,

Homer


Born
Greece
Genre


In the Western classical tradition, Homer (Greek: Ὅμηρος) is considered the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest of ancient Greek epic poets. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.

When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before his own time, which would place him at around 850 BCE, while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BCE. Most modern researchers place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BCE.

The formative influence of the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was des
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Average rating: 3.84 · 1,544,245 ratings · 30,803 reviews · 2,119 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Odyssey

3.80 avg rating — 1,010,999 ratings — published -700 — 1893 editions
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The Iliad

3.90 avg rating — 421,940 ratings — published -800 — 1561 editions
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The Iliad / The Odyssey

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4.06 avg rating — 72,049 ratings — published -800 — 622 editions
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Homeric Hymns

4.04 avg rating — 5,582 ratings — published -699 — 124 editions
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The Illiad

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3.87 avg rating — 2,413 ratings
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Odyssey I–XII

4.09 avg rating — 1,655 ratings — published -700 — 52 editions
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Iliad, Books 1–12 (Loeb Cla...

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4.50 avg rating — 1,214 ratings — published -800 — 64 editions
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Iliad, Books 13–24 (Loeb Cl...

4.54 avg rating — 954 ratings — published -750 — 108 editions
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The Iliad/The Odyssey/The A...

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4.38 avg rating — 957 ratings — published 600 — 8 editions
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Iliada, #1

3.91 avg rating — 901 ratings — published -800
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More books by Homer…
Iliad, Books 1–12 Iliad, Books 13–24
(2 books)
by
4.51 avg rating — 2,168 ratings

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Quotes by Homer  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.”
Homer, The Odyssey

“…There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.”
Homer, The Iliad

“Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”
Homer, The Iliad

Polls

June 2022 Revisit the Shelves Poll

 
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The Odyssey by Homer (800 B.C.) 541 pages
 
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Candide by Voltaire (1759) 129 pages
 
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937) 112 pages
 
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Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (1842) 464 pages, Last read May 2017
 
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Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925) 194 pages, last read Jan. 2019
 
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