Archaeology and the Creation of the Iliad and the Odyssey
Overview
Discover how archaeology and memory helped forge the Homeric epics, online—you will gain fresh insights into epic origins and authorship.
Details
Wednesday, December 10, 2025 at 8 pm via Zoom
Myths, Monument, and Memory: Archaeology and the Creation of the Iliad and the Odyssey
Speaker: Michael Cosmopoulos – University of Missouri at St. Louis
This lecture examines how the physical remnants of the past, ruins, monuments, and long-lived “places of memory”, shaped the creation of the Homeric epics. Drawing on archaeological evidence from several ancient Greek sites, including Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Iklaina, and Eleusis, it explores how visible Mycenaean structures endured in the landscape for centuries and became anchors for oral traditions that preserved and reshaped memories of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages.
These enduring remains fed a shared reservoir of heroic stories that eventually crystallized into the Iliad and the Odyssey. The lecture concludes by reconsidering the origins of the epics and the likelihood of multiple poets behind “Homer.”
Reservations are required. Please register.at:
https://basonova.org/next-lecture-reservation.html