According to accounts, these two great works of Homer were passed down orally until the time of Pisistratus (tyrant of Athens from 561-527 BC). Thanks to his efforts, around 520 BC the epics are said to have been collected and written down - Pyristratus ordered that every rhapsod (wandering singer) arriving in Athens recite to the writers the whole of what he knew of Homer. Pyristratus' son, Hipparchus, instructed that the epics should be read each year on the occasion of the Panathenaea (a festival commemorating the birth of the goddess Athena).
