Did Homer write down his epics?

[greagach]

<br /> Greek scholars and amateurs of Textkit, I really need your lights on this one. Were the Iliad and the Odyssey (my favourite Greek books) written down at the times of Peisistratos, or had Homer himself already written them down at the first place? <br /><br />All that little I’ve read so far on the matter is so controversial, I’m not sure what to believe. <br /><br />What have YOU read? Could you at least suggest some good book on this question? <br /><br /> Thanks a lot in advance. <br /><br />

[Emma_85]

Homer probably wrote them down and used the written language to concipate his master piece. Something I find incredible as he supposedly wrote it in 730 BC, and they Greeks only had letters again since 780. So he was probably one of the first to use it in that way.

[Emma_85]

When the minoan age ended they also lost Linar B, so for 100s of years they had no letters, until they started using the Phonecian ones.<br />It is still disputed wether Homer actually wrote them both, but I think that they do know for sure when about they were written and that it was definatly written down by the author.

[mingshey]

Hmm, Linear B syllabic character system looks like japanese kana system. they both have additional ideographic system, too.

[greagach]

<br /> what is the Japanese "Kana" system, and in what way is it related to Mycenaean Linear B? could you tell me more about that, mingshey?

[Lex]

[quote author=greagach link=board=2;threadid=607;start=0#6443 date=1064237745]<br />what is the Japanese "Kana" system, and in what way is it related to Mycenaean Linear B? could you tell me more about that, mingshey? <br />[/quote]<br /><br />Kana are two syllabaries that the Japanese use. One, hiragana, is used to write small words such as particles, added after kanji to write conjugations of verbs, and so on. The other, katakana, is used mainly to write foreign loan words. They are based on very simplified kanji. <br /><br />Oh, and I think I can safely say that they have absolutely no genetic relationship to Linear B.

[greagach]

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