1. The Importance of Storytelling

2. It is not known when Homer was born, but theories speculate that “he” was born between 700 B.C. and 1000 B.C. in Western Asia Minor. According to tradition, Homer was blind. Homer was a great Greek storyteller who is credited with creating The Iliad and The Odyssey.

3. The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, a war that many wonder whether or not actually occurred. We know that such a war did take place around a city that likely was Troy, that Troy was completely destroyed, but beyond that it’s all speculation.

4. The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus,’ the King of Ithaca, long return to Ithaca from the Trojan War. It is believed that Homer composed The Iliad and The Odyssey by assembling a number of earlier and shorter narrative (story) songs.

5. The Greeks regarded the Trojan War as the defining moment of their culture because of the poetry of Homer. Some believe that Homer was not one person but a group of performers who traveled together and told stories in different towns. Due to the fact that there is no tangible evidence to support this theory, we accept the overall Greek idea of a single author.

6. The Odyssey is part of an ORAL TRADITION. Before the invention of the printing press in the 16th century, the stories of many cultures were kept alive by being passed around from one storyteller to another, and each storyteller changed the story slightly.

7. On an average night in the late Greek Dark ages, a community, probably the wealthiest people, would settle in for an evening’s entertainment. The professional storyteller would “sing” the stories of the Trojan War and its Greek heroes.

8. It was like a T.V. mini-series! People would return night after night to hear what would happen next. “Singer:” a public performer of oral poetry.

9. The growing advancements in Greek society led to the development of writing (learned from the Phoenicians). The Homeric poems were committed to writing very quickly. Over time, the stories had evolved from one telling to the other, but the basic outline and character seem to be true to the original compositions.