Homer (/ ˈhoʊmər /; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος [hómɛːros], Hómēros) is the legendary author to whom the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other Homeric epic. The Odyssey is fundamental to the modern Western canon; it is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, while the Iliad is the oldest. Sc…Odyssey
Ancient Greek literature
Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are the two epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, set in th…
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Why was Homer so important?
Homer's most important contribution to Greek culture was to provide a common set of values that enshrined the Greeks' own ideas about themselves. His poems provided a fixed model of heroism, nobility and the good life to which all Greeks, especially aristocrats, subscribed.
What is known about Homer's life?
Little is known about the life of Homer, the author credited with composing The Iliad and The Odyssey who is arguably the greatest poet of the ancient world. Historians place his birth sometime around 750 BC and conjecture that he was born and resided in or near Chios.
What was unique about Homer?
He used the earliest alphabet Homer's poems were believed to be recorded just soon after the alphabet was invented. Before that, his poetry would have otherwise had to be spoken instead of written! The first written poems were said to have been dictated by the poet between 8 and 6 BC.
When did Homer become well known?
Definition. Homer (c. 750 BCE) is perhaps the greatest of all epic poets and his legendary status was well established by the time of Classical Athens.
What are Homer's most famous words?
Homer > Quotes“Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.” ... “… ... “Any moment might be our last. ... “Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.” ... “There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.”More items...
What is Homer's most famous poem?
The Iliad and the OdysseyThe Iliad and the Odyssey are two of the world's most famous poems but very little is known about their creator, 'Homer'. Historian and writer Daisy Dunn goes in search of the poet of the Trojan War, exploring who Homer was and whether he ever actually existed.
Why Is Homer a hero?
The Homeric hero lived by strict social and cultural norms that would guide his life at home and on the battlefield. His position as a hero depended upon understanding his place in society and performing in accordance with society's expectations.
What did Homer invent?
The Greek poet Homer is credited with being the first to write down the epic stories of 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey,' and the impact of his tales continues to reverberate through Western culture.
What is Homer's Odyssey best described as?
The Odyssey of Homer is a Greek epic poem that tells of the return journey of Odysseus to the island of Ithaca from the war at Troy, which Homer addressed in The Iliad. In the Greek tradition, the war lasted for ten years.
What was Homer's IQ?
After the crayon is removed, Homer's IQ goes up from 55 to 105 points, which allows him to form a bond with Lisa. Homer gives a speech at Springfield Elementary, where Nelson gives him a fake question, saying, "A-moron-says-what?" Homer responds with, "Not being a moron, I wouldn't know.
What was Homer's obsession?
After dinner, Homer panics when they start talking, and Bart and Marge explain how Homer became obsessed with the painting at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts while chaperoning a field trip there, even dreaming about it at night.
What were Homer's values?
Those values were physical prowess, courage, fierce protection of one's family, friends, property, and, above all, one's personal honor and reputation. Speed of foot, strength, and most of all, excellence at fighting make a man great, and all these attributes serve to promote personal honor.
Why is Homer significant?
Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two hugely influential epic poems of ancient Greece. If Homer did in fact compose the wo...
Was Homer a real person?
Scholars are uncertain whether he existed. If real, he is believed to have lived about the 9th or 8th century BCE and was a native of Ionia. A poet...
Did Homer write the Odyssey?
The authorship of the Odyssey and the Iliad is disputed. While some scholars believe Homer is solely responsible, others claim that the poems were...
What Was Homer Like?
Homer is thought to have been blind, based solely on a character in The Odyssey, a blind poet/minstrel called Demodokos. A long disquisition on how Demodokos was welcomed into a gathering and regaled the audience with music and epic tales of conflict and heroes to much praise has been interpreted as Homer’s hint as to what his own life was like. As a result, many busts and statues have been carved of Homer with thick curly hair and beard and sightless eyes.
What is Homer's real life?
Homer’s real life may remain a mystery, but the very real impact of his works continues to illuminate our world today.
When Was Homer Born?
Guesses at his birth date range from 750 BC all the way back to 1200 BC, the latter because The Iliad encompasses the story of the Trojan War, so some scholars have thought it fit to put the poet and chronicler nearer to the time of that actual event. But others believe the poetic style of his work indicates a much later period. Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC), often called the father of history, placed Homer several centuries before himself, around 850 BC.
Why is Homer's epic poem important?
The stories provide an important insight into early human society, and illustrate, in some aspects, how little has changed. Even if The Iliad itself seems unfamiliar, the story of the siege of Troy, the Trojan War and Paris’ kidnapping of Helen, the world’s most beautiful woman, are all familiar characters or scenarios. Some scholars insist that Homer was personally familiar with the plain of Troy, due to the geographical accuracy in the poem.
What is Homer's style?
Homer’s style, whoever he was, falls more in the category of minstrel poet or balladeer, as opposed to a cultivated poet who is the product of a fervent literary moment, such as a Virgil or a Shakespeare. The stories have repetitive elements, almost like a chorus or refrain, which suggests a musical element.
Did Homer live before the Olympic Games?
Part of the problem is that Homer lived before a chronological dating system was in place. The Olympic Games of classical Greece marked an epoch, with 776 BC as a starting point by which to measure out four-year periods for the event. In short, it is difficult to give someone a birth date when he was born before there was a calendar.
Is Homer's story a lyric poem?
However, Homer’s works are designated as epic rather than lyric poetry, which was originally recited with a lyre in hand, much in the same vein as spoken-word performances.
What are some of the most important facts about Homer?
The two best known ancient biographies of Homer are the Life of Homer by the Pseudo-Herodotus and the Contest of Homer and Hesiod.
Where did Homer live in the Odyssey?
The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey.
Why are Homer's poems important?
As a result of the poems' prominence in classical Greek education, extensive commentaries on them developed to explain parts of the poems that were culturally or linguistically difficult. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many interpreters, especially the Stoics, who believed that Homeric poems conveyed Stoic doctrines, regarded them as allegories, containing hidden wisdom. Perhaps partially because of the Homeric poems' extensive use in education, many authors believed that Homer's original purpose had been to educate. Homer's wisdom became so widely praised that he began to acquire the image of almost a prototypical philosopher. Byzantine scholars such as Eustathius of Thessalonica and John Tzetzes produced commentaries, extensions and scholia to Homer, especially in the twelfth century. Eustathius's commentary on the Iliad alone is massive, sprawling over nearly 4,000 oversized pages in a twenty-first century printed version and his commentary on the Odyssey an additional nearly 2,000.
What is the name of Homer's Odyssey?
Today only the Iliad and the Odyssey are associated with the name 'Homer' . In antiquity, a very large number of other works were sometimes attributed to him, including the Homeric Hymns, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, the Little Iliad, the Nostoi, the Thebaid, the Cypria, the Epigoni, the comic mini-epic Batrachomyomachia ("The Frog-Mouse War"), the Margites, the Capture of Oechalia, and the Phocais. These claims are not considered authentic today and were by no means universally accepted in the ancient world. As with the multitude of legends surrounding Homer's life, they indicate little more than the centrality of Homer to ancient Greek culture.
When was the Homeric question first written?
By around 1830 , the central preoccupations of Homeric scholars, dealing with whether or not "Homer" actually existed, when and how the Homeric poems originated, how they were transmitted, when and how they were finally written down, and their overall unity, had been dubbed "the Homeric Question".
Who defended Homer?
The allegorist Theagenes of Rhegium is said to have defended Homer by arguing that the Homeric poems are allegories. The Iliad and the Odyssey were widely used as school texts in ancient Greek and Hellenistic cultures. They were the first literary works taught to all students.
Who published the Homeric poems?
In 1488, the Greek scholar Demetrios Chalkokondyles published the editio princeps of the Homeric poems. The earliest modern Homeric scholars started with the same basic approaches towards the Homeric poems as scholars in antiquity. The allegorical interpretation of the Homeric poems that had been so prevalent in antiquity returned to become the prevailing view of the Renaissance. Renaissance humanists praised Homer as the archetypically wise poet, whose writings contain hidden wisdom, disguised through allegory. In western Europe during the Renaissance, Virgil was more widely read than Homer and Homer was often seen through a Virgilian lens.
Who Was Homer as a Person?
Once again, everything we know about Homer is gathered from his poems. The Odyssey has a character that is a blind minstrel or poet named Demodokos. For this reason, scholars infer that Homer may have been blind. They take this hint from the way in which Demodoks is ushered into a crowded space and impresses his impromptu audience with epic tales and music. Many believe this story was a parallel to Homer’s own personal experience. Some people also argue that the statues that have been erected of Homer suggest he was blind, as his eyes appear “sightless.”
When Was Homer Born?
Scholars struggle to locate Homer’s exact date of birth. The range of dates could be anywhere from 750-1200 BC. Why such a stretch? The guesses around Homer’s birth are linked to the content within The Illiad. The story encompasses the Trojan War, which is why some scholars think it is fitting to place the birth range in conjunction with that event. Others base their guess on Homer’s poetic style as opposed to his content. His style suggests that he lived and wrote well past the age of the Trojan War.
Where Was He Born?
It is also a challenge to determine where Homer was born. Scholars have narrowed it down to Ionia, Smyrna, the island of Chio, or the coastal areas of Asia Minor. However, there is no shortage of Greek cities that want to claim Homer as their “native son.”
Was Homer a real person?
Some scholars believe that Homer was not an individual, but rather, a name that stood in for the group of people that penned and told his powerful works. If he was indeed a real person, he probably would’ve been a street poet that recited tales from memory.
Where was Homer born?
However, of the many conflicting traditions and legends that have grown up around him, the most common and most convincing version suggests that Homer was born at Smyrna in the Ionian region of Asia Minor (or possibly on the island of Chios), and that he died on the Cycladic island of Ios.
What was Homer responsible for writing?
Exactly what Homer was responsible for writing is likewise largely unsubstantiated. The Greeks of the 6th and early 5th Centuries BCE tended to use the label “Homer” for the whole body of early heroic hexameter verse. This included “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”, but also the whole “Epic Cycle” of poems relating the story of the Trojan War (also known as the “Trojan Cycle”), as well as the Theban poems about Oedipus and other works, such as the “Homeric Hymns” and the comic mini-epic “Batrachomyomachia” (“The Frog-Mouse War”).
What language did Homer use?
The language used by Homer is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically written in dactylic hexameter verse.
Why is Homer called a blind bard?
The characterization of Homer as a blind bard by some historians is partly due to translations of the Greek “homêros“, meaning “hostage” or “he who is forced to follow”, or, in some dialects, “blind”.
How long ago was Homer's life?
Indirect reports from Herodotus and others generally date him approximately between 750 and 700 BCE.
Who was Homer's minstrel?
Some ancient accounts depict Homer as a wandering minstrel, and a common portayal is of a blind, begging singer who travelled around the harbour towns of Greece, associating with shoemakers, fisherman, potters, sailors and elderly men in the town gathering places.
Was Homer's poem written by himself?
The “Homeric Hymns” and “Epigrams of Homer”, despite the names, were likewise almost certainly written significantly later, and therefore not by Homer himself. Some maintain that the Homeric poems are dependent on an oral tradition, a generations-old technique that was the collective inheritance of many singer-poets.
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I am Ira, the author behind Grazy Goat. My husband and I run this blog and share our experiences about thrilling places and cultures. Our son Artem recently joined us and helps with editing.
Overview
Homer is the legendary author to whom the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey (the two epic poems that are the foundational works of ancient Greek literature) is attributed. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Virgil refers to him as "Poet sovereign", king of all poets; in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets".
Works attributed to Homer
Today only the Iliad and the Odyssey are associated with the name 'Homer'. In antiquity, a very large number of other works were sometimes attributed to him, including the Homeric Hymns, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, the Little Iliad, the Nostoi, the Thebaid, the Cypria, the Epigoni, the comic mini-epic Batrachomyomachia ("The Frog-Mouse War"), the Margites, the Capture of Oechalia, and the Phocais. These claims are not considered authentic today and were by no means unive…
Ancient biographical traditions
Some ancient claims about Homer were established early and repeated often. They include that Homer was blind (taking as self-referential a passage describing the blind bard Demodocus), that he resided at Chios, that he was the son of the river Meles and the nymph Critheïs, that he was a wandering bard, that he composed a varying list of other works (the "Homerica"), that he died either in Ios or after failing to solve a riddle set by fishermen, and various explanations for the na…
History of Homeric scholarship
The study of Homer is one of the oldest topics in scholarship, dating back to antiquity. Nonetheless, the aims of Homeric studies have changed over the course of the millennia. The earliest preserved comments on Homer concern his treatment of the gods, which hostile critics such as the poet Xenophanes of Colophon denounced as immoral. The allegorist Theagenes of Rhegium is said to have defended Homer by arguing that the Homeric poems are allegories. The …
Historicity of the Homeric epics and Homeric society
Scholars continue to debate questions such as whether the Trojan War actually took place – and if so when and where – and to what extent the society depicted by Homer is based on his own or one which was, even at the time of the poems' composition, known only as legends. The Homeric epics are largely set in the east and center of the Mediterranean, with some scattered references to Egypt, Ethiopia and other distant lands, in a warlike society that resembles that of the Greek wo…
Style and language
The Homeric epics are written in an artificial literary language or 'Kunstsprache' only used in epic hexameter poetry. Homeric Greek shows features of multiple regional Greek dialects and periods, but is fundamentally based on Ionic Greek, in keeping with the tradition that Homer was from Ionia. Linguistic analysis suggests that the Iliad was composed slightly before the Odyssey, and that Homeric formulae preserve older features than other parts of the poems.
Textual transmission
The orally transmitted Homeric poems were put into written form at some point between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Some scholars believe that they were dictated to a scribe by the poet and that our inherited versions of the Iliad and Odyssey were in origin orally-dictated texts. Albert Lord noted that the Balkan bards that he was studying revised and expanded their songs in their process of dictating. Some scholars hypothesize that a similar process of revision and exp…
See also
• Achaeans (Homer)
• Aeneid
• Bibliomancy
• Catalogue of Ships
• Creophylus of Samos
Who Was Homer?
How Is His Writing Style characterized?
When Was Homer born?
Where Was He born?
Who Was Homer as A person?
Did Scholars Invent Some of His Traits?
Homer’s Legacy
- Homer’s epic poems have guided our understanding of human society. Perhaps the most striking feature of good literature is that it applies across time. His stories, wrote thousands of years ago, still hold valuable life lessons for us today. If you liked this post, find out how to celebrate National Poetry Month!