6/22/2023 0 Comments Homer and the iliad and odyssey![]() ![]() The manuscript tradition for the Iliad is much better–there are more copies surviving from almost every period for which we have evidence. The epics were different enough that Samuel Butler (only partly joking) proposed that the Odyssey was composed by a woman. The epics differences were sensed in antiquity as well. Is this because more people had less experience of war? Is there something more modern or simpler about the Odyssey? In the past century the mentions of the epics started to draw closer together. ![]() Here’s a different Ngram provided by Kyle Sanders ( ohflanders)which indicates the Odyssey overtook the Iliad in the late 1960s If we were to evaluate the popularity of the epics based on their mentions ( using the Google ngram function), we would see that a few centuries ago, the Iliad had a pretty impressive lead over the Odyssey. ![]()
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