#and what was introduced in the Archaic period when Homer got ahold of it | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kilgarraghforever · 3 days ago

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I am genuinely really enjoying seeing people who have clearly never read the Odyssey before reacting to EPIC's Ithaca saga. I haven't listened to EPIC myself (yet) but people keep saying stuff like "Odyseeus built their palace around an olive tree he carved into his and Penelope's marriage bed that's so symbolic" and "He really just murdered all the suitors wouldn't that piss off their parents?" Which are observations and questions that the Odyssey makes incredibly blatantly clear as to the symbolism or the answer because it's a really old poem and subtlety wasn't really Homer's strong suit.

There's something really endearing about seeing people interact with the Odyssey through the same way the Ancient Greeks did - a bard singing the story of Odyseus' nostos.

(I gather the details have changed a little, but that's what happens with oral storytelling, and that's how the Odyssey got created in the first place)

Also as congratulations have my favourite ancient depiction of Odysseus surfing with two amphemorae having stolen Poseidon's trident, being sped along by Boreas, stark naked except for a cloak he's holding onto.

#epic the musical #epic the ithaca saga #in answer to the question “what about the suitors parents being pissed” what happens is they all storm the palace gates #odysseus and laertes go out to meet them #and athena appears and goes #“no. my boy has suffered enough to get here. go home and have new #better sons who arent creepy dicks #also re: oral storytelling #its facinating actually because the odyssey wasnt written by Homer he was just the guy who wrote it down #the story existed since at least 1450 BCE #(fall of troy)#and because we know the very basic rundown of what was happening at a) the Bronze Age collapse and Mycenaean Greece #(when the story is set and it first began circulating)#b) the Greek Dark Ages which werent all that dark they just forgot writing for a bit but did a lot of cultural shifting #and c) the Archaic period which is when Homer wrote it down #we can (roughly) figure out what parts of the Odyssey are probably the oldest #what may have been introduced during the Dark Ages to reflect that cultural shift away from Mycenaean civilisation and towards Archaic #and what was introduced in the Archaic period when Homer got ahold of it #which i think is amazing and facinating #and is (very loosely) what is happening with EPIC #(its not the same because modern people are not the cultural inheritors of a story of our relatively recent ancestors' war and returns)#but the changes being made to reflect the modern audience and fit our time better are #kinda #if it was like the changes made in Ancient Greece it would be like the mentioned places to have their modern names #and the monsters changed slightly to relfect current cultural anxieties which i dont think has happened with EPIC #fel free to corect me though because like i said i havent listened to it yet #the odyssey #homeric epics #tagamemnon #technically

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