longer had to use their minds to remember words, but had a system of symbols to use which stood for specific sounds in their language.

Homer’s Other Questions and Themes Who am I? How do I fit into humankind? What is my role in life? What is my relationship to other humans? Life triumphs over death Ordered world wins out over disordered Simple revenge Right over wrong