Minna Skafte Jensen

It is unknown, of course, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, since in general no reliable contemporary description of how the two epics came into being is to be found. Such sources as there are -- first and foremost the two poems themselves -- must be interpreted in a comparative framework built on experience from societies in the modern world that are in some respects similar to archaic Greece, in order to reach a coherent picture of the process. The oral-formulaic theory formed by Milman Parry (1902-35) and Albert B. Lord (1912-91) not only revolutionised Homeric studies but also had an impact on anthropology and folklore. It led to increased interest in oral epic traditions, and fieldworkers changed their methods towards a focus on composition in performance. The individual singer and his handling of the tradition gained importance. When possible, more than one performance of the same song was recorded, by the same singer on different occasions or by different singers, and interaction with the audience was documented. By now, a wealth of editions and studies of oral epics from various parts of the world is accessible and is used in the present study as an inspiration for achieving a deeper understanding of the methods at work in oral epic, for building a likely social context of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and especially for speculating on the circumstances of the writing of the two great poems. Long oral narratives are flexible, and accordingly, the dictation to scribes that must be at the origin of the texts which have been preserved in writing to this day, was a process of the utmost importance as the composition in performance of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The study is directed at classical scholars but will hopefully be of interest to a much broader readership: folklorists, anthropologists, and whoever enjoys reading Homer, in Greek as well as in translation.

A Study Based on Results from Modern Fieldwork

Writing Homer

Ole Thomsen

Jesper Carlsen

Karsten Friis-Jensen

Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen

Classica Et Mediaevalia vol.51

The Homeric Question and the Oral-formulaic Theory

During the last decades the vast corpus of Danish Neo-Latin literature has been the object of growing scholarly attention. In this collection of articles Professor Minna Skafte Jensen analyses a number of poems by some of the most important Danish writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Central themes are investigated -- among them love, friendship and Lutheranism -- and Danish Neo-Latin poetry is placed in its European context.

Studies in Danish Neo-Latin Literature

Friendship and Poetry

Minna Skafte Jensen

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