Homer

The singer at the source of Western literature, credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Specifications & Metrics

era

c. 8th century BC (traditional)

language

Homeric Greek

region

Ionia (traditional, disputed)

notable works

Iliad, Odyssey

Core Principles & Analysis

• No biography survives; seven cities claimed him in antiquity.
• The Homeric Question debates whether one poet, many, or a tradition produced the epics.
• His hexameter formulas bear the marks of generations of oral composition.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Homer