Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
Yes, it is rhyming couplets. That's how these epic poems were memorized.
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No. Absolutely not. The Greek original assuredly doesn't rhyme - in fact the very concept of rhyming didn't exist in Greek poetry, because it's almost impossible to do in a highly inflected language such as Greek. You're right in saying that there were standard techniques for memorisation, but it didn't involve rhyming.
But we're straying off topic here. I hope you enjoy your Pope, but, as a classicist myself, I just felt obliged to point out that you can do an awful lot better if you want to know what the Iliad actually says, rather than Pope's extremely "free" translation.