Editing Odyssey (section)

=== Composition ===
Many suggestions have been made for dating the ''Odyssey''{{'s}} composition, but there is no consensus. The Greeks began adopting a modified version of the [[Phoenician alphabet]] to create their own language during the 8th century BC.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=21}} The Homeric poems may have been one of the earliest products of that literacy; if this is so, they would have been composed towards the late 8th century BC.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=23}} Inscribed on a [[Nestor's Cup (Pithekoussai)|clay cup]] found in [[Ischia]], Italy, are the words "Nestor's cup, good to drink from".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Higgins |first=Charlotte |author-link=Charlotte Higgins |date=13 November 2019 |title=From Carnage to a Camp Beauty Contest: The Endless Allure of Troy |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/13/carnage-camp-beauty-contest-endless-allure-troy-british-museum |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109174814/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/13/carnage-camp-beauty-contest-endless-allure-troy-british-museum |archive-date=9 January 2020 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> Some scholars, such as [[Calvert Watkins]], have tied this cup to a description of King [[Nestor's Cup (mythology)|Nestor's golden cup]] in the ''Iliad.''{{sfn|Watkins|1976|p=28}} If the cup is an allusion to the ''Iliad'', that poem's composition can be dated to at least 700–750 BC.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=21}}

Dating is similarly complicated by the fact that the Homeric poems, or sections of them, were performed regularly by rhapsodes for several hundred years.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=21}} The ''Odyssey'' as it exists today is likely not significantly different.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|p=23}} Aside from minor differences, the Homeric poems gained a canonical place in the institutions of ancient Athens by the 6th century.{{sfn|Davison|1955|pp=7–8}} In 566 BC, [[Pisistratus|Peisistratos]] instituted a civic and religious festival called the [[Panathenaic Games|Panathenaia]], which featured performances of Homeric poems.{{sfn|Davison|1955|pp=9–10}} These are significant because a "correct" version of the poems had to be performed, indicating that a particular version of the text had become canonised.{{sfn|Wilson|2018|loc=p. 21, "In 566 BCE, Pisistratus, the tyrant of the city (which was not yet a democracy), instituted a civic and religious festival, the Panathenaia, which included a poetic competition, featuring performances of the Homeric poems. The institution is particularly significant because we are told that the Homeric poems had to be performed "correctly", which implies the canonization of a particular written text of The Iliad and The Odyssey at this date."}}