Homer’s People

This book examines the role and character of Homer’s people, laoi, in Homeric story-telling, arguing that Homeric poetry is crucially concerned with the people as a basis for communal life. Both The Iliad and the Odyssey are read as sustained meditations on the processes involved in protecting and destroying the people. The investigation draws on a wide range of approaches from formulaic analysis to the study of early performance contexts. From a close reading of the Homeric epics, Homer’s people emerge as a community without effective social structures. When this is viewed from the perspective of Homeric performances in the polis, a contrast between Homer’s laoi and the founding people of ritual emerges. While the former typically perish, the survival of the latter is secured by the establishment of successful institutions.

• First major study of this topic • Fresh insights into the contribution made by Homer’s poems to life in the Greek city-state • Detailed study of both the Iliad and the Odyssey

Introduction; 1. Laoi in early Greek hexameter poetry; 2. Homer’s people; 3. Laos epic in performance; Appendix A. Epic formulae; Appendix B. Ritual formulae.