The Homeric Question concerns the doubts and consequent debate over the identity of Homer, the authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey, and historicity, especially of the Iliad. The subject has its roots in classical antiquity and the scholarship of the Hellenistic period, but has flourished among Homeric scholars of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The main subtopics of the Homeric Question are:
- "Who is Homer?"
- "Are the epics of multiple or single authorship?"
- "By whom, when, where, and under what circumstances were the poems composed?"
To these questions the possibilities of modern textual criticism and archaeological answers have added a few more:
- "How reliable is the tradition embodied in the Homeric poems?"
- "How old are the oldest elements in Homeric poetry which can be dated with certainty?"
Read more about Homeric Question: Homer As The Manifestation of An Oral Tradition, Homer's Time Frame, Controversy Over Homer's Identity
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