Day 7: A Note on Memory

Today I'm attempting to memorize the first twenty lines of the Iliad. And I've managed to nail about five lol. Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day...

On a serious note I can say that the effort required to recite these poems from memory (even if there was a great deal of improvisation) must have been astounding. Memory is simply not a skill that we cultivate today, but, I think that three thousand years ago it was a different story. I am reminded of Socrates saying that he did not think that the art of writing was much of an advance because it caused human memory to atrophy. At such a long distance from the invention of writing, it is difficult for us to conceive of a world without it, especially now that most of what were once preliterate cultures out on the fringes of the settled world have now been thrust pell mell into the internet age. But there was a time when memory was the only way of retaining information, though even today it is a mark of honor throughout the Muslim world if one has memorized the length and breadth of the Quran, but this is still based on a written text. The fact that a poem with the complexity of the Iliad came out of a circle of orally composed and remembered legends and it is a tribute to what human beings are capable of if we only try.