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Homer

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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: 3.86 · 1,690,027 ratings · 37,290 reviews · 4,517 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Odyssey 3.81 avg rating — 1,105,619 ratings — published -700 — 4888 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) 3.91 avg rating — 466,154 ratings — published -800 — 2341 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) 4.06 avg rating — 77,620 ratings — published -800 — 817 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 4.04 avg rating — 6,031 ratings — published -699 — 159 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 by Homer, William B. Jones Jr. (Introduction) 3.86 avg rating — 3,461 ratings — 5 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 4.10 avg rating — 1,695 ratings — published -700 — 204 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) 4.50 avg rating — 1,243 ratings — published -800 — 165 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/The Aeneid by Homer, Virgil, Bernard Knox (Editor) 4.38 avg rating — 1,032 ratings — published 600 — 9 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 13–24 (Loeb Classical Library, #171) 4.54 avg rating — 974 ratings — published -750 — 118 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 3.72 avg rating — 1,080 ratings — published -850 — 6 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)

4.52 avg rating — 2,217 ratings

Ulisses (3 books)
by

Homer,

Sebastien Ferran (Adapted by)

4.30 avg rating — 30 ratings

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...

Polls

August 2016 Old School Classic Poll

-800, The Odyssey by Homer, 560 pages

44 votes, 23.2%

1857, The Professor by Charlotte Brontë, 269 pages

41 votes, 21.6%

1320, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, 798 pages

26 votes, 13.7%

1883, Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain, 384 pages

17 votes, 8.9%

1860, The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, 579 pages

16 votes, 8.4%

1830, The Red and the Black by Stendhal, 608 pages

15 votes, 7.9%

1782, Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, 448 pages

13 votes, 6.8%

1838, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe, 288 pages

13 votes, 6.8%

1859, Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov, 567 pages

5 votes, 2.6%

190 total votes

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