One of the greatest of the Greek mysteries

One of the greatest of the Greek mysteries surrounds the written form of the Iliad. I am not talking about whether Homer wrote the Iliad, or if his granddaughter wrote the Odyssey, those are mysteries, too, but something just as cryptic, if not more so: How were such perfect works as the Iliad and Odyssey written at all?



Around the mid-1100s B.CE, the Greek dark-age was very, very dark, indeed. Prior to this period the written form of the Mycenaean Greeks -- Homer refers the Mycenaeans in a myriad of names -- was Linear B. Around the time of the mysterious 'Sea People', the so-called Greek Dark Age began, and whereupon areas of mainland Greece were depopulated up to 80%. Virtually all of the rich culture of the Mycenaean civilization was lost, including the written Linear-B as a written language.

Note: To help put this chronology into perspective, the Torah was written down around 1272 B.CE. -- the Trojan War itself is often attributed to the year 1280 B.CE.

Coming out of the Greek Dark Age, the first glimmer of a new Greek written script was in the area of Ionia -- naturally, some disagree with the geography -- and some believe this area was where the Iliad was written down, which only makes sense.

Keep in mind the Iliad was written in a relatively new language, fresh out of the Greek Dark Age; this being said, during most any era artistic pursuits of any kind go through roughly three phases: crude form, refinement, and a final refined form. This is not the case with Iliad: BOOM THERE IT IS, in all its glory. It was as though the goddess Athena stepped out of the head of Zeus, in full armor, a second time!



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Athena, goddess of wisdom