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.