I 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 Ill

I 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 :)