Short Answer

It makes sense that the Iliad is an oral work, as it contains many characteristics of oral storytelling that a reader can identify when familiar with the term. While “Homer” is considered the author of the Iliad (though we do not know much about who he was), the poems themselves bear proof that they were passed down throughout generations before put into a written form. Oral poetry is “recited by memory”, contains frequent epithets (metaphorical descriptions use to signal certain people, elements, or Gods t throughout the text), and is created based on existing formulas, through which the oral storyteller would create the story anew each time it was told (Price, 2004). You can see evidence of this in phrases such as “the swift-footed” or “son of Peleus” being frequently attributed to Achilles; these phrases often “stand in” for characters or events and provide a richer and more metaphorical experience for the reader.

In performance, I believe that this text would truly come to life and the more subtle elements of the text would become increasingly evident. For example, sections such as Hector’s goodbye to his family and Priam asking for the body of his son would be heightened in their sadness and further act as a counterpoint to the many battles in the text. In addition, the language of the poem would be further highlighted through oral storytelling; the text is full of gorgeous metaphors, similes, and descriptions (some famous ones include “the wine dark sea,” for example) that would be even more evident when animated by a storyteller. Lastly, since the epic is quite long, I can see a performance dazzling an audience in a way that reading a very long, dense text might not.

Class, what do you think? Would you be interested in seeing this text performed aloud? What evidence do you find of oral storytelling, and what might be made more evident for you if you saw the poem performed? Do you think that the way that this poem was performed could influence your interpretation of the text?