Rediscovering Homer

by Dalby, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780393057881
• ISBN10: 0393057887
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-07-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

Who created theOdysseyand theIliad? A portrait of the poet and the world. Scholar Andrew Dalby delves into the world that first heard theOdysseyand theIliad, and asks new questions about the poet named Homer. Dalby follows the growth of the legend of Troy from its kernel of historical truth, and retraces the succession of singers who re-created the unforgettable story for generations of audiences. He asks why the two great epics at last crossed the frontier from song to writing, and how this astonishing transformation from the singer's mouth to the goatskin page was achieved. A gifted detective of the classical world, Dalby finds new approaches to the personality of Homer, showing how the earliest evidence has been misread. He makes a powerful case that both poems are the work of a single poet and comes to an ultimate conclusion that will surprise even serious classical scholars: Homer was most likely a woman.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	xiii
Timeline for the Homeric World	xxviii
Maps	xxxii
PART ONE The Poems
1. Oral Poetry in Early Greece	3	(28)
2. The Iliad and History	31	(33)
3. The Odyssey and Society	64	(27)
PART TWO The Poet
4. The Making of the Iliad	91	(19)
5. From Iliad to Odyssey	110	(19)
6. Identifying the Poet	129	(28)
PART THREE The Response
7. From Oral Epic to Written Classic	157	(24)
8. The Rediscovery of Orality	181	(15)
9. Reading the Iliad and the Odyssey Afresh	196	(9)
Notes	205	(12)
Guide to Further Reading	217	(16)
Bibliography	233	(14)
Index	247