Aliteracy - something that doesn't apply to any of us...

[Amy Z]

Amber pointed out:

> I'd say that people who've studied the Odyssey professionally and 
have
> written loads of papers on it could. Of course, those people are
> probably few and far inbetween.
> 
> I wonder how many people "back then" could recite the Odyssey 
without
> reading it. I was under the impression that being a storyteller was 
a
> specific "occupation". Not everyone did it.

I'm sure you're right.  What I meant was that that occupation doesn't 
exist in the modern West, other than a few traveling storytellers who 
make a living the way modern-day artisans do, i.e. barely.

Can one of the classicists on the list (hello Jen F) tell me if I'm 
perpetuating a myth?  Weren't there storytellers in ancient Greece who 
retold entire epics (not, of course, word for word, but with changes, 
omissions and embellishments)?

Amy Z