CLAS 1051 Lecture 6: The World of Homer
29 Sep 2016
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Note: these are notes i hand wrote and transferred into a digital format. The nature of oral tradition: end point of a long tradition of oral tradition a. i. The stories that homer wrote had been told for hundreds of years oral by bards and other entertainers a. ii. When he wrote them down, homer brought the end for this long held tradition: these stories were not memorized. b. i. We know that large portions were changed by the bards in areas with the purpose of entertaining an audience b. ii. For instance, if the audience were more interesting in heroics, the bard would tell a great tail of battles and the mighty qualities of the heroes. Other times, people may have preferred the romantics, and the storyteller would alter the themes in favor of that. It was ever changing. b. iii: things are placed in odd settings c. i. Some of what homer wrote did not fit appropriately on a timeline.
