By Alex Hickey and Nia McClure Homer’s Audience By Alex Hickey and Nia McClure

Homer Homer is thought to have lived 300 years after the time period his poems were set in. He lived in the well known classical period of Ancient Greece which were far more developed in their political and economic systems than Homeric Greece (the time in which his story was set) was. Homer’s society is though to have been even more strongly patriarchal than what is portrayed within the Iliad.

Homer’s Audience In the Iliad, Homer demonstrates a sophisticated use of traditional language and patterns. Therefore we can assume that Homers audience had extensive knowledge and understanding of both the formulaic technique and the traditional stories.

Iliad In the Iliad, little prior knowledge is needed about the characters. Many characters get an indirect introduction from other characters and throughout the Iliad, descriptions continue. But traditional audiences would have been able to gain more from the text about the characters because of their knowledge of techniques. For example, Patroclus is not named directly until further into the text. But it is assumed that the audience will know him by ‘the son of Menotius’. It is also assumed that the audience would know Patroclus was dear to Achilles from just ‘with the son of Menotius and his companions’ because of the formula of ‘with X and his companions’. A named character like this is automatically singled out as important to the main character.

Homers techniques We can gather even more information about the audience Homer was presenting to from other characters from the Iliad. As they would be accustomed to an epic, after finding about Chryseis visiting Thebe (which is mentioned later on in the text) after being released, the audience would assume she had been married and her husband had been killed due to the audiences’ previous knowledge. The Aristae would also cater to the audiences knowledge about epics, giving them an insight into what was in store for that era.

Context Homer was presenting to Greeks who believed the earlier period of their country was a more glorious age when Gods still walked on earth and super human mortals populated Greece. This would have influenced Homers writing to depict this age skilfully. But as he was thought to have been writing in the late 8th and early 7th centuries BC, audiences would have recognised homer letting of their realities into the Iliad.

Audience As mentioned before, Homer will have been presenting to a higher patriarchal society. It is thought his purpose was to entertain rich men as they would have been able to reward the poet. We can therefore see the partial purpose of the glory and honour of war along with the ‘prize winning’ of women.

Thank You!