Possible approaches to homer’s poems: archeology and linguistics as “hermeneutic horizon” of works

Abstract

There are many and varied possible approaches to Homer’s poems, from those that dialogue with more traditional lines of literary theory to historical studies, archeology, linguistics and philology. Archaeological findings of the last two centuries have had an important impact on the magnification and interpretation of both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Considered until the mid-nineteenth century as fictional works, the way they were understood changed following H. Schliemann and A. Evans’s discoveries. Moreover, the translation from Mycenaean Linear B and possible analogies with the Annals of the Hittites provided us with interesting links. This article aims at problematizing a few of these analytical lines to establish the relationship between such findings and the expansion of a “hermeneutic horizon” of these works for the historian.