HOMERUS, aka Homer, is described only in brief and generalized context here.
He was a celebrated Greek poet, said to be the most ancient of all profane writers. Profane in that his work was not biblical, not religious, not any form of sacred texts. His work in fact has been referred to by some as writings of war and slaughter.
What age he lived is not known for certain though some have thought it to be about 168 years after the Trojan war.
According to others he lived 160 years before the foundation of Rome, which has varying dates depending on sources, but it is said the Republic of Rome was founded in 508 B.C.
According to Velleius Paterculus, Homer's life was around 968 years before the Christian era, and according to Herodotus, 884 B.C.E., referencing this also as the age of Hesiod. Another source, The Arundelian Marbles fix his era 907 years before Christ, and make him also contemporary with Hesiod.
This diversity of opinions does seem to prove the antiquity of Homer and the uncertainty surrounding the place and era of his birth.
It was recorded in the 19th century that no less than seven illustrious cities disputed the right of having given birth to Homerus, the greatest of poels. He was said to have been called Melesigenes, because he was supposed to be born on the borders of the river Meles.
Some solid reports claim that he had established a school at the Greek Island Chios in the latter part of his life, and supposedly in the 19th century the inhabitants of the island would still take pride in "showing travellers the seats where the venerable master and his pupils sat in the hollow of a rock, about four miles from the modern capital of the island."
"In his two celebrated poems called The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer has displayed the most consummate knowledge of human nature, and rendered himself immortal by the sublimity, the fire, sweetness, and elegance of his poetry. He deserves a greater degree of admiration when we consider he wrote without a model, and that none of his poetical imitators have been able to surpass, or, perhaps, to equal their great master. "
It has been recorded throught the ages that:
"If there are any faults found in his poetry, they are to be attributed to the age in which he lived, and not to him."
In his Iliad, Homer has described the resentment of Achilles, and its fatal consequences in the Grecian army before the walls of Troy.
In the Odyssey, the poet writes of the return of Odysseus or Ulysses (Roman version) into his country, with the many misfortunes which were encountered throughout his vovage after the fall of Troy.
I did read these works of Homer's but it was decades ago and I confess they did not leave an impression on me, or rather the lasting impression was only of Athena and the many and constant misfortunes. Perhaps I was too young, but likely the lack of enthusiasm was because I had no context for this. I wasn't required to read the books, I was interested. But I think one needs to have at least some background information on the Greeks, the Romans, the Trojan Wars, the vast mythodlogies in order to follow along. And I didn't.
The two It has been claimed by crytics and held in records that the Iliad claims an uncontested superiority over the Odyssey, however both are elegant masterpieces. One critic termed the two books to the mid day and setting sun, with the Illiad full force and fiery, while the Odyssey still preserves a splendour and majesty, it has lost the intense meridian heat.
The poetry of Homer was so universally admired that in ancient times every man of learning could repeat any passage in the Iliad or Odyssey. This seems a little remarkable. However in the 21st century many a persons, both learned an unlearned, can and do repeat passages amd scenes, and plots of movies as perhaps the ancients and others repeated myths and other repeated stories. Often, at the root, these come from the same soil where humans plant their seeds of imagined pasts and futures.
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