Sort of, I guess? Homer was early Hellenic (8th century BC) and created his grand works about legends passed down from the mycaneans who were pre-hellenic, but definitely the immediate ancestors of the hellenes. They had writing too. So we don't actually know what sources Homer was working off of, but the bronze age collapse would have made written sources scarce which is what leads us to insist it was all oral. Linear B and Greek Majuscule have basically nothing in common. But the idea that Homers works would have been written down pretty much immediately is plausible since it would only be a few years (350 years) later that Xenophon wrote down his histories--and that guy was prolific as hell.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but I was pretty convinced that Homer dictated his works because he was blind, but those works would have been collected and collated almost immediately...
Well, Shakespeare actually wrote down his contributions to start, which essentially laps every tribe on the continent.
Imagine if Shakespeare's plays just relied on an "oral history" to pass them down to present day.
Homers were also written down....
Sort of, I guess? Homer was early Hellenic (8th century BC) and created his grand works about legends passed down from the mycaneans who were pre-hellenic, but definitely the immediate ancestors of the hellenes. They had writing too. So we don't actually know what sources Homer was working off of, but the bronze age collapse would have made written sources scarce which is what leads us to insist it was all oral. Linear B and Greek Majuscule have basically nothing in common. But the idea that Homers works would have been written down pretty much immediately is plausible since it would only be a few years (350 years) later that Xenophon wrote down his histories--and that guy was prolific as hell.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but I was pretty convinced that Homer dictated his works because he was blind, but those works would have been collected and collated almost immediately...