THE BETA-TRADITION

The European Beta-tradition is the second in the series of five Homeric oral traditions that Ward Blonde discovered in the Iliad. In contrast to the Mykenaian Alpha-tradition, the Beta-tradition has its origins in the proto-Celtic Europe of the Tumul
us and Urnfield cultures; it describes a society of clans who fought each other to death on the battlefield. The European Beta-tradition is so realistic and varied in its descriptions that it must have originated in a warrior culture.

Blonde
''s discovery of the European Beta-tradition provides insights into the Homeric question about the origin of the Iliad and the Odyssey and into European prehistory. The framework of the Iliad as a whole appears to be an age-old narrative originating
from the Central European Bronze Age. In addition, Blonde presents a theory that explains the presence of the European Beta-tradition in Greece. In doing so, Blonde sheds light on the mysterious issues of the Sea Peoples, the movements of the Urnfiel
d Peoples, the fall of the Mykenaian Empire and Hittite Empire, the destruction of Troy, the invasion of the Dorians and the Dark Ages in Greece.