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The Iliad of Homer - Get a Free Blog

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ic delivery, and with its accompaniments<br />

<strong>of</strong> a solemn and crowded festival. <strong>The</strong><br />

only persons for whom the written <strong>Iliad</strong><br />

would be suitable would be a select<br />

few; studious and curious men; a class<br />

<strong>of</strong> readers capable <strong>of</strong> analyzing the complicated<br />

emotions which they had experienced<br />

as hearers in the crowd, and who<br />

would, on perusing the written words,<br />

realize in their imaginations a sensible<br />

portion <strong>of</strong> the impression communicated<br />

by the reciter. Incredible as the statement<br />

may seem in an age like the present, there<br />

is in all early societies, and there was in<br />

early Greece, a time when no such reading<br />

class existed. If we could discover<br />

at what time such a class first began to<br />

be formed, we should be able to make<br />

a guess at the time when the old epic<br />

poems were first committed to writing.<br />

Now the period which may with the<br />

greatest probability be fixed upon as having<br />

first witnessed the formation even <strong>of</strong>

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