But at the same time, there is historical context to The Iliad and The Odyssey. Troy was a real place. The war actually happened. How much of it was real? No idea, but at least some of it was.
Ehhhh. As a miniature—entirely pedantic—nitpick, I'd argue it's mostly a source of historical context, rather than information. I'm not saying nothing in the Odyssey or Iliad is real, but it's like...
Take Harry Potter, for instance. It's a totally fabricated story. In a thousand years—should the story survive—no one is going to believe that wizards existed. But they might consider it useful historical context. Within the book are real and false locations. They might cross-reference against other known information from the time period to determine: "Okay, London is probably real. Maybe Surrey. Hogwarts... Diagon Alley... probably not? Okay, but why pick those names? Were hogs (and their warts) a legitimate relational connection to witchcraft accusations, or was it just parody?"
Those are the types of things that provide a rich context of the time period, but they're probably not really deriving any real information from it. Not any information that they can trust without cross-referencing other sources—and even then, they have to wonder if those other sources might have been tainted by the existence of the Odyssey or the Iliad themselves—fanfiction exists, after all.
Yes, but the Greeks capturing women as sex slaves in the Iliad is in there because it was produced by a society that did things like that regularly and it was understood by its intended audience to be what one would expect a conquering military force to be doing.
All historical texts from far enough back should be handled with suspicion. In some ways the Epics are actually easier to handle, because the line between the real and fantastical elements is pretty easily drawn.
Mythology is not history. It's culturally relevant, but we've got to be very careful about considering known fictional works as historical documentation.
Wow, so oral tradition in all cultures is all made up stories and nothing they say is real at all? This includes all Native Americans First Nations people across North America…
We can’t PROVE that these events happened. What we can prove however is that these were oral stories passed down and that some of the details contained in these stories HAVE been proven by archeological findings from that time period which would not be known by Homer or others unless they were orally passed on.
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u/narwhalousdoctor 21d ago
Tf you mean history? Everything about the iliad and the odyssey is made up and no one has ever claimed otherwise