Homer Will the Real Greek Homer Please

Homer

Will the Real Greek Homer Please Stand Up?

Homer is the name by which the legendary Greek poet of great fame is known. He is credited with the Greek epics The Iliad and They Odyssey, as well as with the authorship of the mini-epic Batrachomyomachia, the corpus of the Homeric Hymns, and also the Margites. (Docu) Nothing about Homer's actual biographical information is known, (though he is commonly assumed to have been blind) and there are many theories that speculate Homer himself may have been completely mythological, or that he may have been more than one person. It is assumed, however, that Homer's works originated from the Greek settlements on the west coast of Asia Minor in the 9th century BC (Helenism), and several Ionian cities claim to be the birthplace of Homer. (Docu) Although Homer's works great works The Iliad and The Odyssey have shaped a great deal of our understanding of Greek mythology, and in fact these epics were very influential on the literature, drama, and philosophy that would follow, Homer's true identity is unknown still today.

The two epics for which Homer is best known, The Iliad and The Odyssey, were first written down under the orders of Pisistratus, the ruler of Athens, who feared that the oral legends would be forgotten. He made it law that any bards who came to Athens would have to recite all of Homer's work that they knew for the scribes.

Each version was collected and combined into the versions we know today. (Docu) Both of these epics deal with the legendary Trojan War, which occurred centuries before Homer is said to have existed.

In The Iliad, the Trojan war is being fought over the ownership of the most beautiful Helen, who has run off with an adulterous lover to the city of Troy. The Greeks want her back. In the final year of the Trojan war, Achilles (the Greek hero) is insulted by his commander Agamemnon, and he abandons his troops to fight without him. Patroclus, his lover and friend, is slain when he leads the battle in Achilles' place. Achilles is enraged and returns to battle to avenge his death. He kills Hector, the bravest hero of the city of Troy, and defiles his body by dragging it around the city for all to see. As the poem closes, a parallel is drawn between the King of Troy who has lost his son Hector and Achilles, who has lost his lover, Patroclus. (Homer, The Iliad)