The Gamma-tradition is a Homeric oral tradition that developed in the Greek Dark Ages, when Aeolian Greek settlers colonized the region around Troy. Rather than a historical War of Troy, the mythologization of the new homeland was responsible for the stories around Troy and the Trojan Cycle. Curiously, the Aeolian Gamma-tradition is also connected to the Greek colonies in Italy. Roman mythology and the Aeneid of Virgil appear not to be based on Greek mythology and Homer in general, but more specifically on the Aeolian Gamma-tradition. Furthermore, there are the influences of several often-international story types, such as the destruction story, the tele-story, the monster story, and the savior story. The intertextuality of the Aeolian Gamma-tradition in Homer, the Trojan Cycle, the Argonautica, Vergil, and the Old and New Testament is investigated. For example, the Christian practice of baptizing seems to derive from an oral characteristic of the Aeolian Gamma-tradition, namely immersing a body in a river or in the sea.

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