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> Nobody today can memorize an epic like the Illiad today like people routinely would in Socrates' day. It a bit impressive if you can reproduce a 3 minute song
by elevader 5y ago
> Nobody today can memorize an epic like the Illiad today like people routinely would in Socrates' day. It a bit impressive if you can reproduce a 3 minute song text from memory. The Illiad often took days to recite.
AFAIK this isn't something that was very common back then. Reciting the Illiad was not a hobby but more like a paid profession. People paid for this precisely because reciting something for a few evenings from memory takes a lot of skill/training and most simply couldn't do it. Same as today.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoIt was an oral tradition. Recitation was how it was passed on before it was finally written down. You see the echoes of this in a lot of early Greek writing, they contain a large amount of quotes out of Homer. Being able to navigate this maze of "Darmok and Jalad"-speak with Homer quotes meant you were well educated. Only thing I've found that comes close is some of Augustine's writing. He does the same with Bible quotes in his Confessions.
- elevader 5y agoI know, I learned ancient greek in school, the history and writing was a large part of that. Most (I'd guess > 95%) of the Greeks weren't able to recite the Illiad if I remember that correctly, oral tradition or not. Even the best educated of them wouldn't really have been able to do so. They were familiar with the content, of course, just like a lot of people in what we consider the West are familiar with what the bible is about. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong about that, school was a long time ago :)