Original Homer (ca. 8th C BC)
‘Homer’ is the name of the ancient Greek poet traditionally attributed to the composition of the famous poems Iliad and the Odyssey: the Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, while the Odyssey details the journey of the warrior Odysseus as he attempts to make his way home after the war has ended. Dated to around the 8th or 7th centuries BC, it is debated whether Homer actually composed the poems, or simply borrowed them from an already established oral tradition.
Almost nothing is known concretely about the life of Homer or who he even was, though tradition claims that he was blind – various Ionian cities also claimed themselves as his birthplace, confusing the matter further. Indeed, there is no definitive evidence to even say that he ever existed as a real person, however the ancient Greeks were highly familiar with these poems and seemed to accept that a poet named Homer did, at some point, live and compose tales of the Trojan war.
At the very least, it seems that Homer drew on the local ‘oral tradition’ of stories and tales about the Trojan War, known as the ‘Epic Cycle’, and re-wrote them as one large, coherent story. In fact, it is even possible that Homer did this without writing the poems down, and simply passed on his extensive repertoire of poetry through oral transmission – much like bards in Medieval Europe – and that they were not physically written down by a scribe until much later.
Scholars have also wondered about the level of truth in Homer’s poems – did he compose the Iliad and the Odyssey based on real events? Did a war against a city called Troy ever take place? It is possible that stories about a real war had been passed down and elaborated upon for generations, eventually reaching the point of legend – the events of which could then be composed as an entertaining, dramatic performance-driven piece of poetry.
The ancient Greeks revered Homer, and greatly admired his contribution to their culture and literature. Some Greek colonies, such as the city of Argos and the later Hellenistic city of Homerion, even developed ‘hero cults’ for Homer, and carried out ritual sacrifices in his name.
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