Human Disk Storage For A Preliterate Society

“...and thus ends the story of King Paros.”
After the applause dies down, a young scholar stands. “Homer, can you tell us the story of Ileum?”
“Next week, I promise.”
Later, the blind teacher calls for his boy, and the two of them slowly make their way through the busy Athenian streets, and then out into the empty countryside, to the flat, barren field where all of Greek knowledge is stored. Here, singers trudge in endless, nested circles. There is much to remember, and the circles are packed—the air filled with a thousand voices. With the boy holding his elbow, Homer squeezes through the queues <excuse me, sorry, won’t happen again> until he finds the man who sings the epic of Troy. Homer listens, memorizing the metrical verse, and then touches him. “Got it.” And the man trudges on, silent for the first time in years.