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HOMER
A BIOGRAPHY
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Homer
• Nothing is known of
the life of Homer, but
as author of two of
ancient Greece's most
important literary
works - the Iliad and
the Odyssey - his
importance to Greek
culture can hardly be
underestimated.
•Bust of Homer in the Louvre, Paris
HOMER
• At least seven different places claimed that
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Homer was born on their soil in the ancient
world.
The two with the strongest claims are the island
of Chios and the city of Smyrna (modern Izmir,
in Turkey).
Ephesus was another city-state that claimed to
be the birthplace of Homer.
The consensus of opinion is that Homer
probably lived and worked in Ionia, the region
along what is now the west coast of Turkey.
Homer
• According to a hymn written in honour of
the god Apollo, he was a blind man from
the island of Chios, in the eastern
Mediterranean. Chios was home to a guild
of poets, or rhapsodists, called the
Homeridai, and seems to be one of the
most likely candidates. However, many
other Greek cities have also claimed to
have been his home, as an old Greek
epigram says:
Homer
• "Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer
dead, through which the living Homer
begged his bread?“
bama.ua.edu
Homer
• Homer's verses were first set down in
writing around 700 BC, soon after the
Greeks invented their own alphabet by
incorporating vowels into the existing
Phoenician alphabet. The verses were
probably significantly older than this,
because we know that until this point they
had been memorized by traveling bards
who earned a living by reciting them.
Homer
• 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. In his
works, disgrace due to dishonor is the worst that
can happen to a hero, and a short life of glorious
deeds is considered far superior to a long life of
peace and mediocrity, since by great deeds a
man might become immortal.
Homer
• His portrayal of the gods is also interesting
since in many ways they are used for
comic relief, possessing far less dignity
than their heroic mortal counterparts.
Homer
• Greek poet
• Is believed to have been born around 750 BC
• Legends depicting him as blind may have been
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extrapolated from his portrayal of the blind bard,
Demodocus in the Odyssey. However, he is also
described as sighted in the same epic and, therefore,
must infer the possibility of embellishment by admirers
who placed in him the tradition of the blind prophet of
the myths, Tiresias.
“Homer” is believed to be commonly used as a term for
blind men who wandered the countryside reciting epic
poetry
HOMER
• The ancient Greeks attributed to him the great epic
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poems The Iliad and The Odyssey.
The text of The Illiad and The Odyssey were not written
down upon creation.
Modern scholars generally agree that he composed (but
probably did not literally write) The Iliad, most likely
relying on oral traditions, and at least inspired the
composition of The Odyssey.
The Iliad, set during the Trojan War, tells the story of the
wrath of Achilles.
The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus as he travels
home from the war.
The two epics provided the basis of Greek education and
culture in the Classical age, and they have remained
among the most significant poems of the European
tradition.
HOMER
• John Ogilby's translation of The Odyssey (1669)
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is only the second complete English translation
and includes scholarly annotations. Following the
publication of his translation, his reputation as a
scholar and translator of classic texts reached
new heights.
Thomas Hobbes, who translated The Odyssey in
1675 chose not to include annotations. He
wrote: "But why without Annotations? Because I
had no hope to do it better than it is already
done by Mr. Ogilby."