Reciting Homer's Iliad from Memory: The #KephalosChallenge ⚔️

I memorized Homer's Iliad Book I lines 1-100 in 100 days. But can I prove it? In this video, I attempt to recite all 100 lines from memory. Will I succeed? Learn about the Kephalos Method to Homer, and how helpful it is to approaching epic literature.

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Intro and outro music: Overture of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by Mozart

0:00 Intro to the Kephalos Challenge
2:46 What is the Kephalos Method to Homer?
3:32 Iliad 100 audiobook
4:09 Scoring and Points for the Kephalos Challenge
7:26 The Challenge BEGINS
9:15 Section I, vv.1-7
10:10 Section II, vv.8-16
11:34 Section III, vv.17-21
12:17 Section IV, vv.22-25
12:50 Section V, vv.26-32
14:21 Section VI, vv.33-36
15:00 Section VII, vv.37-42
16:10 Section VIII, vv.43-52
19:20 Section IX, vv.53-58
20:46 Section X, vv.59-67
22:23 Section XI, vv.68-73
23:34 Section XII, vv.74-83
25:13 Section XIII, vv.84-91
26:38 Section XIV, vv.92-100
27:59 Final Score
30:13 Why the Kephalos Method is Effective
36:29 Q&A!
36:48 Do you understand the first 100 lines now?
38:23 Will you do this for other epic poetry?
39:07 How will you keep from forgetting vv.1-100 after today?
41:47 Why did you take the Kephalos Challenge?
43:26 What mnemonic devices did you use?
49:19 Is the Aeneid 100 coming soon?
49:31 Did the experience improve your pronunciation?
54:36 What benefits do we get from emulating ancient memorization pedagogy?
56:20 Would you approach v.101 differently from how you approached v.1?

[polyMATHY_Luke]

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I memorized Homer's Iliad Book I lines 1-100 in 100 days. But can I prove it? In this video, I attempt to recite all 100 lines from memory. Will I succeed? Learn about the Kephalos Method to Homer, and how helpful it is to approaching epic literature.


🦂 Support my work on Patreon:

📚 Luke Ranieri Audiobooks:

🤠 Take my course LATIN UNCOVERED on StoryLearning, including my original Latin adventure novella "Vir Petasātus"

🦂 Sign up for my Latin Pronunciation & Conversation series on Patreon:

☕ Support my work with PayPal:

And if you like, do consider joining this channel:



🏛 Ancient Greek in Action · Free Greek Lessons:

👨‍🏫 My Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata playlist · Free Latin Lessons:

🦂 ScorpioMartianus (my channel for content in Latin, Ancient Greek, & Ancient Egyptian)

🎙 Hundreds of hours of Latin & Greek audio:

🌍 polýMATHY website:

🌅 polýMATHY on Instagram:

🦁 Legio XIII Latin Language Podcast:

👕 Merch:


📖 My book Ranieri Reverse Recall on Amazon:

Intro and outro music: Overture of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by Mozart

0:00 Intro to the Kephalos Challenge
2:46 What is the Kephalos Method to Homer?
3:32 Iliad 100 audiobook
4:09 Scoring and Points for the Kephalos Challenge
7:26 The Challenge BEGINS
9:15 Section I, vv.1-7
10:10 Section II, vv.8-16
11:34 Section III, vv.17-21
12:17 Section IV, vv.22-25
12:50 Section V, vv.26-32
14:21 Section VI, vv.33-36
15:00 Section VII, vv.37-42
16:10 Section VIII, vv.43-52
19:20 Section IX, vv.53-58
20:46 Section X, vv.59-67
22:23 Section XI, vv.68-73
23:34 Section XII, vv.74-83
25:13 Section XIII, vv.84-91
26:38 Section XIV, vv.92-100
27:59 Final Score
30:13 Why the Kephalos Method is Effective
36:29 Q&A!
36:48 Do you understand the first 100 lines now?
38:23 Will you do this for other epic poetry?
39:07 How will you keep from forgetting vv.1-100 after today?
41:47 Why did you take the Kephalos Challenge?
43:26 What mnemonic devices did you use?
49:19 Is the Aeneid 100 coming soon?
49:31 Did the experience improve your pronunciation?
54:36 What benefits do we get from emulating ancient memorization pedagogy?
56:20 Would you approach v.101 differently from how you approached v.1?

[TP-omof]

He closed his eyes so he’d look more like Homer.

[faryafaraji]

Amazing job Luke, I've been following your daily updates and this was a blast to watch come into fruition!

Interestingly enough, for the point at 35:18, many in the field of historical music studies argue that this is exactly what the rhapsodes would have done; select a very limited range of three to four notes, and repeatedly sing those. It's the method the esteemed Stefan Hagel used to argue for in the early 2000's, and that Silvio Zinsstag also uses in his rendition. The argument from that school is that many forms of epic poetry to this day are recited like this, an example being Serbian guslars, who use the same repetition of three to four notes maximum.

It's definitely also a possibility that some very advanced rhapsodes would have improvised entire pieces of music in an elaborate manner, but all in all, your approach is historical in the view of many scholars!

[jonaszswietomierz]

This is the nerdiest flex ever


and I think it's absolutely awesome

[samspade]

In India Brahmanas still memorise the Vedas. I was once visiting some friends in S India and asked one to recite Sama Veda, he demurred, just then the next-door neighbor visited. He was a gold medalist in Sama Veda. When I asked him to recite he just started and went on for more than 20 minutes before he had to go. He was in his 70s. They still have schools (Vedapathasalas) where young boys go to memorize one or more Vedas. I also know several people who have memorized the entire Bhagavad-gita (700 verses).

[zdzislawmeglicki]

We were made to memorize the first 100 lines of Ovid's Metamorphoses, also the first paragraph of Caesar's De Bello Gallico. Today, decades later, I wish they would have made us memorize more.

[pile]

Oh, very hard memory challenge. Congrats.

[Eden-xjyj]

Wow! I speak Hebrew as a native language and wanted to practice my Biblical pronunciation. You've inspired me to think about memorizing some of the book of Psalms as practice now.

[nikthetrickster]

This is my type of nerding, I love this

[History]

reminds me of highschool having to memorize the gettysburg address and the preamble to the u.s. constitution, but this is a whole nother level of rigor! rly appreciate the content sir luke thank you!

[the_unforseen]

Very impressive dude. Also I love how ecstatic you were to go to the gazebo lol

[antoniobarbalau]

This is beyond amazing ❤ Thank you for who you are and thank you for keeping this tradition alive ❤

[matthewtopping]

The Mario sound effects make this really fun

[nngnnadas]

I school in Israel we learned the elegy of David for Saul and Jonathan by heart, but that's just 9 verses. Also nobody talkes about authentic pronounciation.

[marcmonnerat]

Impressive. I know/knew the first few dozen verses of the _Odysseia_ by heart (I have to check), but I'll definitely check your method 🙂

[BrandonBoardman]

0:20 Thank you for featuring one of my videos.
43:26 As for the mnemonic devices, I used a musical system inspired by Ancient Greek music theory. The first vowel or diphthong of each linw determined the recitation notes (α/αι on B or E, ε/ει/η/ι on C, ο/οι/ου/ω/υ on D). The accented vowels are always at most a perfect 4th higher than the recitation notes and the grave accents are just a semitone higher.

[krupam]

I sort of did that with the first seven lines of the Aeneid, memorized them in a few days almost by accident even before I started properly learning Latin. Mostly wanted to get used to the rhythm and syllable length. Sort of worked, but it seems I still tend to screw up hidden quantities in pronunciation.

[j.]

Love the reconstructed pronounciation. You can use a staff to mark the rhythm with the constant beats as well.

[carlinberg]

Big congratulations! This was really awesome, and great q&a at the end. I'm looking forward a lot to see the other epics too!

[evenaskeladden]

That was impressive! I thought about doing this challenge, but I started a bit late (on day 30-something), and I think I kind of gave up at line 16. I guess it would be easier if I actually knew Ancient Greek, though. I’ll attempt it again after I’ve learnt the language. Anyway, congrats man! 🎉