Understanding Homer in Hungary in a European Context

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to outline, briefly, what kinds of tendencies in intellectual history have had an impact on international Homeric scholarship in various ages and, mainly, to point out why in Hungary Homeric studies started relatively late and how they developed. Poets interpreted Homer rather quickly for themselves in harmony with the dominant ideas of various ages. Professional scholarship reacted slower, but by and by it made up its backwardness, now and then even superseding its models.