Thanks for quoting the Davis!
Well, I think it IS fair to say that there are some Homeric themes that Moderns, or even Greeks of the classical period, would not be able to enter into fully. Surely it would be strange if it were otherwise. (As Achilles' great and grand and glorious sense of agrievement for his honor, or the sacrificing of slaves at funeral games, or the fact that only aristocratic characters are of any importance whatsoever, or the blood bath--including the stringing up of the housemaids who colluded with the suitors--at the end of the Odyssey that is actually part of the "happy ending", the manliness of weeping, etc.) We are--of course--a great distance culturally. And each era has its own preference for the Iliad or the Odyssey--one that reflects something of its own values. We are currently very much in an era that favors the Odyssey.
And yet, the differences hardly seems to matter--they seem almost superficial. It isn't the differences that strike us--we take them for granted--it is the things that are unchanging--universal but particular. (As Astyanax shrinking in fright from his father's horse-hair-crested helmet, or the effect Helen has when she walks past a knot of yammering old men, or the last tail-wag of Argos.) The humanity of both poems is so completely and convincingly portrayed that there does not seem to be any degree of separation at all. The characters seem absolutely real, and the events feel like they are happening before our eyes. Anyway, Homer needs no blurb from me!
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