Put Homer in writing ?: Pisistrátida Review and writing in the sixth century BC

Abstract

Modern literary critic and the formulation of the homeric question have been searching a established date for the creation and for the writing of the homeric epic poems. Starting from an anachronistic notion of writing, it is not unusual to find specialist who defend the "original" scripture of the poems during the archaic period, based on ancient sources like the Peisistratean Recension. Our goal in this article is to examine the uses of writing in the archaic period, specially during the VI b.c., and it's relation with the notion of material text and original text. Finally we argue against the existence in this time of a text which possessed the status of an authority over the tradition.