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Homer and the Fall of Troy,
by Colin Wilson.
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Next, chapter 23, Homer and the Fall of Troy, discusses the modern trend that questions existence of Homer.
"Greek bards learned their poetry by heart and could recite many thousands of lines from memory – as their modern descendants still can today. So there was no question of Homer being lost in the dim mists of antiquity, in the days before there were any historical records. The memories of the bards themselves were the historical records. ... "
Wilson gives the story of life of Homer as written by Herodotus, which is heartwrenching.
" ... But as his fame spread throughout Greece, and bards recited his poems, Chian bards formed a school known as the children of Homer – or Homeridae – which was still flourishing when Herodotus wrote his life of Homer."
Wilson speaks about Samuel Butler studying the epics.
" ... And it was as he was reading about Circe that Butler was suddenly struck by a dazzling intuition: that Circe was not created by a man but by a woman – and, moreover, by a young one. Closer reading convinced him of this. The males of the Odyssey are wooden creatures compared to the women, who have that touch of life. Butler also concluded that while the author of the Odyssey shows intimate knowledge of the affairs of women, he is often oddly uncomfortable when describing things that are the province of males, especially seamen or farmers. What male would place the rudder in front of the ship? What seaman would believe that seasoned timber can be cut from a growing tree? Or make the wind “whistle” over the waters? (It whistles on land, because of obstacles, but there are no obstacles at sea.) What man with any knowledge of farming would make a herdsman milk the sheep, then give them their lambs to feed (presumably with empty udders)? What countryman would make a hawk tear its prey on the wing? The author of the Odyssey makes these curious errors, and many more. Butler goes on to argue with great skill and conviction that the author of the Odyssey had to be a woman, and a young one at that."
" ... George Bernard Shaw attended a Fabian Society meeting at which Butler lectured on the female authorship of the Odyssey and admitted that, while initially skeptical about the idea, he took up the Odyssey and soon found himself saying, “Of course it was written by a woman”.
"Robert Graves was another classical scholar who allowed himself to be convinced, and whose novel Homer’s Daughter is inspired by the theory. ... "
"Another interesting footnote to the Butler theory is that James Joyce used his prose translation of the Odyssey as the basis of Ulysses."
Wilson describes various archaeological excavations in efforts to find Troy and other places mentioned.
" ... Finally, writing in its modern form – with paper and ink – was invented and at last the great epics were written down. ... "
No, it was always existing in India on leaves and bark; paper was brought to Europe from China, and ink from India (hence the word indigo, for what India calls "neel", which is, literally, "blue".
Wilson goes on to discuss facts of history about Troy and Greece, and the war, with much information packed in the chapter thereby from diverse sources.
" ... Homer tells us that the men of Troy were killed, and their women and children enslaved and taken back to Greece."
No surprises there - slavery was norm of Mediterranean cultures.
"All that we can say for certain is that Homer – whether one person or two – created a concept that is now almost synonymous with the human imagination: the concept of literature."
Colonial racism there, plain and simple. For, literature was far more ancient in India than Homer.
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