Spatial Memory And The Composition Of The Iliad

Chapter Summary

This chapter discusses the functions of spatial memory in the composition of the oral epic songs that the author associates with Homer. The author's observations emerge, in part at least, from a comparison of the Homeric poems with epic poems in living traditions. The chapter suggests that there are instructive parallels in living traditions of oral song from Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia. In their preoccupation with loci, land and landforms, these oral traditions demonstrate an instinctive preference for stories that follow an itinerary or that in some way interact with a changing landscape. The place-names in their turn cue associated non-visual information, such as the names of heroes and their stories, in the same way that locations around Troy cue cognitive units, in the form of narrative segments, of the Iliad-song.

Keywords: Homeric poems; Iliad; northern Australia; oral epic songs; Papua New Guinea; spatial memory