Homer His Life And His Works :: essays research papers

home runHis Life and His whole caboodleGreeks had used writing since c. 1400 BC, but it was not until the late eighth vitamin C BC that their literature was root written down. Greek literature began in Ionia with the brilliant epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. These mature products of a long tradition of oral poetry brought together a vast body of divine and heroic myths and sagas that served as a foundation for much subsequent Greek literature. The epic placement of humankind had a lasting influence on Greek fancy indeed, it has been said that later Greek literature is but a serial of footnotes to Homer. Homer is said to have been blind and told his stories orally. Because the facts of Homers keep when he was born or died, where he lived, who he was- remain inexplicable and shall most likely never be known. Many scholars have doubted the initiation of a Homer and point to his text editions as the work of a assemblage of authors over a long period of time. This criticism stems from a suspicion that epics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey could have been formulated, maintained, and transmitted within an oral culture. However, new-sprung(prenominal) research on human memory and careful analysis of text reveals evidence that the textual style of each poem does emanate from wholeness author. We know that he wrote two poems about the Greeks and their gods. The Iliad was Homers first epic poem, which tells the story of the Trojan War. His second epic is the Odyssey, which tells the story of a great hero Odysseus, and the adventures he embarks on. Tradition has it that he lived in the twelfth century BC, around the time of the Trojan War, in an Ionic settlement, each Chios or Smyrna, where he made his living as a beg singer and storyteller.Modern archaeological research has uncovered artifacts similar to those describe in the poems, providing evidence that Homer wrote at a later date. Because the poems exhibit a considerable knowledge of E astern, or Ionian, Greece and are written in the dialect of that region, most scholars now suppose that Homer was Ionian of the 8th or 9th century BC. Homer writes nothing of himself in his poems, but similes in the Iliad and the Odyssey frequently make reference to the humble lives of farmers and artisans, so it is sometimes conjectured that Homer was of this class.