'Homer' (
Greek: '') is the name given to the supposed unitary author of the early
Greek poems the ''
Iliad'' and the ''
Odyssey''. It is now generally believed that they were composed orally by at least two separate ''
aoidoi'' from the
8th to
7th century BC[1], though at least one recent scholar has argued for a single bardic composer
[2]. Some scholars think the name does not refer so much to a single poet, but rather to the imaginary ancestor of the guild of the ''Homeridai'', whom later tradition associated with the conservation of the two poems
[3]. The name ''Homer'' is often used, as a handy convention, by those who do not believe in single authorship of the Homeric poems. Homer's works begin the
Western Canon and are universally praised for their poetic genius. By convention, the compositions are also often taken to initiate the period of
Classical Antiquity.
Identity and authorship
Main articles: Homeric Question
The Emperor
Hadrian asked the
Oracle at
Delphi who Homer really was, and she said that he was Ithacan, the son of Epikaste and
Telemachus, from the ''
Odyssey''.
[4]
But even if a single author, Homer, were indeed responsible for the two major epics ascribed to his name, nothing is known of him. Indeed, there is no concrete evidence that such a person ever existed. We do have a number of traditions holding that he was
blind (perhaps because in the Aeolian dialect of
Cyme,''homēros'' bore this meaning.
[5]), and that he was born on the island of
Chios or, elsewhere in
Ionia, where various cities vied in claiming him as one of their native sons.
It has repeatedly been argued and questioned whether the same poet was responsible for both the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. While many find it unlikely that the ''Odyssey'' was written by one person, others find that the epic is generally in the same style, and too consistent to support the theory of multiple authors. A further view is that the Iliad was composed by 'Homer' in his maturity, and the Odyssey was a work of his old age. The ''
Batrachomyomachia'', Homeric hymns, and cyclic epics are generally agreed to be later than the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''.
Homer was even at one time credited with the entire
Epic Cycle. The genre included further poems on the
Trojan War as well as the
Theban poems about
Oedipus and his sons. Other works, such as the corpus of
Homeric Hymns, the comic mini-epic ''Batrachomyomachia'' ("The Frog-Mouse War," Βατραχομυομαχία), and the
Margites were also attributed to him, but this is now believed to be unlikely.
Most scholars agree that the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' underwent a process of standardization and refinement out of older material beginning in the
8th century BC. An important role in this standardization appears to have been played by the
Athenian tyrant Hipparchus, who reformed the recitation of Homeric poetry at the
Panathenaic festival. Many
classicists hold that this reform must have involved the production of a
canonical written text.
Other scholars, however, still support the idea that Homer was a real person. Since nothing is known of the life of this Homer, the common joke, often recycled also in disputes about the authorship of plays ascribed to
Shakespeare, has it that the poems "were not written by Homer, but by another man of the same name,"
[1][2].
Samuel Butler argued that a young Sicilian woman wrote the ''Odyssey'' (but not the ''Iliad''), an idea further pursued by
Robert Graves in his novel ''
Homer's Daughter''.
Independently of the question of single authorship, it is agreed universally, after the work of
Milman Parry[6] that the Homeric poems are the product of an oral tradition, a generations-old technique that was the collective inheritance of many singer-poets (''
aoidoi''). An analysis of the structure and vocabulary of the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' shows that the poems consist of formulaic phrases typical of extempore epic traditions; even entire verses are at times repeated. Milman Parry and his student
Albert Lord pointed out that such elaborate oral tradition, foreign to today's literate cultures, is typical of
epic poetry in an predominantly oral cultural milieu. The crucial words are "oral" and "traditional." Parry started with "traditional." The repetitive chunks of language, he said, were inherited by the singer-poet from his predecessors, and they were useful to the poet in composition. He called these chunks of repetitive language "formulas."
Exactly when these poems would have taken on a fixed written form is subject to debate. The traditional solution is the "transcription hypothesis," wherein a non-literate "Homer" dictates his poem to a literate scribe between the 8th and 6th centuries. The
Greek alphabet was introduced in the early 8th century, so that it is possible that Homer himself was of the first generation of rhapsodes that were also literate. More radical Homerists, such as
Gregory Nagy, contend that a canonical text of the Homeric poems as "scripture" did not exist until the
Hellenistic period (
3rd to
1st century BC).
Ancient accounts of Homer
Main articles: Ancient accounts of Homer
Many passages in archaic and classical Greek poets and prose authors mention Homer or allude to him, and the eight preserved ''Lives'' of Homer purport to give the poet's birthplace and background. Modern scholarship, however, generally concludes that these accounts give no solid evidence on which to base a theory of Homer's identity.
[7]
Homeric studies
Main articles: Homeric scholarship

Reconstitution of the world described by the ''
Odyssey''
The study of Homer is one of the very oldest topics in all scholarship or science, and goes back to antiquity. Purely in terms of quantity it is one of the largest of all literary sub-disciplines: the annual publication output rivals that of
Shakespeare. The aims and achievements of Homeric studies have changed over the course of the millennia; in the last few centuries they have revolved around the process by which the Homeric poems came into existence and were transmitted down to us, first orally, and later in writing.
Some of the main trends in modern Homeric scholarship have been, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, ''Analysis'' and ''Unitarianism'' (see
Homeric question), which were schools of thought that emphasized on the one hand the inconsistencies, on the other the artistic unity, in Homer; and in the 20th century and later ''Oral Theory'', which is the study of the mechanisms and effects of oral transmission, and ''Neoanalysis'', which is the study of the relationship between Homer and other early epic material.
Homeric dialect
Main articles: Homeric Greek
The language used by Homer is an archaic version of
Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as
Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of
epic poetry, typically in
dactylic hexameter.
Homeric style
The cardinal qualities of the style of Homer have been well articulated by
Matthew Arnold: "the translator of Homer," he says, "should above all be penetrated by a sense of the four qualities of his author: that he is eminently rapid; that he is eminently plain and direct, both in the evolution of his thought and in the expression of it, that is, both in his
syntax and in his words; that he is eminently plain and direct in the substance of his thought, that is, in his matter and ideas; and finally, that he is eminently noble" (''On Translating Homer'', page 9).
The peculiar rapidity of Homer is due in great measure to his use of the
hexameter verse. It is characteristic of early literature that the evolution of the thought, or the grammatical form of the sentence, is guided by the structure of the verse; and the correspondence which consequently obtains between the rhythm and the syntax, the thought being given out in lengths, as it were, and these again divided by tolerably uniform pauses produces a swift flowing movement, such as is rarely found when the periods have been constructed without direct reference to the
metre. That Homer possesses this rapidity without falling into the corresponding faults, that is, without becoming either fluctuant or monotonous, is perhaps the best proof of his unequalled poetical skill. The plainness and directness, both of thought and of expression, which characterize Homer were doubtless qualities of his age; But the author of the ''
Iliad'' (similar to
Voltaire, to whom
Arnold happily compares him) must have possessed this gift in a surpassing degree. The ''
Odyssey'' is in this respect perceptibly below the level of the ''Iliad''.

Statue of Homer outside the Bavarian State Library in
Munich.
Rapidity or ease of movement, plainness of expression, and plainness of thought are not the distinguishing qualities of the great epic poets,
Virgil,
Dante, and
Milton (Dante in fact mentions Homer in ''
Inferno'' IV,88, ranking him as 'Poet sovereign' just above
Horace,
Ovid and
Virgil). On the contrary, they belong rather to the humbler epico-lyrical school for which Homer has been so often claimed. The proof that Homer does not belong to that school, and that his
poetry is not in any true sense
ballad-poetry is furnished by the higher artistic structure of his
poems, and, as regards style by the fourth of the qualities distinguished by
Arnold, the quality of nobleness. It is his noble and powerful style, sustained through every change of idea and subject, that finally separates Homer from all forms of ballad-poetry and popular
epic.
Like the French epics, such as the
Chanson de Roland, Homeric poetry is indigenous, and by the ease of movement and its resulting simplicity, is distinguishable from the works of Dante, Milton, and Virgil. It is also distinguished from the works of these artists by the comparative absence of underlying motives or sentiment. In Virgil's poetry a sense of the greatness of
Rome and
Italy is the leading motive of a passionate rhetoric, partly veiled by the chosen delicacy of his language. Dante and Milton are still more faithful exponents of the
religion and
politics of their time. Even the French
epics display sentiments of fear and hatred of the
Saracens; but in Homer's works, the interest is purely dramatic. There is no strong antipathy of race or religion; the war turns on no political event; the capture of
Troy lies outside the range of the ''Iliad'', and even the heroes portrayed are not comparable to the chief national heroes of Greece. So far as can be seen, the chief interest in Homer's works is that of human feeling and emotion, and of
drama - indeed, Homer's works are oft referred to as 'dramas'.
History and the Iliad
:''See main article
Historicity of the Iliad.''

The first verses of the ''Iliad''
Another significant question regards the possible historical basis of the poems. The commentaries on the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' written in the
Hellenistic period began exploring the textual inconsistencies of the poems. Modern classicists continue the tradition.
The excavations of
Heinrich Schliemann in the late
19th century began to provide evidence to scholars that there was a historical basis for the
Trojan War. Research (pioneered by the aforementioned Parry and Lord) into oral epics in
Serbo-Croatian and
Turkic languages began to convince scholars that long poems could be preserved with consistency by oral cultures until someone bothered to write them down. The
decipherment of
Linear B in the
1950s by
Michael Ventris (and others) convinced others of a linguistic continuity between
13th century BC Mycenaean writings and the poems attributed to Homer.
It is probable, therefore, that the story of the
Trojan War as reflected in the Homeric poems derives from a tradition of epic poetry founded on a war which actually took place. However, it is crucial not to underestimate the creative and transforming power of subsequent tradition: for instance,
Achilles, the most important character of the
Iliad, is strongly associated with southern
Thessaly, but his legendary figure is interwoven into a tale of war whose kings were from the
Peloponnese. Tribal wanderings were frequent, and far-flung, ranging over much of Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean
[8] The epic manages to weave brilliantly the ''disiecta membra'' of these distinct tribal narratives, exchanged among clan bards, into a monumental tale in which Greeks join collectively to do battle on the distant plains of Troy.
Hero cult
In the Hellenistic period, Homer was the subject of a hero cult in several cities. A shrine devoted to Homer or ''Homereion'' was built in
Alexandria by
Ptolemy IV Philopator in the late
3rd century BC. This shrine is described in
Aelian's
3rd century work ''Varia Historia''. He described how Ptolemy had "placed in a circle around the statue [of Homer] all the cities who laid claim to Homer" and mentions a painting of the poet by the artist
Galaton, which apparently depicted Homer in the aspect of
Oceanus as the source of all poetry.
A marble relief, found in Italy but thought to have been sculpted in
Egypt, depicts the
apotheosis of Homer. It shows Ptolemy and his wife/sister
Arsinoe III standing beside a seated Homer. The poet is shown flanked by figures from the ''Odyssey'' and ''Iliad'', with the nine
Muses standing above them and a procession of worshippers approaching an altar, believed to represent the Alexandrine Homereion.
Apollo, god of music and poetry, also appears, along with a female figure tentatively identified as
Mnemosyne, the mother of the Muses.
Zeus, the king of the gods, presides over the proceedings. The relief demonstrates vividly how the Greeks considered Homer not just a great poet, but the divinely inspired source of all literature.
[9]
Homereia also stood at
Chios,
Ephesus and
Smyrna, which were among the city-states that claimed to be the birthplace of Homer.
Strabo (14.1.37) records a Homeric temple in Smyrna with an ancient ''
xoanon'' or cult statue of the poet. He also mentions sacrifices carried out to Homer by the inhabitants of
Argos, presumably at another Homereion.
[10]
Publication history
In
late antiquity knowledge of Greek declined in Latin-speaking western Europe, and along with it knowledge of Homer's poems. It is not until the fifteenth century that Homer's work began to be read once more in Italy. The first printed edition appeared in 1488.
References and notes
1. 'It will be plain from assumptions made earlier that I myself believe, though with certain reservations, that the main processes of composition of the two great poems were carried out by two separate singers'.G.S.Kirk, ''The Songs of Homer'' Cambridge 1962 p.288
2. Barry B.Powell, 'Did Homer Sing at Lefkandi?', Electronic Antiquity, Vol.1, No.2, July 1993:http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N2/powell.html
3. M.L.West,''The East Face of Helicon:West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth,'' Clarendon Press, Oxford 1997 p.622
4. H.W.Parke, ''Greek Oracles,'' 1967 pp.136-7 citing the ''Certamen'',12
5. Pseudo-Herodotus,''Vita Homeri''
6. Adam Parry (ed) ''The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry'', Clarendon Press, Oxford 1987
7. Lefkowitz, pp. 12-24.
8. Gilbert Murray, ''The Rise of the Greek Epic,'' Clarendon Press, Oxford 1907 pp.182f., slightly expanded in the 4th.ed.(1934) 1960 pp.206ff.
9. Morgan, Llewelyn, 1999. ''Patterns of Redemption in Virgil's Georgics'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 30.
10. Zanker, Paul, 1996. ''The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity'', Alan Shapiro, trans. (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Selected bibliography
Editions
(texts in Homeric Greek)
★
Demetrius Chalcondyles ''editio princeps'', Florence,
1488
★ the
Aldine editions (1504 and 1517)
★ Th. Ridel, Strassbourg, ca. 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)
★ W. 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
★
Interlinear translations
★
John Jackson. ''Homer: Iliad Books 1-12, & 13-24'', ed. by Monro, 3rd Ed.: © Oxford Univ. Press 1902, parsing and English definitions © 2005
Free eBook for Palm Handheld
★
John Jackson. ''Homer: Odyssey'' © Oxford Univ. Press 1902, parsing and English definitions © 2006
Free eBook for Palm Handheld
Partial List of English translations
This is a partial list of translations into English of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. For a more complete list see
English Translations of Homer.
★
George Chapman (1559–1634)
★
★ ''
The Odyssey'' (
1614).
Free eBook at Bartleby.com
★
★ ''Chapman's Homer: The Iliad'', Princeton University Press (1998) ISBN 0-691-00236-3.
★
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
★
★ ''The Iliads and Odysses of Homer'' (1675)
Free eBook.
★
Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
★
★ ''
The Iliad'' (1715-1720).
Free eBook at
Project Gutenberg
★
★ ''The Odyssey'', with
William Broome and
Elijah Fenton (1725-1726), The Heritage Press (1942) ; Easton Press (1978) ; Wildside Press (2002) ISBN 1-58715-674-1.
Free eBook at Project Gutenberg
★
William Cowper (1731–1800)
★
★ ''The Iliad of Homer Translated into English Blank Verse'' (1791)
Free eBook at Project Gutenberg.
★
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799–1869)
★
★ ''The Iliad'' (1864)
Free eBook at Project Gutenberg.
★
Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
★
★ ''The Iliad'', W.J. Black (1942) ; AMS Press (1968)
Free eBook at Project Gutenberg
★
★ ''The Odyssey'', W.J. Black (1944) ; AMS Press (1968) ; IndyPublish.com (2001) ISBN 1-4043-2238-8
Free eBook at Project Gutenberg
★
Andrew Lang (1844–1912)
★
★ ''The Iliad'', with
Walter Leaf and S. H. Myers (Macmillan, 1883) ; Peter Smith Publisher Inc (1966) ISBN 0-8049-0115-5.
Free eBook at Project Gutenberg
★
Samuel Henry Butcher (1850–1910) and
Andrew Lang (1844–1912)
★
★ ''The Odyssey''
Free eBook at Project Gutenberg.
★
William Henry Denham Rouse (1863–1950)
★
★ ''The Odyssey'', Signet Classics (1999) ISBN 0-451-52736-4
★
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).
★ T.E. Shaw (
T.E. Lawrence) (1888–1935)
★
★ ''The Odyssey of Homer'', London, Walker, Merton, Rogers (1932)
★
Richmond Lattimore (1906–1984)
★
★ ''The Iliad of Homer'', University Of Chicago Press (1961) ISBN 0-226-46940-9
★
★ ''The Odyssey of Homer'', Harper Perennial Modern Classics, reprint edition (1999) ISBN 0-06-093195-7
★
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 (b. 1933)
★
★ ''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 (1997) ISBN 0-87220-352-2
★
★ ''Odyssey'', Hackett (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
★
Martin Hammond (b. 1944)
★
★ ''The Iliad: A New Prose Translation'', Penguin Classics (1988) ISBN 0-14-044444-0
★
★ ''Homer: The Odyssey'', Duckworth (2000) ISBN 0-7156-2958-1
General works on Homer
★ J. Latacz 2004, ''Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery'', Oxford, ISBN 0-19-926308-6; 5th updated and expanded edition, Leipzig 2005 (in Spanish 2003 ISBN 84-233-3487-2, modern Greek 2005 ISBN 960-16-1557-1)
★ Robert Fowler (ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Homer'', CUP, Cambridge 2004. ISBN 0-521-01246-5
★ I. Morris and B. B. Powell 1997, ''A New Companion to Homer'', Leiden. ISBN 90-04-09989-1
★ B. B. Powell 2007, "Homer," 2nd edition. Oxford. ISBN 978-1-4051-5325-5
★ A.J.B. Wace and F.H. Stubbings 1962, ''A Companion to Homer'', London. ISBN 0-333-07113-1
Influential readings and interpretations
★ E. Auerbach 1953, ''Mimesis'', Princeton (orig. publ. in German, 1946, Bern), chapter 1. ISBN 0-691-11336-X
★ M.W. Edwards 1987, ''Homer, Poet of the Iliad'', Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-3329-9
★ B. Fenik 1974, ''Studies in the Odyssey'', Wiesbaden ('Hermes' Einzelschriften 30).
★ I.J.F. de Jong 1987, ''Narrators and Focalizers'', Amsterdam/Bristol. ISBN 1-85399-658-0
★ G. Nagy 1980, "The Best of the Achaeans", Baltimore. ISBN 978-0801860157
Commentaries
★ ''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)'' (2 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
Trends in Homeric scholarship
;"Classical" analysis
★ A. Heubeck 1974, ''Die homerische Frage'', Darmstadt. ISBN 3-534-03864-9
★ R. Merkelbach 1969, ''Untersuchungen zur Odyssee'' (2nd edition), Munich. ISBN 3-406-03242-7
★ D. Page 1955, ''The Homeric Odyssey'', Oxford.
★ U. von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff 1916, ''Die Ilias und Homer'', Berlin.
★ F.A. Wolf 1795, ''Prolegomena ad Homerum'', Halle. Published in English translation 1988, Princeton. ISBN 0-691-10247-3
;Neoanalysis
★ M.E. Clark 1986, "Neoanalysis: a bibliographical review," ''Classical World'' 79.6: 379-94.
★ J. Griffin 1977, "The epic cycle and the uniqueness of Homer," ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 97: 39-53.
★ J.T. Kakridis 1949, ''Homeric Researches'', London. ISBN 0-8240-7757-1
★ W. Kullmann 1960, ''Die Quellen der Ilias (Troischer Sagenkreis)'', Wiesbaden. ISBN 3-515-00235-9
;Homer and oral tradition
★ E. Bakker 1997, ''Poetry in Speech: Orality and Homeric Discourse'', Ithaca NY. ISBN 0-8014-3295-2
★ J.M. Foley 1999, ''Homer's Traditional Art'', University Park PA. ISBN 0-271-01870-4
★ G.S. Kirk 1976, ''Homer and the Oral Tradition'', Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-21309-6
★ A.B. Lord 1960, ''The Singer of Tales'', Cambridge MA. ISBN 0-674-00283-0
★ M. Parry 1971, ''The Making of Homeric Verse'', Oxford. ISBN 0-19-520560-X
★ B. B. Powell, 1991, "Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet," ISBN 0-521-58907-X
Dating the Homeric poems
★ R. Janko 1982, ''Homer, Hesiod and the Hymns'', Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-23869-2
See also
★ Works ascribed to Homer (N.B. Almost all modern scholars believe this attribution is spurious for all but the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''.)
★
★ ''
Iliad''
★
★ ''
Odyssey''
★
★ ''
Batrachomyomachia''
★
★ ''
Cypria''
★
★ ''
Epigoni''
★
★ ''
Little Iliad''
★
★ ''
Nostoi''
★
★ ''
Phocais''
★
★ ''
Thebaid''
★
★ ''
Homeric Hymns''
★
Achaeans
★
Achilles
★
Aoidos
★
Ancient accounts of Homer
★
Aristarchus of Samothrace
★
Bibliomancy
★
Catalogue of Ships
★
Cyclic Poets
★
Dactylic hexameter
★
Deception of Zeus
★
Epic Cycle
★
Epic poetry
★
Epithets in Homer
★
Geography of the Odyssey
★
Greek mythology
★
Homeric Greek
★
Homeric nod
★
Homeric Question
★
Homeric scholarship
★
Homer's Ithaca
★
Hector
★
Historicity of the Iliad
★
Ithaca
★
Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)
★
List of characters in the Iliad
★
Odysseus
★
Peisistratos (Athens)
★
Rhapsode
★
Heinrich Schliemann
★
Shield of Achilles
★ ''
Sortes Homerica''
★ ''
Tabula Iliaca''
★ "''
Telemachy''"
★
Trojan Battle Order
★
Trojan War
★
Trojan War in art and literature
★
Troy
★
Troy VII
★
Venetus A Manuscript
★
Zenodotus of Ephesus
★ Notable Homeric Scholars
★
★
Richard Bentley
★
★
Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison
★
★
Friedrich August Wolf
★
★
Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch
★
★
Karl Lachmann
★
★
Karl Otfried Müller
★
★
Adolf Kirchhoff
★
★
David Binning Monro
★
★
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
★
★
Gilbert Murray
★
★
Milman Parry
★
★
Ioannis Kakridis
★
★
Albert Lord
★
★
Geoffrey Kirk
★
★
Martin Litchfield West
★
★
Gregory Nagy
External links
★
Works by Homer at
Project Gutenberg.
★
Collection of Homer-related links
★
Greek lessons based on Homer
★
Clyde Pharr, Homer and the study of Greek
★
Homer