Abstract Twenty years ago, in 1987, Oliver Taplin and Beaty Rubens made their tour of Greece for the BBC Radio 4 programme, An Odyssey round Odysseus. I was their historical adviser, and introduced them to Emporio on Chios, Lefkandi and Eretria, Old Smyrna, the stinking open sewer under a flyover near Izmir that is all that is left of the river Meles beside (or from) which Homer was born, and other historical Homeric sites; we travelled together for a fortnight, while I acted as gooseberry to the burgeoning romance between the two lovers. In the course of this odyssey Oliver and I had many discussions about our conflicting views of Homeric performance. Oliver published his theory many years ago as Homeric Soundings (1992). Here at last is my response to our ongoing discussion, which I dedicate to Oliver and Beaty, in memory of conversations which started in the great-eighth century megaron on the top of the windy hill of Ayios Elias at Emporio on Chios, with a pair of eagles circling overhead.
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.