On the origin of the Iliad

Blondé, Ward | Paperback / softback | 25-04-2019 | 9789402191110

The European Beta-tradition is the second in the series of five Homeric oral traditions that Ward Blondé discovered in the Iliad. In contrast to the Mykenaian Alpha-tradition, the Beta-tradition has its origins in the proto-Celtic Europe of the Tumulus and Urnfield cultures; it describes a society of clans who fought each other to death on the battlefield. The European Beta-tradition is so realistic and varied in its descriptions that it must have originated in a warrior culture.

Blondé’s discovery of the European Beta-tradition provides insights into the Homeric question about the origin of the Iliad and the Odyssey and into European prehistory. The framework of the Iliad as a whole appears to be an age-old narrative originating from the Central European Bronze Age. In addition, Blondé presents a theory that explains the presence of the European Beta-tradition in Greece. In doing so, Blondé sheds light on the mysterious issues of the Sea Peoples, the movements of the Urnfield Peoples, the fall of the Mykenaian Empire and Hittite Empire, the destruction of Troy, the invasion of the Dorians and the Dark Ages in Greece.