In the first millennium BCE, which is the era when alphabetic writing was developed by Greek-speaking people, starting in the eighth century BCE, there is evidence for a wide range of dialects, which can be divided roughly into four groups: (1) Arcado-Cypriote, (2) Aeolic, (3) Ionic, and (4) Doric or “West Greek.” But my focus here is on an earlier time, the late second millennium BCE. There is evidence for the existence of these same four dialectal divisions even in this earlier time. The primary evidence can be found in the texts of clay tablets written in the so-called Linear B script.

Greek dialects in the late second millennium BCE by Gregory Nagy

This book is about the tragic hero Ajax as portrayed in the lyric poetry of Pindar and in the epic poetry of Homer, who is viewed here as a prehistorical Singer of Tales, mythologized in radically different ways at different times and places in the ancient Greek-speaking world. The book analyzes how the Homeric portrayal of Ajax evolved over time, from earlier, more diverse localized versions to the more familiar Athenocentric version of the "Classical" Homer.

This essay centers on the ancient Greek practice of worshipping heroes in the context of hero cults. The question to be addressed here is whether this practice was as yet current in the era when Homeric poetry took shape, and whether we may expect any signs of hero cult in this poetry. Concentrating on Homeric references to ritual honors received by heroes, I argue that such references are in fact signs of hero cult. Among these signs, as we will see, are references to the prospect of heroic immortalization after death, which is a primary theme of hero cult. The main point of my argument, as we will also see, is that these signs are integrated into the overall structure of both the Iliad and the Odyssey.

 Signs of Hero Cult in Homeric Poetry by Gregory Nagy