Oral Culture In The Iliad

In order to understand the “center” of the Iliad, one must first recognize that the Iliad started as a “Lyrical,” or oral poem and was written down much later in history, becoming a “Narrative,” or literate poem. The Iliad began as a poem that was strictly part of an oral culture, its transition into a written work for a literate culture brought complexities and complications that are often overlooked when examining this poem on its surface. Walter J. Ong explained this phenomenon best when he described the psychodynamics of an oral society. His explanations concerning these particular societies’ psychologies and social dynamics are often times lost on the Iliad’s modern-day reader. Therefore, when reading a piece of literature, one must first take into account how the text has arrived to him through the passage of time and history. So, before we are to examine the modern critics’ interpretations and analyses of Homer’s Iliad, we must first look to Ong’s claims concerning oral societies.

Ong claims that sounded words are power and action, as opposed to written cultures where words are essentially just labels. Words and sounds hold different meanings and stronger weight than they do (or can) in literate cultures. Ong explained the necessity for memory in oral cultures; if a story is not remembered then it will never be re-told. Consequently, oral cultures inherently create patterns and formulas through their story-telling. Ong believed that oral cultures relied on thoughts and expressions. He explained that oral cultures can often be redundant because every word was not always understood by every person. With no writings, each story must be told over and over and all information must be relayed more closely and relatable to human ...

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...ohn considered Herodotus “the father of history” his methods were unorthodox and would use a lot of “here say” evidence do to the literate and illiterate cultures. His methods of recounting events consisted of eye witness test, stories, oracles, and documents. Simone Weil style is compact and poetic. She addresses The Iliad as “the poem of force”. Weil depicts force as a person killing someone or hurting someone, being killed or hurt by someone. Force is on loan from fate, meaning everyone has force and no one has force. Weil alludes to when you use force you have no reflection. She states that when people use force they use to much of it. That if you could use force in moderation Weil says you would be super human.

It’s through this aspect of knowing how a society travels from an oral society to a literate society in which the very center of the Iliad may reside.