No, traditions of oral transmission was well known at the time, especially for illiterate cultures. The question was if Homer was composed and transmitted orally.
The question is valid for Homer because a lot of works from antiquity was composed in writing. E.g the Histories of Herodot was composed in writing by a single person, and transmitted by reading aloud from text.
If the different narrators riffed and improvised based on the formula, then there might never have been a single "Homer" at all. These questions are far from settled.
The question is valid for Homer because a lot of works from antiquity was composed in writing. E.g the Histories of Herodot was composed in writing by a single person, and transmitted by reading aloud from text.
If the different narrators riffed and improvised based on the formula, then there might never have been a single "Homer" at all. These questions are far from settled.