Empire: World History 333. Bronze Age Apocalypse: The Fall of Troy with Stephen Fry (Ep 2)
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Feb 12, 2026 
Stephen Fry, British writer and actor famed for his retellings of Greek myths, explores Homer and the Bronze Age collapse. He discusses Homeric oral tradition, the archaeological layers at Troy, links between myth and Linear B records. They debate the Trojan Horse as strategy or metaphor and consider earthquakes and climate as forces behind ancient destruction.
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Homer As Oral Historian
- Homer preserved Bronze Age details through oral tradition despite writing disappearing by his era.
- Archaeology and folk memory combined to keep helmets, shields and palace images alive for centuries.
Living Oral Epics In India
- Stephen Fry recounts living oral epic traditions near Jaipur where bards pass poems father-to-son.
- He describes singers fed milk and treated as sacred to protect their memory and performance.
Formulaic Memory Anchors
- Milman Parry's fieldwork showed Homeric formulas matched living bards' techniques.
- Repetitive epithets and genealogies served as memory landmarks for long oral poems.
