It is unknown, of course, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey,
since, in general, no reliable contemporary description of how
these two epics came into being is to be found. Such sources as
there are - first and foremost, the two poems themselves - must be
interpreted in a comparative framework built on experience from
societies in the modern world that are in some respects similar to
archaic Greece in order to reach a coherent picture of the process.
The oral-formulaic theory, formed by Milman Parry (1902-1935) and
Albert B. Lord (1912-1991), not only revolutionized Homeric
studies, but also had an impact on anthropology and folklore. This
led to an increased interest in oral epic traditions, and
fieldworkers changed their methods towards a focus on composition
in performance. The individual singer and his handling of the
tradition gained importance. When possible, more than one
performance of the "same" song was recorded - by the same singer on
different occasions or by different singers - and interaction with
the audience was documented. Traditions of the oral epic still
exist in many parts of the world, and, during recent decades, quite
a few of them have been documented and analyzed by innovative
fieldworkers, leading to an overwhelming expansion of accessible
knowledge of how oral epic works. Writing Homer explores what this
means to the Parry-Lord-theory in general and the 'Homeric
Question' in particular. The relationship between the Iliad, the
Odyssey, and the Homeric Hymns, with the tradition of which they
are part, can now be described with much more precision than
before. It turns out that there is nothing unusual in very long
oral epics; what is unusual is that such poems are recorded in
writing. The process by which this must have taken place is
discussed in detail. Old problems, such as the fact that neither
illustrations of Trojan stories nor early 'quotations' agree with
the written poems, can be solved. Writing Homer achieves a deeper
understanding of the methods at work in the oral epic for building
a likely social context of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and
especially for speculating on the circumstances of the writing of
the two great poems. Long oral narratives are flexible, and
accordingly, the dictation to scribes that must be at the origin of
the texts, which have been preserved in writing to this day, was a
process of the utmost importance as was the composition in
performance of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Writing Homer is directed
at classical scholars, but will also be of interest to a much
broader readership: folklorists, anthropologists, and whoever
enjoys reading Homer in Greek, as well as in translation.
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