The Iliad and Odyssey were probably composed sometime between the Mycenaean era and classical times, but the versions we know were almost certainly written down in the early classical era. There is evidence (eg lines that apparently don't scan properly), of language changes between composition and writing down.
Generally people in literate societies have far worse memories than in societies with oral/aural cultures. Ask an ear player how many tunes he knows - it will be more than I can remember where I kept the dots of.... John -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of christopher.bi...@ec.europa.eu Sent: 22 June 2011 10:15 To: phi...@gruar.clara.net; nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [NSP] Re: Deaf/dead Thank you in turn, Philip. The ancient sagas are an interesting question. I don't know when or how the Iliad and the Odyssey came to be fixed in their present form, but I do know that the Kalevala was a compilation from a variety of sources made only in the 19th century. >A sobering thought for some of us who struggle to remember >tunes, and forget >people's names. Indeed! C To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
