Homer (Homeros) is the traditional author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Although linked with the creation of the epics for centuries, some have disputed whether he even existed.
Homer may have lived in the 9th or 8th centuries B.C. By that time the script of the Mycenaean world ("Linear B") had been forgotten but a new script from Phoenicia was now being used and the Greeks were rediscovering literacy. The society was still largely an oral society and Homer composed his epics for oral audiences. The Iliad and Odyssey were written down after generations of bardic retellings, perhaps in Athens in the 6th century B.C.
Homer may have combined various oral traditions, some predating the Trojan War, into the Iliad. Some date the composition of the Iliad to 750 B.C. and the Odyssey to 725 B.C. The Trojan War has been dated to approximately 1220 B.C., about 500 years before the time of Homer. By this time, many of the details of Mycenaean times had been forgotten. The Troy of Homer's day was perhaps a different size than the Troy that existed during the Trojan War. Who really defeated the Trojans? Some have suggested the leaders came from Boeotia or Thessaly instead of Mycenae. Boeotia, Thessaly, and Mycenae had large settlements during the Mycenaean Age. What was the Trojan War fought over? Some have suggested the war was between two factions of early Greeks (Mycenaeans) who wished to control the Hellespont leading to the Black Sea (Euxine). Others have suggested the Trojan War is alluded to in Hittite records.
Some memories from Mycenaean times survive in the epics. A boar's-tusk helmet is mentioned in the Iliad even though such helmets had disappeared by the 12th century B.C. The catalog of ships seems to record many towns that existed in Mycenaean times but which did not survive into Homer's day.
So who was Homer? In the 5th century B.C., Herodotus wrote that Homer lived 400 years before his time. The Homeric epics are written in an archaic Ionic dialect from western Turkey (Asia Minor). Traces of Arcadian and Aeolic dialects can also be found in the epics. This suggests that Homer composed his oral epics in Asia Minor. Seven cities in mainland Greece and the Greek islands claim to have been Homer's birthplace. Chios is a popular contender. The belief that Homer is blind comes from a passage in the Homeric Hymns. Others cite the description of the blind bard Demodocus in the Odyssey as the source of the tradition.
Some have suggested the Odyssey was compiled far later than the Iliad, since the Odyssey reflects a greater knowledge of the Mediterranean world. Homer wrote during a time of Greek colonization, when Greeks were looking east to the Black Sea (Euxine) and west (as in the Odyssey).
Other works have been attributed to Homer or to the Homeridae ("the sons of Homer"). The Homeric Hymns were hymns addressed to the various gods and goddesses. Three burlesques or parodies, the Margites ( a comic romance), the Cercopes ("Monkey-Men"), and Batrachomyomachia ("Battle of the Frogs and Mice") have also been attributed to him. These may have been written between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.
The Trojan Cycle was continued after the time of Homer and included six poems: Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Sack of Troy, Returns, and Telegony (Telegonia). Cypria covered the events that lead up to the Trojan War. Later scholars divided it into eleven books. The Aethiopis (five books) took the story from the end of the Iliad to the death of Achilles and the quarrel of Ajax and Odysseus over Achilles' armor. The Little Iliad (four books) ended with the Trojans taking the Trojan Horse into the city. The Sack of Troy followed in two books. The Returns dealt with the return of the Achaean chieftains to their homes and their various receptions they received.
Sources:
Cliffs Notes on Greek Classics, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, New York: Wiley Publishing Inc., 1998.
Homer's Iliad (Bloom's Notes), Harold Bloom (ed.), Broomall, Pennsylvania: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996.
In Search of the Trojan War, Michael Wood, New York: Facts on File, 1985.
Norton Book of Classical Literature, Bernard Knox (ed.), New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1993.
Whos's Who in the Classical World, ed. Simon Hornblower and Tony Spawforth, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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