Homer

About Homer
Homer was a traditional epic poet of ancient Greece between 1200 and 850 B.C. Seven ancient cities claimed Homer, but his birthplace, true identity, and age to which he lived are unknown. According to legend, Homer, assuming that he was one person, was a divinely inspired poet, blind, old, and poor, who made his living as an itinerant singer. Another tradition states that he competed in song with Hesoid.

Whatever Homer's tru identity, it is clear from his two epic masterpieces, the Iliad and the Odyssey, that Homer was not describing contemporary events, but was drawing upon historical material handed down from the Greek prehistoric period. Judging also from the skillful artistic construction of the two epics, he probably had access to an existing body of oral poetry. The perfected use of the hexameter is a further indication that this metrical form was the recognized medium for epic poetry, dating from an earlier period of Greek literature.

The first evidence of a writen text of Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey dates from the late 6Th century B.C., in Athens. In that city, every four years, both poems were recited at the Panathenea by professional rhapsodists, presumably from a written text, which may well have been prepared from other oral or written versions that existed at the time. The texts of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as they are known today date from version assembled around 150 B.C. by the Alexandrian critic Aristarchus of Samothrace, which may or may not be identical with the text used earlier in Athens.

Homer's narrative of the siege and destruction of the city of Troy as presented in the Iliad is related to a real siege which took place about 1200 B.C. Soon after these events a large number of heroic songs or lays came into existence, forming the historical nucleus of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. However, it is impossible to determine which parts of Homer's poems are based on history and which is fiction and folklore, because so well are these elements in the artistic whole. Both Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are in the style of ancient oral poetry. The emphasis is placed on the major theme, flow of narrative, and especially on dramatic action; details are generic rather than particular. The language is rich, simple, and dignified, but the Homeric dialect is not any definite spoken speech of a specific place or time. It is rather a traditional dialect, mainly Ironic, though with a sparkling of Aeolic forms, as well as an element of very old Greek. In the main, too, the dialect of Homer is one molded by the needs of the dactylic hexameter.

Homer's characters such as Achilles, Hector, Nestor, Helen of Troy, Andromache, Penelope, and Odysseus are vivid personalities, and have remained as universal figures through the centuries to modern times. Homer's portrayals of the gods, such as Zeus, Apollo, Hera, Poseidon, and Athena became the ideal types for all later versions of these deities in poetry, paintings and sculpture. To the ancient Greeks Homer was the Bible and Shakespeare all in one; many cultivated Greeks knew the Iliad by heart. Even at the height of the Attic drama the Iliad and Odyssey were not overshadowed but were recited to large audiences. In modern times the books of Homer have influenced almost every school of Western poetry and literature.

The books known as the Homeric Poems are a large volume of epic poetry dealing with the sack of Troy and other aspects of the Trojan War. These books are not the works of Homer, but of other poets who wrote based on historic legends. Only fragments of the later epics still exist today.







Homer leather bound books