The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic Tradition

9. The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic Tradition by Charles Rowan Beye
published: 1966
format: Hardcover
acquired: borrowed from my library
read: Feb 13-18
Rating: 4 stars

A prologue: I read this almost at random. It was one of several books that I requested from the library about Homer, and I no longer remember why I selected any specific ones. I brought four home Saturday* and, surprisingly, found them all of interest. So, I was in quite a mood. Was? still am. This appealed to me simply because if you search for Beye's name on google, you find a lot of acknowledgements of his personal influence. So, he sounded like maybe a nice guy. Who knows. But I chose to read this one simply because it was the oldest of those four, published in 1966. show more (This kind of cool cover didn't affect me because the copy I read doesn't have a dust jacket.)

actual review: These are literary essays on the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid, but really focusing on Homer. Virgil is only discussed as he is was influenced by Homer. Beye talks a lot about oral poetry and how it is of a different nature from written poetry. Homer, of course, came out of the oral tradition. There are within it elements to help the memory of the singer. About 1/3 of the Iliad and the Odyssey is repetition of some kind. And there is heavy use of epithets for characters and things ("wine dark sea" etc). These both simplify the poem for memory, and give the author flexibility in construction as different epithets can be chosen based on the metrical needs of the line. The composer can then learn to have a bag of tools and perhaps make things up on the fly. There are also many elements that play on the fleeting memory, or at least fleeting immediate awareness of the listener. A reader can look things up again, and listener can't. Virgil was writing, composing in prose and then later in verse and reworking and reworking. Homer's works, probably composed by a cultural tradition of singers, repeats profusely, contradicts itself, follows illogical or unlikely timelines - but likely worked fine for a listener (having read the Iliad, I missed all the contradictions until they were pointed out in notes...)

There is a lot more here. What I mainly liked was that Beye just seemed to like talking about these works. He is interesting and he had me thinking about the works in different ways, and that is where I wanted to be.

There are plenty of books on Homer. I can give you no reason why you should read this one over another, other than I have happened to have read and enjoyed it.

*The other three books were:
[Homer] (Past Masters) by [[Jasper Griffin]] (1980)
[Homer's readers : a historical introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey] by [[Howard W. Clarke]] (1981)
[The Iliad : structure, myth, and meaning] by [[Bruce Louden]] (2006)

2016
https://www.librarything.com/topic/209547#5480224 show less

Edition: // Descr: ix, 263 p. 18 cm. // Series: Call No. { 883 H75.09 6 } Contains Further Reading and Index. // //