Classical Studies 1000 Lecture Notes - Homeric Question, Oral-Formulaic Composition, Theogony

• School: Western University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: Classical Studies 1000
• Professor: Christopher Brown

Document Summary

Oral vs. literate epic (or primary and secondary epic: what emerges is the idea that the homeric poems originated in a style to facilitate oral composition. Improvisation: not always literary composition we assume, takes us in a different direction. Found a modern tradition in the former yugoslavia: field work, recorded oral singers to compare how they do things in croatian traditions with. No single poet is fully responsible for the composition of the homeric poems: and so no homer in the usual sense of an author. Idea that one person made this all up is implausible. No single authoritative version: extemporization was important in the tradition these poems could be shaped differently on each performance. The homeric poems had collective importance: a tribal encyclopedia . May overrate the strength of the tradition, and underrate the contributions of individual singers. Fails to explain the emergence of a fixed tent: there could very well be some major composer.