In essence, the poems belong to an oral culture, whether or not their monumental form owes something to the main poet's ability to compose with the help of writing. These poems were to some extent transcribed orally too; these were works that continued to be knows, erratically and incompletely perhaps "by heart". Once they were produced, the poems had a stifling effect on their simpler, more typically oral predecessors. The memory of earlier songs and poems were all but obliterated. Among those that contributed to this were the Iliad and the Odyssey. If this was so, then their appearance before the translation from an age of literacy to one of partial literacy seems less strange.

The facts of the oral tradition and the special argument from the similes have shown that the chances of obtaining consistent and accurate information, with little important interference from later generations are exceedingly remote.

Any man never spoke the language of Homer. It is an artifical, poetical construction of phraseology and vocabulary that originated at different dates over a period of at least 200 and perhaps as much as 500 years (Kirk 4). Some parts of it are highly conventional and consist of fixed or formiluar phrases. Precisely how far the formular system extended, and where it merges with the symbolic and repetitive aspect of all language remains a question; but the need for literate poetry of any length to be formular in essence is confirmed by the study both of Homer himself and of surviving oral traditions. The least complex of these traditions and the poorest in expression are also the least formular. This confirms that formality increases the powers of the oral singer. This re

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Iliad Odyssey, , Homer Kirk, homeric poems, iliad odyssey, oral tradition, world homer, ability compose,
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Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)