2. Textual clues

Abstract

Little is known about how the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed, but ‘Textual clues’ suggests that we need to understand how oral techniques worked, as well as epic formulae and type scenes, to reconstruct how the poems were composed and to interpret them. They are also crucial in order to understand the unusual language in which the poems were composed. Homeric Greek was developed in order to sing the deeds of gods and men to the rhythm of the hexameter.