Wonderful post! I agree that it is unnecessary to think about whether Homer has "mistakes" or not, and it is also pointless to think from our mind and written culture about a possible mistake in something that was an oral tradition. I also think that the fact that the Iliad gives us a mother for Aphrodite reinforces her position as daughter of Zeus just like Helen. They need mothers to reinforce their status as sisters of the same father. Scroll 3 is really interesting in this regard.
Thanks for another great post, I love reading you!
I was thinking about all this for a long time. You have to assume there was a Homer to begin with and I think there was. I believe that a lot of the Illiad and the Odyssey already existed by the time of Homer. I think Homer just put the pieces together and added passages to give the poem more cohesiveness. But if Ho wr did this, he was absolutely brilliant!!!
Wonderful post! I agree that it is unnecessary to think about whether Homer has "mistakes" or not, and it is also pointless to think from our mind and written culture about a possible mistake in something that was an oral tradition. I also think that the fact that the Iliad gives us a mother for Aphrodite reinforces her position as daughter of Zeus just like Helen. They need mothers to reinforce their status as sisters of the same father. Scroll 3 is really interesting in this regard.
Thanks for another great post, I love reading you!
I was thinking about all this for a long time. You have to assume there was a Homer to begin with and I think there was. I believe that a lot of the Illiad and the Odyssey already existed by the time of Homer. I think Homer just put the pieces together and added passages to give the poem more cohesiveness. But if Ho wr did this, he was absolutely brilliant!!!