The iliad and the odyssey9/20/2023 ![]() ![]() The Odyssey picks up after the fall of Troy. Some scholars insist that Homer was personally familiar with the plain of Troy, due to the geographical accuracy in the poem. 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. The stories provide an important insight into early human society, and illustrate, in some aspects, how little has changed. Homer's two epic poems have become archetypal road maps in world mythology. Countless attempts to recreate the life and personality of the author from the content of his epic poems have occupied writers for centuries. ![]() But he wasn't the first, nor was he the last. “Homer and Sophocles saw clearly, felt keenly, and refrained from much,” wrote Lane Cooper in The Greek Genius and Its Influence: Select Essays and Extracts in 1917, ascribing an emotional life to the writer. As a result, many busts and statues have been carved of Homer with thick curly hair and beard and sightless eyes. 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. Homer is thought to have been blind, based solely on a character in The Odyssey, a blind poet/minstrel called Demodokos. Virtually every biographical aspect ascribed to Homer is derived entirely from his poems. The dialect helps narrow down his lifespan by coinciding it with the development and usage of language in general, but The Iliad and The Odyssey were so popular that this particular dialect became the norm for much of Greek literature going forward. That fact, paired with frequent mentions of local phenomena such as strong winds blowing from the northwest from the direction of Thrace, suggests, scholars feel, a familiarity with that region that could only mean Homer came from there. The dialect that The Iliad and The Odyssey are written in is considered Asiatic Greek, specifically Ionic. There is some basis for some of these claims, however. But seven cities lay claim to Homer as their native son. It has been identified as Ionia, Smyrna or, at any rate, on the coast of Asia Minor or the island of Chios. Once again, the exact location of Homer’s birth cannot be pinpointed, although that doesn't stop scholars from trying. In short, it is difficult to give someone a birth date when he was born before there was a calendar. 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. Part of the problem is that Homer lived before a chronological dating system was in place. 484–425 BC), often called the father of history, placed Homer several centuries before himself, around 850 BC. But others believe the poetic style of his work indicates a much later period. 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. ![]() Much speculation surrounds when Homer was born because of the dearth of real information about him. This is often considered to be the greatest literary mystery. 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.Īll this speculation about who he was has inevitably led to what is known as the Homeric Question-whether he actually existed at all. ![]() The stories have repetitive elements, almost like a chorus or refrain, which suggests a musical element. 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. A variation on the group idea stems from the fact that storytelling was an oral tradition and Homer compiled the stories, then recited them to memory. Some scholars believe him to be one man others think these iconic stories were created by a group. The Greek epic poet credited with the enduring epic tales of The Iliad and The Odyssey is an enigma insofar as actual facts of his life go. He is famous for the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, which have had an enormous effect on Western culture, but very little is known about their alleged author. The Greek poet Homer was born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, possibly somewhere on the coast of Asia Minor. ![]()
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