/lit/ - Literature

>>19446082
Get background on Greek history and Greek mythology. As far as I'm aware, there's nothing else you can do.

What do you mean by context? Aside from reading some basics about the Homeric era and reading the Iliad in addition, pretty much everything in Homer is sui generis, at least as far as "literary references" are concerned. What you could learn is the probable Mycenaean and late Greek Dark Age background of the Homeric compositions, so history stuff. I also recommend reading anything Frye wrote about Homer and his language, especially if he goes into his Vico theory about different stages of language and how Homer is like the Bible of the Greeks.

Another fun one is The Greeks and the Irrational by E.R. Dodds. But again, that's if you want to get into history and stuff, not strictly speaking literary background to Homer.

Oh and it may be worth looking up the bardic hypothesis about Homer and reading a little about what Walter Ong, Milman Parry, and Albert Lord have to say about him and other bardic traditions. You could even read Schliemann's account of his discovery of Mycenaean civilization, which was once thought to be merely legendary. Bury and Meiggs' History of Greece to the Time of Alexander (or something like that) has preliminary archaeological and historical chapters on the Minoans and Mycenaeans.

But all this is just if you really end up loving Homer. At the very least, googling what Frye says about the epic phase of language on his Viconian model + knowing about the bardic hypothesis a la Ong would be neat. For very basic historical background, check out the youtube channel History with Cy. Good overviews of the different epochs of Greek history.

>>19446082
Learn homeric greek then read it in the original

>>19446122
I am loving Homer, so thank you for the reference material, It's exactly the kind of stuff I wanted. Luckily I have a ton of time on my hands, I do contract work and have nothing lined up untill the spring, so I can devout myself to this stuff.

I just started Robert fitzgerald's translation of the illiad. Its pretty hard ngl.

https://youtu.be/DfXhTSNUkqQ

I discovered this YouTube channel that actually seems pretty in depth, though he's going off of fagles translation i still find it helpful explaining the background and analysis. He's got odyssey videos too, perhaps they'll help you.

>>19446314
Stick with it, Fitzgerald's Iliad and Odyssey were some of my first real books and I remember feeling like there's no way I'll be able to read this fluidly

>>19446314
Great suggestion, thanks, I'll definitely use that.

>>19446318
Watching this guys video makes me feel like i should switch to fagle. Like... im sitting here thinking "how tf are we reading the same thing? This guy hasn't said a single Greek word?" But for you anon i'll stick with it.

>>19446082
Homer is the context, you're learning from the primary source material. Other than reading Hesoid everything else comes after Homer and is written in a Homeric context.

As a supplement you could read the Hoemric Hymns, and from Hesoid the Theogony and Works and Days. But starting with the Odyssy itself is fine (other than skipping the Iliad).