(I know the Odyssey is a story, but it's a historical work, right? Feel free to remove if it's a bad fit for this comm)
this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
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eh, if the other 6 stories were any good, someone would've remembered. π€·π»ββοΈ
It's believed that the collection of written works, if ever brought together, might've been lost in the burning of the Library of Alexandria, one of the most tragic losses of written knowledge in history. We're still finding bits and pieces of the other works in archeological discoveries around the world, but no complete stories besides these famous two.
The Homeric epics were created before literacy was a common thing, and so they were performed by rhapsodes (i.e. recitation from memory), an oral tradition of passing on stories and knowledge before writings became common. The fact we even have two of the eight stories in written form is a miracle, considering how ancient they are.
It's funny that you mention that, because ancient scholars believed that writing down knowledge and history would degrade their quality. When you had to recite knowledge from memory, you needed to ensure you had it 100% correct so you could recite it exactly for others to learn. You memorized every single word, phrase, expression of emotion, pause for effect, etc. to keep your history alive, therefore ensuring it continued to exist in history forever.
But when you wrote it down, that recitation was lost. The knowledge was no longer practiced repeatedly until perfect; it was just brain-dumped as soon as pen hit parchment (or hammer and chisel met stone tablet). Ancient scholars thought the written word would be the end of all inherent knowledge.
And in the case of the famous Library of Alexandria, they were kind of right. We lost so much historical documentation with that one burning. It's truly one of the worst tragedies in the history of human knowledge.
In today's complex and complicated world, it's impossible to memorize all knowledge you'd ever need to know, more or less well enough to recite and teach others. But in ancient times, when a single modern newspaper was more information than most people might be exposed to in a lifetime, it was a very important oral tradition.
Correct me if Iβm wrong, but Itβs my understanding that no one such burning ever occurred at the library of Alexandria. Instead, it burned in part (though how large these parts were is probably impossible to know, simply that none of them warranted the wholesale closure of the library) on several occasions, with the true death blow seemingly being the simple fact that by the time of the 200s AD, Alexandria was not nearly so important a city as it used to be, and so funding dried up.
While the library of Alexandria burned multiple times (each time losing thousands of texts and damaging textual transmission) it was likely wholly destroyed by the end of the 3rd century AD during the constant civil wars and revolts of the period.