A Reconstruction of the Homeric Tradition in Early Greece

Author

Aidan F. Hoey, CUNY Queens CollegeFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-29-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Language

English

First Advisor

Joel Allen

Abstract

This thesis discusses the centuries-long historiographical debate that is known to us as the Homeric Question. The identity of Homer, the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the dating from when the Homeric epic poems were composed, the Homeric diction, and the historicity of the Trojan War has puzzled scholars since Antiquity. Only by the twentieth century, scholars Milman Parry and Albert Lord proved that the Iliad and Odyssey were orally composed. How the written form of the Homeric epic poems came about has become even more of a historiographic puzzle than it has been previously. Building off the discussions and arguments put forth by the various Homeric scholars, it will be theorized that the Homeric tradition was invented on the purpose of being Panhellenic. The Homeric tradition should not be seen as a product of Panhellenism, but rather as a factor that facilitated the spread of Panhellenism throughout Archaic Greece. A plethora of genealogies, theogonies, and epics, which are now extinct in their near entirety, contributed to the making of the Homeric tradition. In terms of Panhellenism, a literary tradition brought along with it early ideas of a united region oriented around Greece, but the dating of this is complicated. Panhellenism relates closer to ideas of the Greek mind rather than any material evidence that can be archaeologically recoverable. By assessing modern historiography on the Homeric Question, and then by addressing the literary development of Panhellenism, it will be proposed that individuals of a specific ethnic group were responsible for the creation of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Recommended Citation

Hoey, Aidan F., "A Reconstruction of the Homeric Tradition in Early Greece" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/qc_etds/24