Writes Dr Edoardo Chiattelli, Teacher of Classics
Who was Homer? Did he really exist? Who composed the Iliad and Odyssey and how did their composition work? All these matters are gathered under the umbrella term of the ‘Homeric question’. Since the 3rd century BCE, through different forms and perspectives, the debate around it has kept scholars busy. My lecture focused on the main names and ideas, including the oral theory delineated by Milman Parry, and on a specific question that is ever more pressing today: should we just consider the Homeric poems as the result of an oral tradition, with no possible signs of authorship, or can we find in them a main ‘artist’ with a unitary vision?
I’m afraid the lecture ended with many questions and very few (if not no) answers. The lecturer will be excused, given the title of the lecture itself. The series carried on yesterday, when Mr Hoskins spoke about the Themes in the Odyssey. Find out more next week!
