The Odyssey
When I first read Bernard Fox’s article I was a little confused not having much education about Homer or anything he’s written. The discussion in class helped clear things up for me and awoke some interest in my mind. The article said there is some evidence that Homer could have been illiterate. I found that interesting because here is a figure who is famous for his great stories, could it be possible that he couldn’t even write? Then if being illiterate wasn’t mind blowing enough, the article also suggests that there is a possibility that Homer wasn’t. Instead Homer could have been a group of people who put the collection together. This reminded me about a sect of Buddhism I was learning about. There was some controversy in their beliefs about whether Buddha was a man who became enlightened and spread his teachings or if Buddha was simply a teaching that people spread to help the world. It’s an interesting thing to think about.
It got me to wondering about how much of what we learn is really accurate. If you think about it every time something is translated or rewritten you lose facts and mistakes can be made. While this article focuses on Homer it could apply to many other people or books as well. It’s interesting to think that the history we learn about could be inaccurate based on how the writer viewed it at the time. Anyways I wish I knew more about Homer and his (or it’s) writings so I could dig a little deeper into the article, but those are my thoughts for this weeks readings.