Episode Details

The Homeric Question and Epic Tradition. Guest: Professor Emily Wilson. The identity of Homer remains a subject of intense scholarly debate, as the Iliad emerged from a long oral tradition that existed before the return of literacy to Greece in the 8th century BCE. For centuries, performing poets developed stories of heroes like Achilles and Agamemnon, using dactylic hexameter to aid memory and performance. The Iliad is a monumental written poem that takes a sophisticated approach to these familiar tales, often subverting expectations. Interestingly, it omits many "famous hits" like the Trojan Horse, the judgment of Paris, and the actual fall of Troy. Instead, it focuses on a mere month and a half of the ten-year war, centering on internal Greek conflict rather than just a battle against Trojans. Wilson notes that while she translates the work into iambic pentameter to capture its drive, the poem itself possesses the narrative complexity of a modern novel, utilizing techniques like shifting perspectives and narrator omniscience. She also mentions lost epic poems like the Cypria, which provided more backstory on Zeus's plan to reduce the human population through war. 2