Homer's my new homie

[Solon]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

6) In the introduction, it said that both the Illiad and the Odyssey were handed down orally and not put into written form for several hundred years. Did I read that correctly? It's hard for me to believe that such a long story (500 pages in this case) full of such vivid detail could survive in oral form.

On to the Odyssey.

Congratulations on reading the greatest book ever written (IMO).

Milman Parry did a lot of research in the nature of oral epic in the 1930s. Certain stock epithets helped the poet maintain the meter while each telling was undoubtedly slightly different. Pisistratus is supposed to have ordered the first comprehensive written compilation of Homer in the late 6th century, and the men who did this undoubtedly compared various (written?) versions. So, while Homer is credited with the kernel, the anachronisms and the various dialects that show up in the text indicate it is an amalgamation of multiple sources.