荷马

《装腔指南》P208：《荷马》

关于诗人荷马是谁我们其实一无所知，这是一个相对较新的发现。几个世纪以来,史诗《伊利亚特》(关于特洛伊战争)和《奥德赛》(关于经历十年战争的英雄奥德修斯归来)被认为出自于一位男性盲人吟游诗人。后来人们发现，这些诗带有口述诗的特征，也就是说不是被写下来的，而是根据记忆背诵来的诗。从而可以说它们可能不是由一个人创造的，而是由几代人的一系列表演诗人创造的。这让它们更有趣。这些诗歌加入了对观众评论的编辑。流行的部分保留下来并得到扩展;不好或无聊的部分将被删除。在某种意义上，你可以说这些诗是由希腊民众创作的。阅读它们的体验就像窥探古希腊人的内心。

不管我们是否接受这个过程构成了一个“突发性创造”的实例(类似于维基百科词条的添加方式)，结果都是惊人的: 两个完全不同但令人难忘的故事类型，由两个完全不同但令人难忘的英雄主导。在《伊利亚特》中，阿喀琉斯是一个不愿战斗的战士。他因为他的长官偷了他的一些战利品而生闷气，其中包括一个名叫布里塞丝的性感女奴隶。结果，特洛伊战争向有利于特洛伊人的方向倾斜，希腊人陷入了困境，直到有事促使阿喀琉斯重新加入战斗。当他归来，他的破坏力是无以伦比的。

《奥德赛》的内容更多样，描述了奥德修斯(一个机智的探险家和战士)的冒险经历，包括他遇到了吃人的独眼巨人、不可抗拒的海妖塞壬、自满的食莲者等等。此外也有诗意细腻的时刻，比如，当主人公遭遇海难，精疲力竭爬上海滩，躲在灌木丛中，被比喻为火花。还有那些余音绕梁的演说，例如，奥德修斯宣称，没有什么比男女之间的真爱更美好的。真爱使他们的朋友欢欣鼓舞，使他们的敌人烦恼不已。

Homer

Homer is a poet about whom nothing is known. That’s a relatively new discovery. For centuries, it was thought that the epic poems The Iliad (about the Trojan War) and The Odyssey (about the decade-long struggle of the hero Odysseus to return from that war) were the work of a blind, male, wandering bard. Then it was recognised that they bore the hallmarks of oral poems, meaning ones that weren’t written down but recited from memory. That is, they were probably created not by one man, but by a series of performance poets over several generations. This makes them not less but more interesting. It seems likely they were edited in response to comments from contemporary audience members. Popular bits remained and got extended; bad or boring bits would be excised. In a sense, you could say that the poems were composed by the Greek people. The experience of reading them is like peering into the mind of Ancient Greece.

Whether or not we accept that this process constitutes an example of ‘emergent creativity’ (comparable to the way Wikipedia entries evolve), the results are phenomenal: two entirely different but unforgettable story types, dominated by two entirely different but unforgettable heroes. InThe Iliad, it’s Achilles, the warrior who won’t fight. He’s sulking because his commander-in-chief stole some of his booty, including a hot slave girl named Briseis. As a consequence, the Trojan War tilts in favour of the Trojans, while the Greeks flounder, until something happens that goads Achilles to rejoin the fray. And when he does, his destructive power is awesome.

The Odysseyis more varied, describing the adventures of Odysseus (a quick-witted explorer as well as a fighter), including his encounters with the man-eating Cyclops, the irresistible Sirens, the complacent Lotus Eaters, and all the rest. There are moments of fine poetic delicacy, such as when the hero, shipwrecked and exhausted, crawls ashore on a beach and takes shelter under a bush, and is compared to a spark of fire. And speeches whose resonance hasn’t faded, as, for instance, when Odysseus declares that there is nothing finer than true love between a man and woman, which is a source of great delight to their friends, and great annoyance to their enemies.