Homer – 8th-century BC Greek poet; Iliad, Odyssey; his epics form the foundation of European literature. His identity is legendary: blind bard or composite of oral tradition. He shaped ancient philosophy, theatre, and art. The “Homeric Question” of authorship remains debated to this day.
📜 His works circulated orally for centuries before being written down. 👁️ Ancient tradition portrayed him as blind, though no evidence confirms it. ⚔️ The Iliad reflects warrior culture and rituals of its age. 🌊 The Odyssey laid the groundwork for the adventure genre. 🏛️ By the 5th c. BC, Athens held official recitations of Homer at festivals. 📖 His epics became standard school texts in antiquity. 🗺️ Geographers tried to map Odysseus’s journey to real places. 🎭 Greek tragedians like Aeschylus and Sophocles drew heavily on Homer. 🎶 Rhapsodes performed his verses with lyre accompaniment. 🧐 Ancient writers argued whether he was Ionian or from Smyrna. 📜 The “Homeric Question” of single vs. multiple authors preoccupied 19th–20th c. scholars. 🌍 His influence stretches from Dante to Milton to Joyce. 🧐 Curious: several ancient cities claimed to be his birthplace. 😄 Funny: medieval writers sometimes reimagined him as a Christian knight, “a prophet of the Bible.”