Aoidos
The Greek word referred to a classical Greek singer. In modern Homeric scholarship, it is used by some as the technical term for a skilled oral epic poet in the tradition to which the Iliad and Odyssey are believed to belong.
Song and poetry in the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''
In classical Greek, the word, is an agent noun derived from the verb or . It occurs several times in varying forms in the Iliad and Odyssey in relation to poetry:Iliad 18.490–496 : a wedding song, hymenaios, with pipes, lyres, and dancingOdyssey 23.133–135: a wedding song with dancing, led by the singer Phemius: there is no wedding but Odysseus wants to create the impression of festivity while he is killing the suitorsIliad 18.567–572 : a child sings and plays the lyre to accompany the vintage. The song is the linosIliad 18.593–606 : young men and women take part in a singing-dance, 'Odyssey 8.250–385: young men and women take part in a '; Demodocus sings and plays the lyre; his song is about the love affair of Ares and AphroditeIliad 22.391–393: Achilles' young warriors sing a paieon, a song of praise or self-praise, as they drag Hector's body back to their shipsIliad 24.720–761: in Troy, singers lead the lament over Hector's body and women mourn after them; the three women who perform laments individually are Andromache, Hecuba and HelenIliad 19.301–338: in the Greek camp, over the body of Patroclus, Achilles sings first, then Briseis followed by the women, then Achilles again followed by the old menOdyssey 24.58–62: in the Greek camp the sea nymphs lament over Achilles's body and the Muses respond, followed by all the GreeksIliad 9.186–191: Achilles "pleases his mind and sings of the fame of men", accompanying himself on the lyre; his only audience is PatroclusOdyssey 1.150–340: Phemius sings for the suitors, after dinner, a narrative song of the Return from TroyOdyssey 8.73–75: Demodocus sings for Alcinous and his guests, after dinner, a narrative song of the quarrel of Odysseus and AchillesOdyssey 8.536–538: Demodocus begins to sing for Alcinous and his guests, after dinner, a narrative song of the Wooden Horse.The profession of singer
In the world described in these poems writing is practically unknown ; all poetry is "song", and poets are "singers". Later, in the fifth and fourth centuries, the performance of epic poetry was called rhapsodia, and its performer rhapsodos, but the word does not occur in the early epics or in contemporary lyric poetry, so it is unknown whether Hesiod and the poet of the Iliad and Odyssey would have considered themselves rhapsodes. It is not even known to what extent the makers of oral epic poetry were specialists. Phemius and Demodocus, in the Odyssey, are depicted performing non-epic as well as epic songs.There was, however, certainly a profession of '. Eumaeus, a character in the Odyssey, says that singers, healers, seers and craftsmen are likely to be welcomed as guests, while beggars are not; outside the world described by Homer, Hesiod gives a similar list in the form of a proverb on professional jealousy:
According to the Iliad and Odyssey singers gained their inspiration from the Muses. Hesiod describes how the Muses visited him while he tended his sheep on Mount Helicon and granted him this inspiration, permitting him to sing of the future as well as the past. An anecdote in the Iliad about Thamyris shows that the Muses could take away what they had given. As in certain other cultures, blind men sometimes became singers: Demodocus in the Odyssey is blind, and the legendary creator of the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer, was often said to have been blind.
The audience for performances by ' varied depending on the genre and circumstances. Women participated in, and sometimes led, laments, according to the Iliad. Many of the poems of Sappho are addressed to women and seem to assume an audience of women. For narrative poetry it is sometimes said that the audience was exclusively male; this is an exaggeration but it is probably largely true owing to the seclusion of women in early Greece.