4. Conservative or traditionalist |
| Oral poetry existed only as it was performed |
| Knowledge not repeated is soon lost; must be preserved |
| Public roles of oral poet: |
| public relations (eulogy) |
| preserver of knowledge and skills |
| From our perspective, oral poetry was a combination of: |
| Homer worked in a tradition: |
| stories told by others before him |
| used formulae he inherited from others |
| Other genres of oral poetry in ancient Greece: |
| sacred verse: Homeric hymns |
| didactic verse: Hesiod's Theogony |
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