2nd Day of Notes

Homer the Story Teller

• Greek oral Tradition- Stories passed on by word of mouth.
• Homer lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages."
• He composed stories of the Trojan war C. 750-700 BCE.
• The Iliad-probably one of the last last conquests of the Mycenaeans (The Trojan War).
• The Odyssey-Odysseus attempt to return home, being thwarted by the angry god of the sea, Poseidon. 
• The Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter.
• Did Homer Exist?
• The "Homeric Question"- Homer may have been a mythical creation himself.
• A blind wandering minstrel; a heroic figure.
• Iliad and Odyssey may be the culmination of many generations of story telling.
• Or..... Homer actually existed and was just that awesome.