Redisovering Homer: Inside The Origins Of The Epic, Andrew Dalby, c. 2006

I am re-reading Rediscovering Homer: Inside the Origins of the Epic, by Andrew Dalby, c. 2006. So often, I find reading a book the second time through is so much more rewarding. I already know the thesis, the ending, the viewpoint of the author. Now, I can go back and see how the author developed the story.

I am always amazed how little information about the Trojan War is actually in the Iliad. The poem only covers the last few weeks near the end of the ten-year siege/war and does NOT include the tale of the Trojan Horse. That little detail and much of the rest of what we know about the war is found in the Odyssey. 

 The hero of the Iliad is Achilles, but interestingly is not called by that name or even references him in the title. Hold that thought.

The author also notes that the Iliad and the Odyssey are two of the very, very few surviving pieces of literature from that period. Hold that thought.

"Homer" was the singer/poet who is credited with the two epics. But "Homer" did not write down the epics; that was done by someone else, probably around 650 BC. "Homer" himself lived two to four hundred years earlier.

Early on, Andrew Dalby asks the question: why did someone write down the two long poems. I think he answered his own question in the introduction. It will be interesting to see how he develops his answer. I've forgotten, so I'm looking forward to rereading the book.

Dalby notes that a new temple was built for Athene at the time the Iliad and the Odyssey were written. It took years, of course, to plan, build, and consecrate the new temple for Athene, and I am convinced that the Iliad and the Odyssey were commissioned to accompany the "grand opening."

The hero of the Iliad and the Odyssey was not Achilles. The hero(ine) was Athene. She saved Achilles and she saved the Achaean/Mycenaean Greeks. Just as their are many mortal "heroes" in the Bible, the Bible is a story about God/Jesus, the Homeric epics have many mortal "heroes" but the epics, in the end, are about Athene.

I have never had the interest in reading the Iliad but in this new light, that might be worthwhile.