"Dictys of Crete", Homer, and the History of the "Canon" of "Western Civilisation"
While preparing to discuss "Dictys of Crete" with students last night, I came across a fact that has made me reconsider how I view the creation of the canon of what we consider the standard texts we think of when we consider "Western Civilisation".¹ The fact came as almost a blow when I read the opening passage of N. K. Yavuz' "Late Antique Account of the Trojan War": The story of Troy — its date, its location, the peoples involved, and its war with the Greeks — is certainly best known to modern generations through Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . Even though it is difficult to imagine Western literature or history without these two canonical works today, they did not circulate during the Latin Middle Ages, and it may even be argued that an anti-Homeric spirit dominated the European world especially during the late antique and early medieval periods. This left me flabbergasted when it ought not to have. I have just completed a paper which discusses the...
