Homer

Homer is the name traditionally given to the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two earliest surviving epics of ancient Greek literature. The works are foundational to the Western literary tradition, and the question of their composition and authorship remains a subject of scholarly debate.

The Homeric Question

The ancients attributed both epics to a single poet named Homer, and several cities claimed to be his birthplace. The poems themselves say nothing about their author.

Modern scholarship has questioned the unity of authorship and has examined the role of oral tradition. The poems contain formulaic phrases and repeated scenes that are characteristic of oral poetry.

The debate between the analysts, who sought to identify earlier and later layers, and the unitarians, who defended the coherence of the poems, dominated the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The oral theory of Milman Parry and Albert Lord provided a new framework.

The Iliad

The Iliad treats a brief episode in the final year of the Trojan War, the quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon. The poem is concerned with honour, with anger, and with mortality.

Achilles withdraws from the fighting in protest and returns only after the death of his friend Patroclus. He kills Hector, the Trojan prince, and the poem ends with the ransoming of the body.

The Iliad is admired for its tragic conception and for its vivid battle scenes. The characters, including Hector and Andromache, are depicted with sympathy and with psychological depth.

The Odyssey

The Odyssey describes the return of Odysseus to Ithaca after the fall of Troy. The poem is a romance of travel and of adventure, and it treats the themes of homecoming, of hospitality, and of endurance.

Odysseus encounters the Cyclops, the sorceress Circe, and the Sirens, and he descends to the underworld. He returns to find his house occupied by suitors and reclaims his wife and his kingdom.

The poem is also a work of moral and social observation. The contrast between the civilised Phaeacians and the brutal Cyclops is a recurring theme.

Language and Style

The epics are composed in dactylic hexameter, and they use a traditional poetic language that mixes dialects. The formulaic epithets, such as swift-footed Achilles and rosy-fingered dawn, are characteristic of oral composition.

The similes are extended and are drawn from the world of nature and of daily life. They give the narrative breadth and depth.

The poems were probably composed in the eighth or seventh century BC and were transmitted orally before being written down. They were recited at festivals and were studied in the schools.

Influence

The Homeric poems were the foundation of Greek education and of Greek culture. They were the subject of allegorical interpretation and of philosophical criticism.

They influenced Virgil, Dante, and the whole tradition of European epic. The characters and the episodes have been reused and reinterpreted throughout the history of literature.

The poems have been translated many times, and the translations of Chapman, Pope, and Lattimore are among the most famous. They remain central to the study of the classics.

The Homeric Hymns

The Homeric Hymns are a collection of poems in hexameter addressed to the gods. They were attributed to Homer in antiquity but are the work of various poets.

The Hymn to Demeter tells the story of the abduction of Persephone and of the founding of the Eleusinian mysteries. The Hymn to Apollo describes the birth of the god and the founding of his sanctuary at Delphi.

The hymns were recited at festivals and at contests. They provide evidence for the religious practices and the poetic traditions of the period.

The Trojan Cycle

The other epics of the Trojan cycle survive only in summaries and in fragments. The Cypria describes the origins of the war, and the Little Iliad and the Sack of Ilion describe its conclusion.

The Nostoi describes the returns of the other Greek heroes, and the Telegony describes the final adventures of Odysseus. The cycle provided the material for the tragedians.

The Iliad and the Odyssey are the only complete epics of the cycle. They were composed at the end of the tradition and reflect its maturity.

Transmission and Text

The poems were transmitted orally and were written down at some point in the sixth century BC. The text was standardised in Alexandria by the scholars of the library.

The medieval manuscripts descend from the Alexandrian editions. The text was first printed in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century.

The papyri found in Egypt have provided additional evidence for the text. The editions of the modern scholars are based on the manuscript tradition and on the papyri.

Scholia and Criticism

The ancient scholia, or commentaries, are a source for the interpretation of the poems. They preserve the views of the Alexandrian critics and of the earlier scholars.

The allegorical interpretation of Homer was developed by the Stoics and by the Neoplatonists. The poems were read as containing hidden philosophical truths.

The modern criticism has emphasised the oral background and the narrative technique. The poems are studied as works of literature and as documents of social history.

See also

• Epic poetry
• Trojan War