Thinking about Homer

Followed by a talk with Michael Meier-Brügger, professor of Indo-European studies, FU Berlin, and Martin Schmidt, Hellenist, Hamburg

Host: Dieter Bartetzko, F.A.Z.

Controversy about the occident: Writer and scientist Raoul Schrott (born 1964), who has already been awarded countless prizes for literature, translated the Gigamesh epic and then the Ilias. In the very same way that the study of classical antiquity has increasingly focused on the non-European influences in Homer’s texts, Schrott finds outstanding if not sensational similarities in both epics. His résumé: Europe’s epic has its roots in Asia. What’s more: only because Homer spent some time among Assyrian cultural and courtly circles was he able to compile the narratives about Troy and compose his Iliad. This conception shakes the foundations of occidental identity. Consequently, the preprint of Schrott’s latest work Homer’s Heimat has already triggered controversial discussions in the literary pages and among specialists.

--- For visitors to the literature festival: ticket for the exhibition 'Re-imagining Asia' only 3 Euros ---