Homer

Iliad and Odyssey

Composed probably in the 8th century BC: at the very beginning of Western literature.

💡 Did you know? The Iliad and Odyssey stand at the start of Western literature: some 28,000 lines, originally recited aloud.

Achilles

'Sing, goddess, the wrath…': the epic's first word in Greek is 'wrath' (mēnis).

💡 Did you know? The Iliad covers only a few weeks in the tenth year of the war: not the whole Trojan War.

Troy

'Iliad' comes from Ilios, Troy's other name: the epic covers only 51 days of the war's tenth year.

💡 Did you know? Whether Troy was historical was long disputed until Heinrich Schliemann excavated the mound of Hisarlik from 1870.

ten years

After ten years of war: twenty years away in all, while Penelope holds off the suitors.

💡 Did you know? Ten years of war and ten years of wandering: Odysseus needs twenty years in all to get home.

Polyphemus

Odysseus calls himself 'Nobody': when the blinded giant cries that 'Nobody' has hurt him, his fellows laugh him off.

💡 Did you know? Odysseus calls himself “Nobody,” so Polyphemus tells his brothers that “Nobody” has blinded him: a famous ruse.

Penelope

Her ruse: she weaves a shroud by day and unravels it by night: only then, she says, will she choose.

💡 Did you know? Penelope outwits her suitors by weaving a shroud and unravelling it each night: hence a “Penelope's task.”

hexameter

The six-beat verse became the standard measure of the ancient epic: down to Virgil and Ovid.

💡 Did you know? The hexameter, with its six metrical feet, became the classic verse form of ancient epic.

as a blind bard

Historically unverifiable: like almost everything about his person.

💡 Did you know? Some suspect “Homer” was not a single person at all but the name of a whole tradition of bards.

Homeric question

Do both epics come from one person or did they grow out of an oral tradition of singers?

💡 Did you know? The “Homeric Question” still occupies scholars: one poet, several, or a collective oral achievement?

seven

Among them Smyrna and Chios: an ancient epigram lists them.

💡 Did you know? Alexander the Great reportedly kept the Iliad in a casket under his pillow.

Ulysses

'Odyssey' remains the word for a long wandering in dozens of languages.

💡 Did you know? James Joyce structured “Ulysses” around the episodes of the Odyssey: Leopold Bloom corresponds to Odysseus.

Homer

Homer is regarded as the author of the “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” the two oldest epics of European literature (around the 8th century BC). Almost nothing certain is known of his life.

💡 Did you know? According to tradition, seven Greek cities competed for the honour of being Homer's birthplace.