The Odyssey, and population vs. important people
On a lighter note to my last couple of posts, last week, werenerd and I went to see a part of the now finished Yarn Festival, a performance of the Odyssey split into a dozen different performance styles including film, acting, music and animation (including a finale by the Strumpettes, who I hadn't seen before and were brilliant).
The story involves Telemachus travelling around looking for his father, and I found myself thinking how 'convenient' it was that he, without being particularly famous in his own right, was able to seek out so many other historically important figures and speak to them in person to say 'have you seen my dad?'. Of course, nymphs and sea monsters and so forth being present in the story suggest a suspension of disbelief may be necessary anyway, but that got me thinking further...
Was it in fact, easier to be famous in Homer's time?
Population has been increasing massively over the last couple of thousand years - and it's a long time. The estimated time of Homer's life was around 850BC - estimations of population for that time are around 50 million. In contrast, the population of the UK alone is currently around 61 million, and world population in 2008 was recorded at 6,707 million* - that's 134 people around today for every one person who was alive then. A village of 100 people becomes a town of 13,400 - imagine shouting to be heard!
So how would you define fame? By the number of people who have heard of you, or by the percentage of people who have heard of you? And does it matter?
*Statistics from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
The story involves Telemachus travelling around looking for his father, and I found myself thinking how 'convenient' it was that he, without being particularly famous in his own right, was able to seek out so many other historically important figures and speak to them in person to say 'have you seen my dad?'. Of course, nymphs and sea monsters and so forth being present in the story suggest a suspension of disbelief may be necessary anyway, but that got me thinking further...
Was it in fact, easier to be famous in Homer's time?
Population has been increasing massively over the last couple of thousand years - and it's a long time. The estimated time of Homer's life was around 850BC - estimations of population for that time are around 50 million. In contrast, the population of the UK alone is currently around 61 million, and world population in 2008 was recorded at 6,707 million* - that's 134 people around today for every one person who was alive then. A village of 100 people becomes a town of 13,400 - imagine shouting to be heard!
So how would you define fame? By the number of people who have heard of you, or by the percentage of people who have heard of you? And does it matter?
*Statistics from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population