Rediscovering Homer is a 2006 book byAndrew Dalby. It sets out the problems of origin, dating and authorship of the two ancient Greek epics,Iliad andOdyssey, usually attributed toHomer.
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| Author | Andrew Dalby |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Published | W.W. Norton |
Publication date | 2006 |
| ISBN | 9780393330199 |
Rediscovering Homer originated as a development and expansion of two academic papers published in the 1990s in which Dalby argued that theIliad andOdyssey must be seen as belonging to the same world as that of the early Greek lyric poets but to a less aristocratic genre.[1] This contradicted a widespread assumption that the epics come from an older stage of civilization and literature than the personal poetry ofArchilochus,Sappho and others.
Returning to these themes, Dalby summarizes the contents and significance of the two epics and hypothesizes the transmission they probably followed, from oral invention and circulation to written versions.
He then spotlights the unknown poet who, long after the time of the traditionalHomer, at last saw theIliad andOdyssey recorded in writing. Dalby notes that "no early author describes or names the singer who saw these two poems written down.[2] We are given no sex and no name -- certainly not Homer, who is seen as a singer of the distant past."[3] Based on what we can judge of this poet's interests and on the circumstances in whichoral poetry has been recorded elsewhere, "it is possible, and even probable, that this poet was a woman. As a working hypothesis, this helps to explain certain features in which these epics are better -- more subtle, more complex, more universal -- than most others."[3]
The idea is not new.Eustathius of Thessalonica recounted an ancient fiction in which both epics were composed by an Egyptian priestess,Phantasia;Samuel Butler, inThe Authoress of the Odyssey, attributed theOdyssey to a Sicilian woman between 1150 and 1050 BC; andRobert Graves in his novelHomer's Daughter made a similar proposal.
Even before the appearance ofRediscovering Homer the idea was dismissed as "far-fetched" byAnthony Snodgrass on the grounds that a woman would have been "bored out of her mind" when composing theIliad.[4] Reviewers, even when praising the book, have continued to be sceptical of this proposal:
As Dalby notes, the Muses can "tell many lies as if true". This applies to ancient songsters and the modern scholars who study them.
— Palaima, 2007.
