Homer (c.750–c.650 BC) is the name given to the fabled author of the Iliad and Odyssey, the two major epic poems that have survived from Ancient Greece. These two poems are essential to Western literature and culture.
Homer’s literary achievement is clouded in academic controversy. Although Homer is depicted conventionally as a blind and bearded man, nothing is known of Homer as a person. Some scholars have even denied his existence. There is not even concurrence on whether a single poet created both the epics.
The Iliad and the Odyssey seem to have been compiled at some time between 750 and 650 BCE, likely derived from older material handed down vocally by singer-poets. Homer’s achievements are therefore considered oral creations, not literary ones. In other words, Homer made his poems in performance, borrowing and adapting stories, ideas, and phrases from the oral tradition of a preliterate culture.
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature, suggested that the Iliad was the work of ‘Homer,’ a 8th century BCE poet from Ionia, south of Troy in Asia Minor (contemporary Turkey.) He combined and remodeled earlier poems, and his work was in its turn enlarged and remodeled by others. The Odyssey is commonly believed to consist of a substantial core poem with some later addendums.
The Iliad describes the events preceding the Trojan War—the fatal and pivotal combat between Achilles, the Greeks’ greatest warrior, and the Trojan champion Hector in a battle that ensures Troy’s fall. The Odyssey portrays the adventures of the Greek hero Odysseus as he returns home after the fall of Troy.
Alexander Pope and E. V. Rieu produced the popular 18th and 20th century translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
More: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Books by Homer
Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.
—Homer
Thou knowst the oer-eager vehemence of youth,|How quick in temper, and in judgement weak.
—Homer
I detest that man, who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks forth another.
—Homer
It is not right to glory in the slain.
—Homer
How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise.
—Homer
Anger, which, far sweeter than trickling drops of honey, rises in the bosom of a man like smoke.
—Homer
Topics: Anger
All strangers and beggars are from God,
and a gift, though small, is precious.
—Homer
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