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Homer

Genre

Poetry, Historical Fiction, History

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Homer (Greek: Όμηρος born c. 8th century BC) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.
Homer's Iliad centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The Odyssey chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy. 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. Most researchers believe Homer (Greek: Όμηρος born c. 8th century BC) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.
Homer's Iliad centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The Odyssey chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy. 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. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. Despite being predominantly known for its tragic and serious themes, the Homeric poems also contain instances of comedy and laughter.
Homer's epic poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honor. To Plato, Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece" (τὴν Ἑλλάδα πεπαίδευκεν). In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Virgil refers to Homer as "Poet sovereign", king of all poets; in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets". From antiquity to the present day, Homeric epics have inspired many famous works of literature, music, art, and film.
The question of by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed continues to be debated. Scholars remain divided as to whether the two works are the product of a single author. It is thought that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity; the most widespread account was that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.

French: Homère, Italian: Omero, Portuguese, Spanish: Homero. ...more

Combine Editions
Homer’s books

Average rating: 3.89 · 1,938,296 ratings · 61,183 reviews · 5,197 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Odyssey 3.85 avg rating — 1,265,340 ratings — published -750 — 5678 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Iliad by Homer, Emily Wilson (Translator) 3.94 avg rating — 532,388 ratings — published -750 — 5563 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Iliad / The Odyssey by Homer, Robert Fagles (Translator), Bernard Knox (Introduction) 4.08 avg rating — 86,414 ratings — published -800 — 819 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Homeric Hymns 4.05 avg rating — 6,834 ratings — published -699 — 162 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Iliad by Homer, William B. Jones Jr. (Introduction) 3.85 avg rating — 4,406 ratings — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Odyssey by Homer, Daniel Mendelsohn (translator) 4.28 avg rating — 2,261 ratings — published -800 — 62 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Odyssey I–XII 4.11 avg rating — 1,790 ratings — published -700 — 235 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Illiad 3.93 avg rating — 1,716 ratings — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Iliad, Books 1–12 (Loeb Classical Library, #170) by Homer, Augustus Taber Murray (Translator), William F. Wyatt Jr. (Translator) 4.49 avg rating — 1,290 ratings — published -800 — 164 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Circe and the Cyclops 3.75 avg rating — 1,536 ratings — published -850 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Homer…

Series by Homer

The Iliad by Homer (2 books)
by

Homer,

Augustus Taber Murray (Translator),

David B. Monro (Editors, Introduction)

4.51 avg rating — 2,297 ratings

Ulisses (3 books)
by

Homer,

Sebastien Ferran (Adapted by)

4.23 avg rating — 39 ratings

Good news, book nerds! And movie nerds! And TV nerds! It’s time once again for our regular roundup of new and upcoming book-to-screen...

Polls

November 2019 Revisit the Shelves Poll

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929) 326 pages.

64 votes, 22.5%

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62 votes, 21.8%

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850) 279 pages.

49 votes, 17.2%

Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667) 453 pages

40 votes, 14.0%

The Illiad by Homer (-750) 683 pages

38 votes, 13.3%

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (1997) 503 pages

32 votes, 11.2%

285 total votes

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