Homer - Wikipedia





	
	

	
	

	

	Homer

	
		From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

		

This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 27 December 2020.







		

		
		

		Jump to navigation
		Jump to search
		


name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation).

"Homeric" and "Homerus" redirect here. For other uses, see Homeric (disambiguation) and Homerus (disambiguation).

"Homeric" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Homerian.

  
Roman bust of Homer from the second century AD, portrayed with traditional iconography, based on a Greek original dating to the Hellenistic period[1]



Homer (/ˈhoʊmər/; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος Greek pronunciation: [hómɛːros], Hómēros) is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the foundational works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.[2][3][4]

The Homeric Question – concerning by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed – continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion falls into two groups. One holds that most of the Iliad and (according to some) the Odyssey are the works of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the result of a process of working and reworking by many contributors, and that "Homer" is best seen as a label for an entire tradition.[4] It is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC.[5]

The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic.[6][7] Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally.[8] From antiquity until the present day, the influence of Homeric epic on Western civilization has been great, inspiring many of its most famous works of literature, music, art and film.[9] The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education; to Plato, Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece"  – ten Hellada pepaideuken.[10][11]


Contents


	1 Works attributed to Homer
	2 Ancient biographical traditions
	3 History of Homeric scholarship
	3.1 Ancient
	3.2 Modern
	3.3 Contemporary



	4 Historicity of the Homeric epics and Homeric society
	5 Homeric language
	6 Homeric style
	7 Textual transmission
	8 See also
	9 Notes
	10 Selected bibliography
	10.1 Editions
	10.2 Interlinear translations
	10.3 English translations
	10.4 General works on Homer
	10.5 Influential readings and interpretations
	10.6 Commentaries
	10.7 Dating the Homeric poems



	11 Further reading
	12 External links





Works attributed to Homer[edit]

  
Homer and His Guide (1874) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau



Today only the Iliad and Odyssey are associated with the name 'Homer'. In antiquity, a very large number of other works were sometimes attributed to him, including the Homeric Hymns, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, the Little Iliad, the Nostoi, the Thebaid, the Cypria, the Epigoni, the comic mini-epic Batrachomyomachia ("The Frog-Mouse War"), the Margites, the Capture of Oechalia, and the Phocais. These claims are not considered authentic today and were by no means universally accepted in the ancient world. As with the multitude of legends surrounding Homer's life, they indicate little more than the centrality of Homer to ancient Greek culture.[12][13][14]


Ancient biographical traditions[edit]

Further information: Ancient accounts of Homer

Many traditions circulated in the ancient world concerning Homer, most of which are lost. Modern scholarly consensus is that they have no value as history.[citation needed] Some claims were established early and repeated often. They include that Homer was blind (taking as self-referential a passage describing the blind bard Demodocus[15][16]), that he was born in Chios, that he was the son of the river Meles and the nymph Critheïs, that he was a wandering bard, that he composed a varying list of other works (the "Homerica"), that he died either in Ios or after failing to solve a riddle set by fishermen, and various explanations for the name "Homer". The two best known ancient biographies of Homer are the Life of Homer by the Pseudo-Herodotus and the Contest of Homer and Hesiod.[17][18]

In the early 4th century BC Alcidamas composed a fictional account of a poetry contest at Chalcis with both Homer and Hesiod. Homer was expected to win, and answered all of Hesiod's questions and puzzles with ease. Then, each of the poets was invited to recite the best passage from their work. Hesiod selected the beginning of Works and Days: "When the Pleiades born of Atlas ... all in due season". Homer chose a description of Greek warriors in formation, facing the foe, taken from the Iliad. Though the crowd acclaimed Homer victor, the judge awarded Hesiod the prize; the poet who praised husbandry, he said, was greater than the one who told tales of battles and slaughter.[19]


History of Homeric scholarship[edit]

Further information: Homeric scholarship and Homeric Question

Ancient[edit]

  
Part of an eleventh-century manuscript, "the Townley Homer". The writings on the top and right side are scholia.


 The study of Homer is one of the oldest topics in scholarship, dating back to antiquity.[20][21][22] Nonetheless, the aims of Homeric studies have changed over the course of the millennia.[20] The earliest preserved comments on Homer concern his treatment of the gods, which hostile critics such as the poet Xenophanes of Colophon denounced as immoral.[22] The allegorist Theagenes of Rhegium is said to have defended Homer by arguing that the Homeric poems are allegories.[22] The Iliad and the Odyssey were widely used as school texts in ancient Greek and Hellenistic cultures.[20][22][23] They were the first literary works taught to all students.[23] The Iliad, particularly its first few books, was far more intently studied than the Odyssey during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.[23]

As a result of the poems' prominence in classical Greek education, extensive commentaries on them developed to explain parts of the poems that were culturally or linguistically difficult.[20][22] During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many interpreters, especially the Stoics, who believed that Homeric poems conveyed Stoic doctrines, regarded them as allegories, containing hidden wisdom.[22] Perhaps partially because of the Homeric poems' extensive use in education, many authors believed that Homer's original purpose had been to educate.[22] Homer's wisdom became so widely praised that he began to acquire the image of almost a prototypical philosopher.[22] Byzantine scholars such as Eustathius of Thessalonica and John Tzetzes produced commentaries, extensions and scholia to Homer, especially in the twelfth century.[24][22] Eustathius's commentary on the Iliad alone is massive, sprawling over nearly 4,000 oversized pages in a twenty-first century printed version and his commentary on the Odyssey an additional nearly 2,000.[22]


Modern[edit]

  
Homer as depicted in the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle



In 1488, the Greek scholar Demetrios Chalkokondyles published the editio princeps of the Homeric poems.[22] The earliest modern Homeric scholars started with the same basic approaches towards the Homeric poems as scholars in antiquity.[22][21][20] The allegorical interpretation of the Homeric poems that had been so prevalent in antiquity returned to become the prevailing view of the Renaissance.[22] Renaissance humanists praised Homer as the archetypically wise poet, whose writings contain hidden wisdom, disguised through allegory.[22] In western Europe during the Renaissance, Virgil was more widely read than Homer and Homer was often seen through a Virgilian lens.[25]

In 1664, contradicting the widespread praise of Homer as the epitome of wisdom, François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac wrote a scathing attack on the Homeric poems, declaring that they were incoherent, immoral, tasteless, and without style, that Homer never existed, and that the poems were hastily cobbled together by incompetent editors from unrelated oral songs.[21] Fifty years later, the English scholar Richard Bentley concluded that Homer did exist, but that he was an obscure, prehistoric oral poet whose compositions bear little relation to the Iliad and the Odyssey as they have been passed down.[21] According to Bentley, Homer "wrote a Sequel of Songs and Rhapsodies, to be sung by himself for small Earnings and good Cheer at Festivals and other Days of Merriment; the Ilias he wrote for men, and the Odysseis for the other Sex. These loose songs were not collected together in the Form of an epic Poem till Pisistratus' time, about 500 Years after."[21]

Friedrich August Wolf's Prolegomena ad Homerum, published in 1795, argued that much of the material later incorporated into the Iliad and the Odyssey was originally composed in the tenth century BC in the form of short, separate oral songs,[26][27][21] which passed through oral tradition for roughly four hundred years before being assembled into prototypical versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey in the sixth century BC by literate authors.[26][27][21] After being written down, Wolf maintained that the two poems were extensively edited, modernized, and eventually shaped into their present state as artistic unities.[26][27][21] Wolf and the "Analyst" school, which led the field in the nineteenth century, sought to recover the original, authentic poems which were thought to be concealed by later excrescences.[26][27][21][28]

Within the Analyst school were two camps: proponents of the "lay theory", which held that the Iliad and the Odyssey were put together from a large number of short, independent songs,[21] and proponents of the "nucleus theory", which held that Homer had originally composed shorter versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey, which later poets expanded and revised.[21] A small group of scholars opposed to the Analysts, dubbed "Unitarians", saw the later additions as superior, the work of a single inspired poet.[26][27][21] By around 1830, the central preoccupations of Homeric scholars, dealing with whether or not "Homer" actually existed, when and how the Homeric poems originated, how they were transmitted, when and how they were finally written down, and their overall unity, had been dubbed "the Homeric Question".[21]

Following World War I, the Analyst school began to fall out of favor among Homeric scholars.[21] It did not die out entirely, but it came to be increasingly seen as a discredited dead end.[21] Starting in around 1928, Milman Parry and Albert Lord, after their studies of folk bards in the Balkans, developed the "Oral-Formulaic Theory" that the Homeric poems were originally composed through improvised oral performances, which relied on traditional epithets and poetic formulas.[29][28][21] This theory found very wide scholarly acceptance[29][28][21] and explained many previously puzzling features of the Homeric poems, including their unusually archaic language, their extensive use of stock epithets, and their other "repetitive" features.[28] Many scholars concluded that the "Homeric question" had finally been answered.[21]

Meanwhile, the 'Neoanalysts' sought to bridge the gap between the 'Analysts' and 'Unitarians'.[30][31] The Neoanalysts sought to trace the relationships between the Homeric poems and other epic poems, which have now been lost, but of which modern scholars do possess some patchy knowledge.[21] Neoanalysts hold that knowledge of earlier versions of the epics can be derived from anomalies of structure and detail in the surviving versions of the Iliad and Odyssey. These anomalies point to earlier versions of the Iliad in which Ajax played a more prominent role, in which the Achaean embassy to Achilles comprised different characters, and in which Patroclus was actually mistaken for Achilles by the Trojans. They point to earlier versions of the Odyssey in which Telemachus went in search of news of his father not to Menelaus in Sparta but to Idomeneus in Crete, in which Telemachus met up with his father in Crete and conspired with him to return to Ithaca disguised as the soothsayer Theoclymenus, and in which Penelope recognized Odysseus much earlier in the narrative and conspired with him in the destruction of the suitors.[32]


Contemporary[edit]

Most contemporary scholars, although they disagree on other questions about the genesis of the poems, agree that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not produced by the same author, based on "the many differences of narrative manner, theology, ethics, vocabulary, and geographical perspective, and by the apparently imitative character of certain passages of the Odyssey in relation to the Iliad."[33][34][35][21] Nearly all scholars agree that the Iliad and the Odyssey are unified poems, in that each poem shows a clear overall design, and that they are not merely strung together from unrelated songs.[21] It is also generally agreed that each poem was composed mostly by a single author, who probably relied heavily on older oral traditions.[21] Nearly all scholars agree that the Doloneia in Book X of the Iliad is not part of the original poem, but rather a later insertion by a different poet.[21]

Some ancient scholars believed Homer to have been an eyewitness to the Trojan War; others thought he had lived up to 500 years afterwards.[36] Contemporary scholars continue to debate the date of the poems.[37][38][21] A long history of oral transmission lies behind the composition of the poems, complicating the search for a precise date.[39] At one extreme, Richard Janko has proposed a date for both poems to the eighth century BC based on linguistic analysis and statistics.[37][38] Barry B. Powell dates the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey to sometime between 800 and 750 BC, based on the statement from Herodotus, who lived in the late fifth century BC, that Homer lived four hundred years before his own time "and not more" (καὶ οὐ πλέοσι), and on the fact that the poems do not mention hoplite battle tactics, inhumation, or literacy.[40]

Martin Litchfield West has argued that the Iliad echoes the poetry of Hesiod, and that it must have been composed around 660–650 BC at the earliest, with the Odyssey up to a generation later.[41][42][21] He also interprets passages in the Iliad as showing knowledge of historical events that occurred in the ancient Near East during the middle of the seventh century BC, including the destruction of Babylon by Sennacherib in 689 BC and the Sack of Thebes by Ashurbanipal in 663/4 BC.[21] At the other extreme, a few American scholars such as Gregory Nagy see "Homer" as a continually evolving tradition, which grew much more stable as the tradition progressed, but which did not fully cease to continue changing and evolving until as late as the middle of the second century BC.[37][38][21] 

"'Homer" is a name of unknown etymological origin, around which many theories were erected in antiquity. One such linkage was to the Greek ὅμηρος (hómēros), "hostage" (or "surety"). The explanations suggested by modern scholars tend to mirror their position on the overall Homeric question. Nagy interprets it as "he who fits (the song) together". West has advanced both possible Greek and Phoenician etymologies.[43][44]


Historicity of the Homeric epics and Homeric society[edit]

Main article: Historicity of the Homeric epics

  
Greece according to the Iliad



Scholars continue to debate questions such as whether the Trojan War actually took place – and if so when and where – and to what extent the society depicted by Homer is based on his own or one which was, even at the time of the poems' composition, known only as legends. The Homeric epics are largely set in the east and center of the Mediterranean, with some scattered references to Egypt, Ethiopia and other distant lands, in a warlike society that resembles that of the Greek world slightly before the hypothesized date of the poems' composition.[45][46][47][48]

In ancient Greek chronology, the sack of Troy was dated to 1184 BC. By the nineteenth century, there was widespread scholarly skepticism that the Trojan War had ever happened and that Troy had even existed, but in 1873 Heinrich Schliemann announced to the world that he had discovered the ruins of Homer's Troy at Hissarlik in modern Turkey. Some contemporary scholars think the destruction of Troy VIIa circa 1220 BC was the origin of the myth of the Trojan War, others that the poem was inspired by multiple similar sieges that took place over the centuries.[49]

Most scholars now agree that the Homeric poems depict customs and elements of the material world that are derived from different periods of Greek history.[28][50][51] For instance, the heroes in the poems use bronze weapons, characteristic of the Bronze Age in which the poems are set, rather than the later Iron Age during which they were composed;[28][50][51] yet the same heroes are cremated (an Iron Age practice) rather than buried (as they were in the Bronze Age).[28][50][51] In some parts of the Homeric poems, heroes are accurately described as carrying large shields like those used by warriors during the Mycenaean period,[28] but, in other places, they are instead described carrying the smaller shields that were commonly used during the time when the poems were written in the early Iron Age.[28]

In the Iliad 10.260–265, Odysseus is described as wearing a helmet made of boar's tusks. Such helmets were not worn in Homer's time, but were commonly worn by aristocratic warriors between 1600 and 1150 BC.[52][53][54] The decipherment of Linear B in the 1950s by Michael Ventris and continued archaeological investigation has increased modern scholars' understanding of Aegean civilisation, which in many ways resembles the ancient Near East more than the society described by Homer.[55] Some aspects of the Homeric world are simply made up;[28] for instance, the Iliad 22.145–56 describes there being two springs that run near the city of Troy, one that runs steaming hot and the other that runs icy cold.[28] It is here that Hector takes his final stand against Achilles.[28] Archaeologists, however, have uncovered no evidence that springs of this description ever actually existed.[28]


Homeric language[edit]

Main article: Homeric Greek

  
Detail of The Parnassus (painted 1509–1510) by Raphael, depicting Homer wearing a crown of laurels atop Mount Parnassus, with Dante Alighieri on his right and Virgil on his left



The Homeric epics are written in an artificial literary language or 'Kunstsprache' only used in epic hexameter poetry. Homeric Greek shows features of multiple regional Greek dialects and periods, but is fundamentally based on Ionic Greek, in keeping with the tradition that Homer was from Ionia. Linguistic analysis suggests that the Iliad was composed slightly before the Odyssey, and that Homeric formulae preserve older features than other parts of the poems.[56][57]


Homeric style[edit]

The Homeric poems were composed in unrhymed dactylic hexameter; ancient Greek metre was quantity-based rather than stress-based.[58][59] Homer frequently uses set phrases such as epithets ('crafty Odysseus', 'rosy-fingered Dawn', 'owl-eyed Athena', etc.), Homeric formulae ('and then answered [him/her], Agamemnon, king of men', 'when the early-born rose-fingered Dawn came to light', 'thus he/she spoke'), simile, type scenes, ring composition and repetition. These habits aid the extemporizing bard, and are characteristic of oral poetry. For instance, the main words of a Homeric sentence are generally placed towards the beginning, whereas literate poets like Virgil or Milton use longer and more complicated syntactical structures. Homer then expands on these ideas in subsequent clauses; this technique is called parataxis.[60]

The so-called 'type scenes' (typische Scenen), were named by Walter Arend in 1933. He noted that Homer often, when describing frequently recurring activities such as eating, praying, fighting and dressing, used blocks of set phrases in sequence that were then elaborated by the poet. The 'Analyst' school had considered these repetitions as un-Homeric, whereas Arend interpreted them philosophically. Parry and Lord noted that these conventions are found in many other cultures.[61][62]

'Ring composition' or chiastic structure (when a phrase or idea is repeated at both the beginning and end of a story, or a series of such ideas first appears in the order A, B, C ... before being reversed as ... C, B, A) has been observed in the Homeric epics. Opinion differs as to whether these occurrences are a conscious artistic device, a mnemonic aid or a spontaneous feature of human storytelling.[63][64]

Both of the Homeric poems begin with an invocation to the Muse.[65] In the Iliad, the poet invokes her to sing of "the anger of Achilles",[65] and, in the Odyssey, he asks her to sing of "the man of many ways".[65] A similar opening was later employed by Virgil in his Aeneid.[65]


Textual transmission[edit]

  
A Reading from Homer (1885) by Lawrence Alma-Tadema



The orally transmitted Homeric poems were put into written form at some point between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Some scholars believe that they were dictated to a scribe by the poet and that our inherited versions of the Iliad and Odyssey were in origin orally-dictated texts.[66]  Albert Lord noted that the Balkan bards that he was studying revised and expanded their songs in their process of dictating.[67] Some scholars hypothesize that a similar process of revision and expansion occurred when the Homeric poems were first written down.[68][69]

Other scholars hold that, after the poems were created in the eighth century, they continued to be orally transmitted with considerable revision until they were written down in the sixth century.[70] After textualisation, the poems were each divided into 24 rhapsodes, today referred to as books, and labelled by the letters of the Greek alphabet. Most scholars attribute the book divisions to the Hellenistic scholars of Alexandria, in Egypt.[71]  Some trace the divisions back further to the Classical period.[72]  Very few credit Homer himself with the divisions.[73]

In antiquity, it was widely held that the Homeric poems were collected and organised in Athens in the late sixth century BC by the tyrant Peisistratos (died 528/7 BC), in what subsequent scholars have dubbed the "Peisistratean recension".[74][22] The idea that the Homeric poems were originally transmitted orally and first written down during the reign of Peisistratos is referenced by the first-century BC Roman orator Cicero and is also referenced in a number of other surviving sources, including two ancient Lives of Homer.[22] From around 150 BC, the texts of the Homeric poems seem to have become relatively established. After the establishment of the Library of Alexandria, Homeric scholars such as Zenodotus of Ephesus, Aristophanes of Byzantium and in particular Aristarchus of Samothrace helped establish a canonical text.[75]

The first printed edition of Homer was produced in 1488 in Milan, Italy. Today scholars use medieval manuscripts, papyri and other sources; some argue for a "multi-text" view, rather than seeking a single definitive text. The nineteenth-century edition of Arthur Ludwich mainly follows Aristarchus's work, whereas van Thiel's (1991, 1996) follows the medieval vulgate. Others, such as Martin West (1998–2000) or T.W. Allen, fall somewhere between these two extremes.[75]


See also[edit]


	Ancient Greece portal
	Poetry portal
	Literature portal




	Achaeans (Homer)
	Aeneid
	Bibliomancy
	Catalogue of Ships
	Creophylus of Samos
	Cyclic Poets
	Deception of Zeus
	Epithets in Homer
	Geography of the Odyssey
	Greek mythology
	Hector
	Historicity of Homer
	Homeric scholarship
	Ithaca
	List of Homeric characters
	Peisistratos
	Sortes Homericae
	Tabula iliaca
	Telemachy
	The Golden Bough
	Trojan Battle Order
	Trojan War in popular culture
	Troy VII
	Venetus A Manuscript




Notes[edit]


	^ "Portrait Bust". The British Museum.

	^ Wilson, Nigel (2013). Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. Routledge. p. 366. ISBN 978-1136788000. Retrieved 22 November 2016.


	^ Romilly, Jacqueline de (1985). A Short History of Greek Literature. University of Chicago Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0226143125. Retrieved 22 November 2016.


	^ a b Graziosi, Barbara (2002). Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic. Cambridge University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0521809665. Retrieved 22 November 2016.


	^ Croally, Neil; Hyde, Roy (2011). Classical Literature: An Introduction. Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 978-1136736629. Retrieved 23 November 2016.


	^ Hose, Martin; Schenker, David (2015). A Companion to Greek Literature. John Wiley & Sons. p. 445. ISBN 978-1118885956.


	^ Miller, D. Gary (2013). Ancient Greek Dialects and Early Authors: Introduction to the Dialect Mixture in Homer, with Notes on Lyric and Herodotus. Walter de Gruyter. p. 351. ISBN 978-1614512950. Retrieved 23 November 2016.


	^ Ahl, Frederick; Roisman, Hanna (1996). The Odyssey Re-formed. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801483356. Retrieved 23 November 2016.


	^ Latacz, Joachim (1996). Homer, His Art and His World. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472083534. Retrieved 22 November 2016.


	^ Too, Yun Lee (2010). The Idea of the Library in the Ancient World. OUP Oxford. p. 86. ISBN 978-0199577804. Retrieved 22 November 2016.


	^ MacDonald, Dennis R. (1994). Christianizing Homer: The Odyssey, Plato, and the Acts of Andrew. Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0195358629. Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2016.


	^ Kelly, Adrian D. (2012). "Homerica". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0606. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Graziosi, Barbara; Haubold, Johannes (2005). Homer: The Resonance of Epic. A&C Black. pp. 24–26. ISBN 978-0715632826.


	^ Graziosi, Barbara (2002). Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic. Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–168. ISBN 978-0521809665.


	^ Graziosi, Barbara (2002). Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic. Cambridge University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0521809665.


	^ Odyssey, 8:64ff.

	^ Lefkowitz, Mary R. (2013). The Lives of the Greek Poets. A&C Black. pp. 14–30. ISBN 978-1472503077.


	^ Kelly, Adrian D. (2012). "Biographies of Homer". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0243. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ West, M. L. Theogony & Works and Days. Oxford University Press. p. xx.


	^ a b c d e Dickey, Eleanor (2012). "Scholarship, Ancient". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1307. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa West, M. L. (December 2011). "The Homeric Question Today". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 155 (4): 383–393. JSTOR 23208780.


	^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Lamberton, Robert (2010). "Homer".  In Grafton, Anthony; Most, Glenn W.; Settis, Salvatore (eds.). The Classical Tradition. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 449–452. ISBN 978-0-674-03572-0.


	^ a b c Hunter, Richard L. (2018). The Measure of Homer: The Ancient Reception of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 4–7. ISBN 978-1-108-42831-6.


	^ Kaldellis, Anthony (2012). "Scholarship, Byzantine". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1308. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Heiden, Bruce (2012). "Scholarship, Renaissance through 17th Century". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1310. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ a b c d e Heiden, Bruce (2012). "Scholarship, 18th Century". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1311. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ a b c d e Heiden, Bruce (2012). "Scholarship, 19th Century". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1312. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Taplin, Oliver (1986). "2: Homer".  In Boardman, John; Griffin, Jasper; Murray, Oswyn (eds.). The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 50–77. ISBN 978-0198721123.


	^ a b Foley, John Miles (1988). The Theory of Oral Composition: History and Methodology. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253342607.


	^ Heiden, Bruce (2012). "Scholarship, 20th Century". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1313. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Edwards, Mark W. (2012). "Neoanalysis". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0968. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Reece, Steve. "The Cretan Odyssey: A Lie Truer than Truth". American Journal of Philology 115 (1994) 157-173. The_Cretan_Odyssey

	^ West, M. L. (1999). "The Invention of Homer". Classical Quarterly. 49 (2): 364–382. doi:10.1093/cq/49.2.364. JSTOR 639863.


	^ West, Martin L. (2012). "Homeric Question". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0605. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Latacz, Joachim; Bierl, Anton; Olson, S. Douglas (2015). "New Trends in Homeric Scholarship" in Homer's Iliad: The Basel Commentary. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-1614517375.


	^ Saïd, Suzanne (2011). Homer and the Odyssey. OUP Oxford. pp. 14–17. ISBN 978-0199542840.


	^ a b c Graziosi, Barbara (2002). Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic. Cambridge University Press. pp. 90–92. ISBN 978-0521809665.


	^ a b c Fowler, Robert; Fowler, Robert Louis (2004). The Cambridge Companion to Homer. Cambridge University Press. pp. 220–232. ISBN 978-0521012461.


	^ Burgess, Jonathan S. (2003). The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle. JHU Press. pp. 49–53. ISBN 978-0801874819.


	^ Barry, Barry B. (1996). Homer and the Origins of the Greek Alphabet. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 217–222. ISBN 978-0-521-58907-9.


	^ Hall, Jonathan M. (2002). Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture. University of Chicago Press. pp. 235–236. ISBN 978-0226313290.


	^ West, Martin L. (2012). "Date of Homer". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0330. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Graziosi, Barbara (2002). Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic. Cambridge University Press. pp. 51–89. ISBN 978-0521809665.


	^ West, M. L. (1997). The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 622.


	^ Raaflaub, Kurt A. (2012). "Historicity of Homer". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0601. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Finley, Moses I. (1991). The World of Odysseus. Penguin. ISBN 978-0140136869.


	^ Wees, Hans van (2009). War and Violence in Ancient Greece. ISD LLC. ISBN 978-1910589298.


	^ Morris, Ian (1986). "The Use and Abuse of Homer". Classical Antiquity. 5 (1): 81–138. doi:10.2307/25010840. JSTOR 25010840.


	^ Dowden, Ken; Livingstone, Niall (2011). A Companion to Greek Mythology. John Wiley & Sons. p. 440. ISBN 978-1444396935.


	^ a b c Sacks, David; Murray, Oswyn; Brody, Lisa R. (2014). Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World. Infobase Publishing. p. 356. ISBN 978-1438110202.


	^ a b c Morris, Ian; Powell, Barry B. (1997). A New Companion to Homer. BRILL. pp. 434–435. ISBN 978-9004217607.


	^ Wood, Michael (1996). In Search of the Trojan War. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-520-21599-3. Retrieved 1 September 2017.


	^ Schofield, Louise (2007). The Mycenaeans. Los Angeles, California: The J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-89236-867-9. Retrieved 1 September 2017.


	^ Everson, Tim (2004). Warfare in Ancient Greece: Arms and Armour from the Heroes of Homer to Alexander the Great. Brimscombe Port: The History Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-0-7524-9506-4. Retrieved 1 September 2017.


	^ Morris, Ian; Powell, Barry B. (1997). A New Companion to Homer. BRILL. p. 625. ISBN 978-9004217607.


	^ Willi, Andreas (2012). "Language, Homeric". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0792. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Bakker, Egbert J. (2010). A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language. John Wiley & Sons. p. 401. ISBN 978-1444317404.


	^ W. Edwards, Mark (2012). "Meter". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0913. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Nussbaum, G.B. (1986). Homer's Metre: A Practical Guide for Reading Greek Hexameter Poetry. Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 978-0862921729.


	^ Edwards, Mark W. (2012). "Style". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1377. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Reece, Steve T. (2012). "Type-Scenes". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1488. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Edwards, MW (1992). "Homer and Oral Tradition: The Type-Scene". Oral Tradition. 7: 284–330.


	^ Stanley, Keith (2014). The Shield of Homer: Narrative Structure in the Illiad. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400863372.


	^ Minchin, Elizabeth (2012). "Ring Composition". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1287. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ a b c d Adler, Eve (2003). Vergil's Empire: Political Thought in the Aeneid. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-7425-2167-4.


	^ Steve Reece, "Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: From Oral Performance to Written Text", in Mark Amodio (ed.), New Directions in Oral Theory (Tempe: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005) 43-89.

	^ Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960).

	^ Kirk, G.S. (1976). Homer and the Oral Tradition. Cambridge University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0521213097.


	^ Foley, John Miles (2012). "Oral Dictated Texts". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1029. ISBN 978-1405177689.


	^ Nagy, Gregory (1996). Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521558488.


	^ U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Homerische Untersuchungen (Berlin, 1884) 369; R. Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship (Oxford, 1968) 116-117.

	^ West, Martin L. (2012). "Book Division". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe0253. ISBN 978-1405177689.
; S. West, The Ptolemaic Papyri of Homer (Cologne, 1967) 18-25.

	^ P. Mazon, Introduction à l'Iliade (Paris, 1912) 137-40; C.H. Whitman, Homer and the Heroic Tradition (Cambridge [Mass.], 1958) 282-83; G.P. Goold, "Homer and the Alphabet", TAPA 96 (1960) 272-91; K. Stanley, The Shield of Homer (Princeton, 1993) 37, 249ff.

	^ Jensen, Minna Skafte (1980). The Homeric Question and the Oral-formulaic Theory. Museum Tusculanum Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-8772890968.


	^ a b Haslam, Michael (2012). "Text and Transmission". The Homer Encyclopedia. doi:10.1002/9781444350302.wbhe1413. ISBN 978-1405177689.






Selected bibliography[edit]


Editions[edit]

	Texts in Homeric Greek


	Demetrius Chalcondyles editio princeps, Florence, 1488
	the Aldine editions (1504 and 1517)
	1st ed. with comments, Micyllus and Camerarius, Basel, 1535, 1541 (improved text), 1551 (incl. the Batrachomyomachia)
	Th. Ridel, Strasbourg, c. 1572, 1588 and 1592.
	Wolf (Halle, 1794–1795; Leipzig, 1804 1807)
	Spitzner (Gotha, 1832–1836)
	Bekker (Berlin, 1843; Bonn, 1858)
	La Roche (Odyssey, 1867–1868; Iliad, 1873–1876, both at Leipzig)
	Ludwich (Odyssey, Leipzig, 1889–1891; Iliad, 2 vols., 1901 and 1907)
	W. Leaf (Iliad, London, 1886–1888; 2nd ed. 1900–1902)
	William Walter Merry and James Riddell (Odyssey i–xii., 2nd ed., Oxford, 1886)
	Monro (Odyssey xiii–xxiv. with appendices, Oxford, 1901)
	Monro and Allen (Iliad), and Allen (Odyssey, 1908, Oxford).
	D.B. Monro and T.W. Allen 1917–1920, Homeri Opera (5 volumes: Iliad=3rd edition, Odyssey=2nd edition), Oxford. 
ISBN 0-19-814528-4, 
ISBN 0-19-814529-2, 
ISBN 0-19-814531-4, 
ISBN 0-19-814532-2, 
ISBN 0-19-814534-9
	H. van Thiel 1991, Homeri Odyssea, Hildesheim. 
ISBN 3-487-09458-4, 1996, Homeri Ilias, Hildesheim. 
ISBN 3-487-09459-2
	M. L. West 1998–2000, Homeri Ilias (2 volumes), Munich/Leipzig. 
ISBN 3-598-71431-9, 
ISBN 3-598-71435-1
	P. von der Mühll 1993, Homeri Odyssea, Munich/Leipzig. 
ISBN 3-598-71432-7
	M. L. West 2017, Homerus Odyssea, Berlin/Boston. 
ISBN 3-11-042539-4


Interlinear translations[edit]

	The Iliad of Homer a Parsed Interlinear Handheldclassics.com (2008) Text 
ISBN 978-1-60725-298-6


English translations[edit]

Main article: English translations of Homer

This is a partial list of translations into English of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.


	Augustus Taber Murray (1866–1940)
	Homer: Iliad, 2 vols., revised by William F. Wyatt, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press (1999).
	Homer: Odyssey, 2 vols., revised by George E. Dimock, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press (1995).


	Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985)
	The Iliad, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004) 
ISBN 0-374-52905-1
	The Odyssey, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1998) 
ISBN 0-374-52574-9


	Robert Fagles (1933–2008)
	The Iliad, Penguin Classics (1998) 
ISBN 0-14-027536-3
	The Odyssey, Penguin Classics (1999) 
ISBN 0-14-026886-3


	Stanley Lombardo (b. 1943)
	Iliad, Hackett Publishing Company (1997) 
ISBN 0-87220-352-2
	Odyssey, Hackett Publishing Company (2000) 
ISBN 0-87220-484-7
	Iliad, (Audiobook) Parmenides (2006) 
ISBN 1-930972-08-3
	Odyssey, (Audiobook) Parmenides (2006) 
ISBN 1-930972-06-7
	The Essential Homer, (Audiobook) Parmenides (2006) 
ISBN 1-930972-12-1
	The Essential Iliad, (Audiobook) Parmenides (2006) 
ISBN 1-930972-10-5


	Barry B. Powell (b. 1942)
	"Iliad", Oxford University Press (2013) 
ISBN 978-0-19-932610-5
	"Odyssey", Oxford University PressI (2014) 
ISBN 978-0-19-936031-4
	Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: The Essential Books, Oxford University Press (2014) 
ISBN 978-0-19-939407-4


	Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
	The Iliad, Red and Black Publishers (2008) 
ISBN 978-1-934941-04-1
	The Odyssey, Red and Black Publishers (2008) 
ISBN 978-1-934941-05-8


	Herbert Jordan (b. 1938)
	Iliad, University of Oklahoma Press (2008) 
ISBN 978-0-8061-3974-6 (soft cover)


	Emily Wilson (b. 1971)
	The Odyssey, W.W. Norton & Company (2017) 
ISBN 978-0-393-08905-9


	Rodney Merrill
	The Iliad, University of Michigan Press (2007) 
ISBN 978-0-472-11617-1
	The Odyssey, University of Michigan Press (2002) 
ISBN 978-0-472-11231-9




General works on Homer[edit]

	Carlier, Pierre (1999). Homère (in French). Paris: Les éditions Fayard. ISBN 978-2-213-60381-0.

	de Romilly, Jacqueline (2005). Homère (5th ed.). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. ISBN 978-2-13-054830-0.

	Fowler, Robert, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Companion to Homer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-01246-1.

	Latacz, J.; Windle, Kevin, Tr.; Ireland, Rosh, Tr. (2004). Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926308-0.
 In German, 5th updated and expanded edition, Leipzig, 2005. In Spanish, 2003, 
ISBN 84-233-3487-2. In modern Greek, 2005, 
ISBN 960-16-1557-1.
	Monro, David Binning (1911). "Homer" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 12 (11th ed.). pp. 626–39.

	Morris, Ian; Powell, Barry B., eds. (1997). A New Companion to Homer. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09989-0.

	Powell, Barry B. (2007). Homer (2nd ed.). Malden, MA; Oxford, UK; Carlton, Victoria: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-5325-6.

	Vidal-Naquet, Pierre (2000). Le monde d'Homère (in French). Paris: Perrin. ISBN 978-2-262-01181-9.

	Wace, A.J.B.; F.H. Stubbings (1962). A Companion to Homer. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-07113-7.



Influential readings and interpretations[edit]

	Auerbach, Erich (1953). "Chapter 1". Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-11336-4.
 (orig. publ. in German, 1946, Bern)
	de Jong, Irene J.F. (2004). Narrators and Focalizers: the Presentation of the Story in the Iliad (2nd ed.). London: Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 978-1-85399-658-0.

	Edwards, Mark W. (1987). Homer, Poet of the Iliad. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-3329-8.

	Fenik, Bernard (1974). Studies in the Odyssey. Hermes, Einzelschriften 30. Wiesbaden: Steiner.

	Finley, Moses (2002). The World of Odysseus. New York: New York Review of Books. ISBN 978-1-59017-017-5.

	Nagy, Gregory (1979). The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry. Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

	Nagy, Gregory (2010). Homer: the Preclassic. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-95024-5.

	Reece, Steve. The Stranger's Welcome: Oral Theory and the Aesthetics of the Homeric Hospitality Scene. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.


Commentaries[edit]

	Iliad:
	P.V. Jones (ed.) 2003, Homer's Iliad. A Commentary on Three Translations, London. 
ISBN 1-85399-657-2
	G.S. Kirk (gen. ed.) 1985–1993, The Iliad: A Commentary (6 volumes), Cambridge. 
ISBN 0-521-28171-7, 
ISBN 0-521-28172-5, 
ISBN 0-521-28173-3, 
ISBN 0-521-28174-1, 
ISBN 0-521-31208-6, 
ISBN 0-521-31209-4
	J. Latacz (gen. ed.) 2002 Homers Ilias. Gesamtkommentar. Auf der Grundlage der Ausgabe von Ameis-Hentze-Cauer (1868–1913) (6 volumes published so far, of an estimated 15), Munich/Leipzig. 
ISBN 3-598-74307-6, 
ISBN 3-598-74304-1
	N. Postlethwaite (ed.) 2000, Homer's Iliad: A Commentary on the Translation of Richmond Lattimore, Exeter. 
ISBN 0-85989-684-6
	M.W. Willcock (ed.) 1976, A Companion to the Iliad, Chicago. 
ISBN 0-226-89855-5


	Odyssey:
	A. Heubeck (gen. ed.) 1990–1993, A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey (3 volumes; orig. publ. 1981–1987 in Italian), Oxford. 
ISBN 0-19-814747-3, 
ISBN 0-19-872144-7, 
ISBN 0-19-814953-0
	P. Jones (ed.) 1988, Homer's Odyssey: A Commentary based on the English Translation of Richmond Lattimore, Bristol. 
ISBN 1-85399-038-8
	I.J.F. de Jong (ed.) 2001, A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey, Cambridge. 
ISBN 0-521-46844-2




Dating the Homeric poems[edit]

	Janko, Richard (1982). Homer, Hesiod and the Hymns: Diachronic Development in Epic Diction. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23869-4.





Further reading[edit]



	Buck, Carl Darling (1928). The Greek Dialects. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

	Evelyn-White, Hugh Gerard (tr.) (1914). Hesiod, the Homeric hymns and Homerica. The Loeb Classical Library. London; New York: Heinemann; MacMillen.

	Ford, Andrew (1992). Homer : the poetry of the past. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-2700-8.

	Graziosi, Barbara (2002). Inventing Homer: The Early Perception of Epic. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

	Kirk, G.S. (1962). The Songs of Homer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

	Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon (Revised ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press; Perseus Digital Library.

	Murray, Gilbert (1960). The Rise of the Greek Epic (Galaxy Books ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

	Schein, Seth L. (1984). The mortal hero : an introduction to Homer's Iliad. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-05128-7.

	Silk, Michael (1987). Homer: The Iliad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83233-5.

	Smith, William, ed. (1876). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. I, II & III. London: John Murray.





External links[edit]

		Wikimedia Commons has media related to Homer.


		Wikiquote has quotations related to: Homer


		Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Homer


	Library resources about 
 Homer 

	
	Online books
	Resources in your library
	Resources in other libraries


	
By Homer
	
	Online books
	Resources in your library
	Resources in other libraries




	Works by Homer at Perseus Digital Library
	Homer at the Encyclopædia Britannica
	Works by Homer at Project Gutenberg
	Works by or about Homer at Internet Archive
	Works by Homer at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) 
	Homer; Murray, A.T. (1925). The Iliad with an English Translation (in Ancient Greek and English). I, Books I–XII. London; New York: William Heinemann Ltd.; G.P. Putnam's Sons; Internet Archive.

	The Chicago Homer
	Daitz, Stephen (reader). "Homer, Iliad, Book I, lines 1–52". Society for the Reading of Greek and Latin Literature (SORGLL). Archived from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2008-05-09.

	Heath, Malcolm (May 4, 2001). "CLAS3152 Further Greek Literature II: Aristotle's Poetics: Notes on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey". Department of Classics, University of Leeds; Internet Archive. Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved 2014-11-07.

	Bassino, Paola (2014). "Homer: A Guide to Selected Sources". Living Poets: a new approach to ancient history. Durham University. Retrieved November 18, 2014.



		v
	t
	e


Works related to Homer in antiquity

	Attributed to Homer	
	Batrachomyomachia
	Cercopes
	Cypria
	Epigrams (Kiln)
	Epigoni
	Homeric Hymns
	Iliad
	Little Iliad
	Margites
	Nostoi
	Odyssey
	Capture of Oechalia
	Phocais
	Thebaid



	

	About Homer	
	Ancient accounts of Homer
	Contest of Homer and Hesiod
	Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)







	
	v
	t
	e


Ancient Greece

	
	Timeline




	
		History
	Geography




	
	Periods	
	Cycladic civilization
	Minoan civilization
	Mycenaean civilization
	Greek Dark Ages
	Archaic period
	Classical Greece
	Hellenistic Greece
	Roman Greece




	Geography	
	Aegean Sea
	Aeolis
	Alexandria
	Antioch
	Cappadocia
	Crete
	Cyprus
	Doris
	Ephesus
	Epirus
	Hellespont
	Ionia
	Ionian Sea
	Macedonia
	Magna Graecia
	Miletus
	Peloponnesus
	Pergamon
	Pontus
	Taurica
	Ancient Greek colonies










	
		City states
	Politics
	Military




	
	City states	
	Argos
	Athens
	Byzantion
	Chalcis
	Corinth
	Eretria
	Kerkyra
	Larissa
	Megalopolis
	Megara
	Rhodes
	Samos
	Sparta
	Syracuse
	Thebes




	Politics	
	
	Boule
	Koinon
	Proxeny
	Tagus
	Tyrant
	Amphictyonic League




	Athenian	
	Agora
	Areopagus
	Ecclesia
	Graphe paranomon
	Heliaia
	Ostracism




	Spartan	
	Apella
	Ephor
	Gerousia




	Macedon	
	Synedrion
	Koinon







	Military	
	Wars
	Athenian military
	Scythian archers


	Antigonid Macedonian army
	Army of Macedon
	Ballista
	Cretan archers
	Hellenistic armies
	Hippeis
	Hoplite
	Hetairoi
	Macedonian phalanx
	Phalanx
	Peltast
	Pezhetairos
	Sarissa
	Sacred Band of Thebes
	Sciritae
	Seleucid army
	Spartan army
	Strategos
	Toxotai
	Xiphos
	Xyston










	
	People

	
	List of ancient Greeks

	Rulers	
	Kings of Argos
	Archons of Athens
	Kings of Athens
	Kings of Commagene
	Diadochi
	Kings of Lydia
	Kings of Macedonia
	Kings of Paionia
	Attalid kings of Pergamon
	Kings of Pontus
	Kings of Sparta
	Tyrants of Syracuse




	Philosophers	
	Anaxagoras
	Anaximander
	Anaximenes
	Antisthenes
	Aristotle
	Democritus
	Diogenes of Sinope
	Empedocles
	Epicurus
	Gorgias
	Heraclitus
	Hypatia
	Leucippus
	Parmenides
	Plato
	Protagoras
	Pythagoras
	Socrates
	Thales
	Zeno




	Authors	
	Aeschylus
	Aesop
	Alcaeus
	Archilochus
	Aristophanes
	Bacchylides
	Euripides
	Herodotus
	Hesiod
	Hipponax
	Homer
	Ibycus
	Lucian
	Menander
	Mimnermus
	Panyassis
	Philocles
	Pindar
	Plutarch
	Polybius
	Sappho
	Simonides
	Sophocles
	Stesichorus
	Theognis
	Thucydides
	Timocreon
	Tyrtaeus
	Xenophon




	Others	
	Agesilaus II
	Agis II
	Alcibiades
	Alexander the Great
	Aratus
	Archimedes
	Aspasia
	Demosthenes
	Epaminondas
	Euclid
	Hipparchus
	Hippocrates
	Leonidas
	Lycurgus
	Lysander
	Milo of Croton
	Miltiades
	Pausanias
	Pericles
	Philip of Macedon
	Philopoemen
	Praxiteles
	Ptolemy
	Pyrrhus
	Solon
	Themistocles




	Groups	
	Philosophers
	Playwrights
	Poets
	Tyrants




	By culture	
	Ancient Greek tribes
	Thracian Greeks
	Ancient Macedonians










	
		Society
	Culture




	
	Society	
	Agriculture
	Calendar
	Clothing
	Coinage
	Cuisine
	Economy
	Education
	Festivals
	Homosexuality
	Law
	Olympic Games
	Pederasty
	Philosophy
	Prostitution
	Religion
	Slavery
	Warfare
	Wedding customs
	Wine




	Arts and science	
	Architecture
	Greek Revival architecture


	Astronomy
	Literature
	Mathematics
	Medicine
	Music
	Musical system


	Pottery
	Sculpture
	Technology
	Theatre




	Religion	
	
	Funeral and burial practices
	Mythology
	mythological figures


	Temple
	Twelve Olympians
	Underworld




	Sacred places	
	Eleusis
	Delphi
	Delos
	Dion
	Dodona
	Mount Olympus
	Olympia







	Structures	
	
	Athenian Treasury
	Lion Gate
	Long Walls
	Philippeion
	Theatre of Dionysus
	Tunnel of Eupalinos




	Temples	
	Aphaea
	Artemis
	Athena Nike
	Erechtheion
	Hephaestus
	Hera, Olympia
	Parthenon
	Samothrace
	Zeus, Olympia







	Language	
	Proto-Greek
	Mycenaean
	Homeric
	Dialects
	Aeolic
	Arcadocypriot
	Attic
	Doric
	Ionic
	Locrian
	Macedonian
	Pamphylian


	Koine




	Writing	
	Linear A
	Linear B
	Cypriot syllabary
	Greek alphabet
	Greek numerals
	Attic numerals










	
		Greek colonisation




	
	South Italy	
	Alision
	Brentesion
	Caulonia
	Chone
	Croton
	Cumae
	Elea
	Heraclea Lucania
	Hipponion
	Hydrus
	Krimisa
	Laüs
	Locri
	Medma
	Metapontion
	Neápolis
	Pandosia (Lucania)
	Poseidonia
	Pixous
	Rhegion
	Scylletium
	Siris
	Sybaris
	Sybaris on the Traeis
	Taras
	Terina
	Thurii



	

	Sicily	
	Akragas
	Akrai
	Akrillai
	Apollonia
	Calacte
	Casmenae
	Catana
	Gela
	Helorus
	Henna
	Heraclea Minoa
	Himera
	Hybla Gereatis
	Hybla Heraea
	Kamarina
	Leontinoi
	Megara Hyblaea
	Messana
	Naxos
	Segesta
	Selinous
	Syracuse
	Tauromenion
	Thermae
	Tyndaris




	Aeolian Islands	
	Didyme
	Euonymos
	Ereikousa
	Hycesia
	Lipara/Meligounis
	Phoenicusa
	Strongyle
	Therassía




	Sardinia	
	Olbia




	Cyrenaica	
	Balagrae
	Barca
	Berenice
	Cyrene (Apollonia)
	Ptolemais




	Iberian Peninsula	
	Akra Leuke
	Alonis
	Emporion
	Helike
	Hemeroscopion
	Kalathousa
	Kypsela
	Mainake
	Menestheus's Limin
	Illicitanus Limin/Portus Illicitanus
	Rhode
	Salauris
	Zacynthos




	Black Sea north coast	
	Borysthenes
	Charax
	Chersonesus
	Dioscurias
	Eupatoria
	Gorgippia
	Hermonassa
	Kepoi
	Kimmerikon
	Myrmekion
	Nikonion
	Nymphaion
	Olbia
	Panticapaion
	Phanagoria
	Pityus
	Tanais
	Theodosia
	Tyras
	Tyritake




	Black Sea south coast	
	Dionysopolis
	Odessos
	Anchialos
	Mesambria
	Apollonia
	Salmydessus
	Heraclea
	Tium
	Sesamus
	Cytorus
	Abonoteichos
	Sinope
	Zaliche
	Amisos
	Oinòe
	Polemonion
	Thèrmae
	Cotyora
	Kerasous
	Tripolis
	Trapezous
	Rhizos
	Athina
	Bathus
	Phasis










	
	Lists

	
	Cities
	in Epirus


	People
	Place names
	Stoae
	Temples
	Theatres







	
	 Category
	 Portal
	 Outline







	Associated subjects

	
	
	v
	t
	e


Theban Cycle

	Poems	
	Oedipodea
	Thebaid
	Epigoni
	Alcmeonis



	

	Nominal authors	
	Cinaethon (Oedipodea)
	Homer (Thebaid, Epigoni)
	Antimachus of Teos (Epigoni)







	
	v
	t
	e


Epic Cycle

	
	Cypria
	Iliad
	Aethiopis
	Little Iliad
	Iliupersis
	Nostoi
	Odyssey
	Telegony







	
	v
	t
	e


Homer's Odyssey (8th century BC)

	Characters	
	
	House of Odysseus	
	Penelope (wife)
	Telemachus (son)
	Ctimene (sister)
	Anticlea (mother)
	Laërtes (father)
	Autolycus (grandfather)
	Eurycleia (chief servant)
	Mentor (advisor)
	Phemius (musician)
	Eumaeus (swineherd)
	Philoetius (cowherd)
	Melanthius (goatherd)
	Melantho (maid)
	Argos (pet-dog)




	Monarchs and royals	
	Alcinous of Phaeacia
	 Arete of Phaeacia
	Nestor of Pylos
	Menelaus of Sparta
	Helen
	Princess Nausicaa of Phaeacia
	Agamemnon of Mycenae




	Gods	
	Aeolus (wind god)
	Athena
	Apollo
	Artemis
	Atlas
	Calypso
	Circe
	Helios
	Hermes
	Poseidon
	Zeus
	Oceanus
	Old Man of the Sea




	Others	
	Achilles
	Ajax
	Amphimedon
	Anticlus
	Antiphates
	Antiphus
	Aretus
	Cyclopes
	Demodocus
	Demoptolemus
	Deucalion
	Dolius
	Echephron
	Echetus
	Elpenor
	Eupeithes
	Euryalus
	Eurylochus
	Halitherses
	Heracles
	Idomeneus
	Irus
	Kikonians
	Laodamas
	Laestrygones
	Medon
	Mentes
	Mesaulius
	Peisistratus
	Perimedes
	Perseus
	Polites
	Polydamna
	Polyphemus
	Scylla and Charybdis
	Sirens
	Stratichus
	Suitors of Penelope
	Tiresias
	Theoclymenus
	Thrasymedes




	Suitors	
	Agelaus
	Amphinomus
	Antinous
	Ctesippus
	Eurymachus
	Leodes







	Odyssean gods	
	Athena
	Poseidon
	Calypso
	Circe
	Ino
	Hermes
	Zeus
	Heracles







	Films	
	L'Odissea (1911 Italian)
	Ulysses (1954 Italian)
	The Return of Ringo (1965)
	Ulysses' Gaze (1995 Greek)
	O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
	Keyhole (2012)




	TV	
	The Odyssey (1968)
	Ulysses 31 (1981)
	The Odyssey (1997)
	Odysseus and the Isle of the Mists (2007)
	Star Trek: Odyssey (2007)




	Literature	
	A True Story (2nd century AD)
	Les Aventures de Télémaque (1699)
	The World's Desire (1890)
	Ulysses (1922)
	The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
	The Human Comedy (1943)
	Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions (1998)
	Trojan Odyssey (2003)
	The Penelopiad (2005)
	The Lost Books of the Odyssey (2010)




	Poems	
	"Ulysses" (1842)
	The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
	The Cantos (1962)
	Pagan Operetta (1998)




	Stage	
	Current Nobody (play)
	Cyclops (play)
	Ithaka (play)
	Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (opera)
	The Golden Apple (musical)
	Glam Slam Ulysses (musical)
	Home Sweet Homer (musical)




	Song	
	"Tales of Brave Ulysses" (song)
	"The Odyssey" (song)
	The Odyssey (symphony)




	Study	
	Homeric scholarship
	Homeric Question
	Chorizontes


	Geography of the Odyssey
	Historicity of the Homer epics
	Odysseus Unbound
	Homer's Ithaca


	Rediscovering Homer
	"Odysseus' scar"
	Hermoniakos' Iliad
	Hysteron proteron
	Epithets in Homer
	Dactylic hexameter




	Translations	
	"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"
	On Translating Homer




	Video games	
	Odyssey: The Search for Ulysses
	Wishbone and the Amazing Odyssey




	Phrases	
	In medias res
	Between Scylla and Charybdis




	Related	
	Telemachy
	Nekyia
	Trojan Horse
	Suitors of Penelope
	The Odyssey
	Old Man of the Sea
	The Apotheosis of Homer
	Contempt
	Cold Mountain (novel)
	Cold Mountain (film)
	Homer's Daughter
	Parallels between Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey







	
	v
	t
	e


Homer's Iliad (8th century BC)

	Characters	
	
	Achaeans	
	Acamas
	Achilles
	Agamemnon (king of Mycenae)
	Agapenor
	Ajax the Greater (king of Salamis)
	Ajax the Lesser
	Alcimus
	Anticlus
	Antilochus
	Arcesilaus
	Ascalaphus
	Automedon
	Balius and Xanthus
	Bias
	Calchas (prophet)
	Diomedes (king of Argos)
	Elephenor
	Epeius
	Eudoros
	Euryalus
	Eurybates
	Eurydamas
	Eurypylus
	Guneus
	Helen (queen of Sparta)
	Ialmenus
	Idomeneus (king of Crete)
	Iphigenia (princess of Mycenae)
	Leitus
	Leonteus
	Lycomedes
	Machaon
	Medon
	Meges
	Menelaus (king of Sparta)
	Menestheus
	Meriones
	Neoptolemus
	Nestor (king of Pylos)
	Nireus
	Odysseus (king of Ithaca)
	Palamedes
	Patroclus
	Peneleos
	Philoctetes
	Phoenix
	Podalirius
	Podarces
	Polites
	Polypoetes
	Promachus
	Protesilaus
	Prothoenor
	Schedius
	Sinon
	Stentor
	Sthenelus
	Talthybius
	Teucer
	Thersites
	Thoas
	Thrasymedes
	Tlepolemus




	Trojans	
	Aeneas (royal demigod)
	Aesepus
	Agenor
	Alcathous
	Amphimachus
	Anchises
	Andromache
	Antenor (king's brother-in-law)
	Antiphates
	Antiphus
	Archelochus
	Asius
	Asteropaios
	Astyanax
	Atymnius
	Axylus
	Briseis
	Calesius
	Caletor
	Cassandra (princess of Troy)
	Chryseis
	Chryses (priest of Apollo)
	Clytius
	Coön
	Dares Phrygius
	Deiphobus (prince of Troy)
	Dolon
	Epistrophus
	Euphemus
	Euphorbus
	Glaucus
	Gorgythion
	Hector (prince of Troy)
	Hecuba (queen of Troy)
	Helenus
	Hyperenor
	Hypsenor
	Ilioneus
	Imbrius
	Iphidamas
	Kebriones
	Laocoön
	Lycaon (prince of Troy)
	Melanippus
	Mentes
	Mydon
	Mygdon of Phrygia
	Othryoneus
	Pandarus
	Panthous
	Paris (prince of Troy)
	Pedasus
	Peirous
	Phorcys
	Polites
	Polydamas
	Polybus
	Polydorus (prince of Troy)
	Polyxena (princess of Troy)
	Priam (king of Troy)
	Pylaemenes
	Pylaeus
	Pyraechmes
	Rhesus of Thrace
	Sarpedon (king of Lycia)
	Theano
	Ucalegon







	Major deities	
	Aphrodite
	Apollo
	Ares
	Artemis
	Athena
	Hades
	Hephaestus
	Hera
	Hermes
	Poseidon
	Zeus




	Minor deities	
	Deimos
	Eris
	Iris
	Leto
	Phobos
	Proteus
	Scamander
	Thetis







	Sections	
	Catalogue of Ships
	Deception of Zeus
	Trojan Battle Order




	Study	
	Homeric scholarship
	Homeric Question
	Chorizontes


	Historicity of the Homeric epics
	"The Iliad or the Poem of Force" (1939 essay)
	Milawata letter
	Rediscovering Homer
	Dactylic hexameter
	Parallels between Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey




	Manuscripts	
	Ambrosian Iliad
	Codex Nitriensis
	Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 20
	Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 21
	Uncial 098
	Venetus A
	Venetus B




	Alternate versions	
	Ilias Latina (60–70 CE)
	Dictys Cretensis Ephemeridos belli Trojani (4th century ?)
	Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae historia (5th century)
	Hermoniakos' Iliad (14th century)
	Men in Aida (1983)




	Translation	
	English translations of Homer
	"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"
	On Translating Homer




	Literature	
	Verse	
	Priapea 68
	De bello Troiano (1183)
	The Rape of the Lock (1712)
	"The Shield of Achilles" (1952)
	War Music (1959)
	Omeros (1990)




	Novels	
	The Firebrand (1987)
	Black Ships Before Troy (1993)
	Troy (2000)
	Ilium (2003)
	Ransom (2009)
	Starcrossed (2011)







	Stage	
	Rhesus (5th century BC play)
	The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (Tiger at the Gates) (1935)
	The Golden Apple (1954 musical)




	Films	
	Helena (1924)
	Helen of Troy (1956)
	The Trojan Horse (1961)
	Troy (2004)




	Television	
	The Myth Makers (1965)
	In Search of the Trojan War (1985)
	Helen of Troy (2003 miniseries)
	Troy: Fall of a City (2018 miniseries)




	Music	
	King Priam (1961 Tippett opera)
	The Triumph of Steel (1992 album)
	"And Then There Was Silence" (2001 song)
	The Odyssey (Smith symphony)




	Art	
	Tabula iliaca
	The Apotheosis of Homer
	The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles
	The Loves of Paris and Helen
	Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus
	Orestes Pursued by the Furies
	The Revelers Vase
	Statue of Zeus at Olympia




	Phrases	
	"Ever to Excel"
	"Hold your horses"
	"In medias res"
	"Noblesse oblige"




	Other	
	Warriors: Legends of Troy (video game)
	Age of Bronze (comics)
	Sortes Homericae
	Heraclitus
	Weighing of souls
	Where Troy Once Stood
	Blood rain











	Authority control 	
	BIBSYS: 90069675
	BNE: XX907843
	BNF: cb11907688f (data)
	CANTIC: a1010107x
	CiNii: DA00258983
	GND: 11855333X
	ICCU: IT\ICCU\CFIV\018814
	ISNI: 0000 0003 6354 151X
	LCCN: n78095639
	LNB: 000040458
	MBA: ebde00ad-8f53-48bb-a6c8-a5b0d7c01705
	NDL: 00443699
	NKC: jn19981001474
	NLA: 35204200
	NLG: 34000
	NLI: 000064577
	NLK: KAC199612729
	NSK: 000016617
	NTA: 068585764
	RERO: 02-A000081090
	RSL: 000082457
	SELIBR: 189316
	SNAC: w6qz9r2d
	SUDOC: 026924005
	Trove: 863914
	ULAN: 500279109
	VcBA: 495/55034
	VIAF: 224924963
	 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n78095639














Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Homer&oldid=996508715"


		Categories: 	Homer
	Oral epic poets
	Blind poets
	Mythography
	Ancient Greek epic poets
	8th-century BC Greek people
	8th-century BC poets
	Blind people from Greece
	Mycenaean Greece
	Greek speculative fiction writers
	Greek gods
	Ancient Chians
	Ancient Smyrnaeans
	Deified people
	People whose existence is disputed


Hidden categories: 	Wikipedia pending changes protected pages
	Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages
	Articles with short description
	Short description is different from Wikidata
	Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text
	All articles with unsourced statements
	Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020
	CS1 French-language sources (fr)
	Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
	CS1: long volume value
	Commons link from Wikidata
	Articles with Encyclopædia Britannica links
	Articles with Project Gutenberg links
	Articles with Internet Archive links
	Articles with LibriVox links
	CS1 foreign language sources (ISO 639-2)
	Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with ICCU identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with NLG identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with NLK identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with RERO identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with RSL identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with ULAN identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers
	Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers
	AC with 28 elements




	




	





	Navigation menu

	
		

	
		Personal tools
	

	
			Not logged in
	Talk
	Contributions
	Create account
	Log in


		
	



		
			

	
		Namespaces
	

	
			Article
	Talk


		
	



			

	
	
		Variants
	

	
		

		
	



		

		
			

	
		Views
	

	
			Read
	Edit
	View history


		
	



			

	
	
		More
	

	
		

		
	



			
	
		Search
	

	
		
			
			
			
			
		

	




		

	

	

	
		
	

	

	
		Navigation
	

	
			Main page
	Contents
	Current events
	Random article
	About Wikipedia
	Contact us
	Donate


		
	



	

	
		Contribute
	

	
			Help
	Learn to edit
	Community portal
	Recent changes
	Upload file


		
	




	
		Tools
	

	
			What links here
	Related changes
	Upload file
	Special pages
	Permanent link
	Page information
	Cite this page
	Wikidata item


		
	




	
		Print/export
	

	
			Download as PDF
	Printable version


		
	




	
		In other projects
	

	
			Wikimedia Commons
	Wikiquote
	Wikisource


		
	



	

	
		Languages
	

	
			Адыгэбзэ
	Afrikaans
	Alemannisch
	አማርኛ
	العربية
	Aragonés
	Armãneashti
	অসমীয়া
	Asturianu
	अवधी
	Avañe'ẽ
	Azərbaycanca
	تۆرکجه
	বাংলা
	Bân-lâm-gú
	Башҡортса
	Беларуская
	Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎
	भोजपुरी
	Bikol Central
	Bislama
	Български
	Boarisch
	བོད་ཡིག
	Bosanski
	Brezhoneg
	Буряад
	Català
	Чӑвашла
	Čeština
	Corsu
	Cymraeg
	Dansk
	Deutsch
	डोटेली
	Eesti
	Ελληνικά
	Эрзянь
	Español
	Esperanto
	Estremeñu
	Euskara
	فارسی
	Fiji Hindi
	Føroyskt
	Français
	Frysk
	Furlan
	Gaeilge
	Gàidhlig
	Galego
	贛語
	客家語/Hak-kâ-ngî
	한국어
	Hawaiʻi
	Հայերեն
	हिन्दी
	Hrvatski
	Ido
	Ilokano
	Bahasa Indonesia
	Interlingua
	Interlingue
	Ирон
	Íslenska
	Italiano
	עברית
	Jawa
	Kabɩyɛ
	ಕನ್ನಡ
	Kapampangan
	ქართული
	Қазақша
	Kernowek
	Kiswahili
	Kotava
	Kreyòl ayisyen
	Kriyòl gwiyannen
	Kurdî
	Кыргызча
	Ladin
	ລາວ
	Latina
	Latviešu
	Lëtzebuergesch
	Lietuvių
	Limburgs
	Lingua Franca Nova
	Lumbaart
	Magyar
	मैथिली
	Македонски
	Malagasy
	മലയാളം
	Malti
	मराठी
	მარგალური
	مصرى
	مازِرونی
	Bahasa Melayu
	Minangkabau
	Mirandés
	Монгол
	မြန်မာဘာသာ
	Dorerin Naoero
	Nederlands
	नेपाल भाषा
	日本語
	Нохчийн
	Norsk bokmål
	Norsk nynorsk
	Novial
	Occitan
	Олык марий
	ଓଡ଼ିଆ
	Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча
	ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
	Pälzisch
	پنجابی
	پښتو
	Patois
	ភាសាខ្មែរ
	Picard
	Piemontèis
	Plattdüütsch
	Polski
	Português
	Qaraqalpaqsha
	Qırımtatarca
	Română
	Runa Simi
	Русиньскый
	Русский
	Саха тыла
	ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ
	Sardu
	Scots
	Seeltersk
	Shqip
	Sicilianu
	Simple English
	سنڌي
	Slovenčina
	Slovenščina
	Ślůnski
	کوردی
	Српски / srpski
	Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
	Suomi
	Svenska
	Tagalog
	தமிழ்
	Taqbaylit
	Татарча/tatarça
	తెలుగు
	ไทย
	Тоҷикӣ
	Türkçe
	Türkmençe
	Удмурт
	Українська
	اردو
	Vahcuengh
	Vèneto
	Vepsän kel’
	Tiếng Việt
	Volapük
	Võro
	Walon
	Winaray
	吴语
	ייִדיש
	Yorùbá
	粵語
	Zazaki
	Žemaitėška
	中文


		Edit links

	









		 This page was last edited on 27 December 2020, at 01:02 (UTC).
	Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply.  By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



		Privacy policy
	About Wikipedia
	Disclaimers
	Contact Wikipedia
	Mobile view
	Developers
	Statistics
	Cookie statement