The European Beta-tradition is now also published as an English version via Brave New Books (2019-04-21). It is available for free here, on ResearchGate, and on Academia. The title of this book is “The Beta-tradition: On the Origin of the Iliad.”

I called this oral tradition the epic Beta-tradition before, because it consists mostly of the raw fights on the battlefield. I changed my mind several times about the geographic origin of this tradition: either Mykenaean Greece or Central Europe with its Urnfield and Tumulus peoples. I am now quite confident that it is the latter location after I was writing out the archeological evidence for the first location. The chariots fit quite well for the Mykenaean empire, but too many other aspects fit much better to a European origin. The Central European origin also fits well with the theory that I developed about the end of the Mycenaean empire.

Cite:

Blondé, Ward. The Beta Tradition: on the origin of the Iliad, Middletown, DE: Amazon Independent Publishing Platform, 2019.

Share or Like
  • 2
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
    2
    Shares