In een lezing door Prof. dr J.A.E. Bons legt hij uit hoe de klassieke werken door de eeuwen bewaard zijn gebleven en dat pas ten tijde van de renaissance er in West-Europa opnieuw belangstelling ontstond voor de werken uit de Oudheid. De bewondering en navolging van de antieke cultuur is wellicht het meest in het oog springende kenmerk van deze periode.
Wij doen geen uitgebreid onderzoek, maar hebben ons geconcentreerd op het werk van Homerus. Ook op Engelstalige sites is te lezen dat de teksten van Homerus pas in de 15e eeuw in druk verschenen.
For a long time, the Greek heritage was lost to the West, known only (if at all) by Latin reinterpretations of Greek stories. Hence, the influence of classical Greek culture on the West and even a knowledge of the Greek language were virtually non-existent. During this period, although the outlines of many of the most famous stories were known (e.g., the Trojan War), the details came from very non-Greek sources and hence do not accurately reflect the visions of life in the original Greek texts. But in the early Renaissance (14th century), Greek scholars fleeing the forces of Islam started to move with their libraries into Italy from Byzantium and initiated a revival. From that point on, the authentic voice of classical Greek culture began to be heard again in Western Europe (a process enormously helped by the invention of printing in 1455), and for hundreds of years after that the work of scholars and artists provided a steady stream of printed texts, translations, and examples of Greek art, so that one can talk about a growing and direct influence of classical Greek thought on European culture for the past four hundred years (at least).
