Why do we attribute to the odyssey of Homer?

**salahbastawy** · 10-12-2010, 05:25 PM

**Silas Thorne** · 10-12-2010, 05:27 PM

attribute what?

**Rores28** · 10-12-2010, 05:29 PM

I think the question is why give Homer credit for the Odyssey... there is some debate about whether it was written by one man or is a sort of anthologized hodgpodge of individual myths/folktales

**Silas Thorne** · 10-12-2010, 05:43 PM

Perhaps it's more memorable to have one person create it, and rather difficult due to the time of composition to suggest other people who might have. In any case, the last person who put it together was working within an oral tradition which included the use of poetic fomulae that were created long before him.

**EndSarcasm** · 10-12-2010, 05:47 PM

There has been a vast amount of speculation, study and debate over who the Odyssey was composed by and how it first came to be written. The generally held consensus these days is that it was created by one, very talented, oral poet who was very familiar with oral techniques used in improvised work, and was built up over time out of linked smaller pieces more suited for performance.

**dfloyd** · 10-12-2010, 09:31 PM

Jethro did The Odyssey.

**salahbastawy** · 10-13-2010, 04:16 PM

What are the characteristics of Homer as an epic and Greek writer?

**dfloyd** · 10-14-2010, 01:42 PM

Homer never wrote anything. He gave a verbal recitation of the Acheans at Troy and Ulysses' long voyage home. Other poets learned his recitations, which probably varied each time he gave one, and The Iliad and The Odyssey were eventually written down as the Greek alphabet made written versions available.