11/17/14

In class, Dr. Quillin discussed the historical context within which The Odyssey was written. Using your notes on this lecture, discuss how you think why it was necessary to develop an oral tradition during the Greek Dark Ages and what you think happens to that oral tradition once it is written down.

During the Greek Dark Age, I think it was necessary to develop an oral tradition because at that point the tradition of writing had halted, and verbal communication would be their only way to preserve their stories. Without the singers, they wouldn't have a way to tell their stories, but they also wouldn't have a way to preserve them. Once the oral tradition is written down, there would be less of a need for singers or word of mouth in general to tell stories, because everyone, or most people, would be able to have access to the storers, versus a group of people having to verbally tell it. The written down stories would also be better preserved because there would be less variations of the same story, since it wasn't based solely on word of mouth.