HIST 11051 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Physical Strength
28 Apr 2019
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Document Summary
The dark age, oral literary tradition, dark age was the firm establishment of an oral tradition that recounted a glorious and heroic past. Tradition would culminate with the magnificent epic poems of homer. Iliad and odyssey: composed at the end of the dark age, epic poems, all epic poems have common theme. Recounting the deeds of superhuman heroes of earlier times. Served function of providing a legendary history which explained how people got where they were and why: greek epic poems had developed the plots of the siege of troy and various heracles legends in centuries before homer. Wandering poets used these basic plots but embellished them in order to appeal to their particular audience: world of the iliad and odyssey. In terms of values and attitudes, homer was describing the late dark age. Imposed values, attitudes, and motivations of his own age on historical characters: world he described was made up of tiny, autonomous political units.
