The Loss of the Oral Tradition

Homeric poems tell us about a particular mode of cultural production that we know was current or that we can imagine was current through much of that time period. Long before it was written down, obviously, there was an oral tradition that was producing texts that were being performed. And I feel it's like drawing back a curtain and you get this view into this way, way, long past world, most of the traces of which are just gone forever.

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