FAMOUS AUTHORS

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Free Audio Books
  • Famous Inventors
  • Suggest
  • Contact

Homer

Homer

Homer is unarguably the greatest poet of ancient times. He is the composer of Iliad and the Odyssey which hold the privilege of being the greatest poems of world literature. Although it is not known for sure when Homer was born, the time of his birth is estimated somewhere between the 8th and 9th century B.C, however, another school of thought states that Homer lived during the era of the Trojan war in the early 12th century B.C. Homer belonged to Greece by birth but the exact location of his birth and living is also doubtful. Some believe that he was born on Chios Island while others say he lived in Ionia. The dialect and descriptions in his poems point towards the latter. Not much is known about Homer the person and therefore, his poems are used to depict his personality and life. For example, Homer is thought to be blind due to the description presented of the blind bard in The Odyssey. In fact, it is also supposed that the word Homer was used to address blind men roaming the streets reciting classical poetry. Other than being a poet, historians believe that Homer was also a story teller and a court singer.

Although there has been a great deal of controversy about the question whether Homer alone wrote the two famous poems, much of the evidence points towards Homer being the author due to the consistent style of writing. Also some analysts argue that Homer may have written one of the poems but not the other since both differ greatly in style. In contrast, the reason other analysts state for this difference is that Iliad was written in his youth while Odyssey was created during Homer’s years of age.

The famous epic, Iliad narrates the happenings in the city of Ilion during the Trojan War. Ilion was a city within the state of Troy. The word Iliad is derived from the name of the city and its literal meaning is ‘something concerned with Ilion’. The Iliad is a poetic description of the war, its main characters, fighters, incidents and scenes from the war. It explains how the Greek and Trojan warriors gain strength from their Gods and make sacrifices in their name. Although the Iliad focuses only on the last year of the war, it is an exceptionally lengthy account of the warfare.

Odyssey is based on a Greek character Odysseus. This epic poem focuses on the ten year long journey Odysseus made from Troy to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. The events leading to the start and conclusion of the war are explained in detail. The poetic story illustrates the dangerous adventures of Odysseus on his journey back home and also the ordeals his family goes through in Ithaca in his absence. The poem is written in 12, 110 lines of dactylic hexameter. It has been translated into numerous modern languages of the world and continues to be read widely.

Although the Iliad and Odyssey are Homer’s best known poems, more of his works, for instance, Homeric Hymns have come to surface. Sadly a lot of his other works are believed to be lost in time.

Buy Books by Homer

Google
Custom Search

Famous Authors

  • John Updike
  • Jonathan Safran Foer
  • Jonathan Swift
  • Jorge Luis Borges
  • José Saramago
  • Joseph Conrad
  • Joseph Heller
  • Jostein Gaarder
  • Joyce Carol Oates
  • Juan Rulfo
  • Jules Verne
  • Julian Barnes
  • Karl May
  • Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Ken Follett
  • Khaled Hosseini
  • Khalil Gibran
  • Knut Hamsun
  • Kurt Vonnegut
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Lee Child
  • Leo Tolstoy
  • Lewis Carroll
  • Lord Byron
  • Louise Hay
  • Malcolm Gladwell
  • Marcel Proust
  • Margaret Mitchell
  • Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Marguerite Yourcenar
  • Mario Puzo
  • Mario Vargas Llosa
  • Mark Twain
  • Martin Amis
  • Mary Higgins Clark
  • Mary Shelley
  • Maurice Sendak
  • Maya Angelou
  • Michael Crichton
  • Michel De Montaigne
  • Michel Houellebecq
  • Miguel De Cervantes
  • Mitch Albom
  • Napoleon Hill
  • Neil Gaiman
  • Niall Ferguson
  • Nicholas Sparks
  • Nick Hornby
  • Nicole Krauss
  • Nora Roberts
  • Norman Mailer
  • Oscar Wilde
  • Ovid
  • P. D. James
  • Patricia Cornwell
  • Paul Auster
  • Paul Celan
  • Paul Valéry
  • Paulo Coelho
  • Peter Hitchens
  • Philip Pullman
  • Pierre Dukan
  • R. L. Stine
  • Ralph Ellison
  • Raymond Carver
  • Raymond Chandler
  • Raymond E. Feist
  • Rhonda Byrne
  • Richard Bach
  • Richard Scarry
  • Richard Wright
  • Rick Riordan
  • Rick Warren
  • Roald Dahl
  • Robert Jordan
  • Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Robert Ludlum
  • Robert Munsch
  • Robin Cook
  • Roger Hargreaves
  • Rudyard Kipling
  • Rumi
  • S. E. Hinton
  • Salman Rushdie
  • Samuel Beckett
  • Samuel Johnson
  • Seamus Heaney
  • Shaun Tan
  • Sidney Sheldon
  • Simone de Beauvoir
  • Sophocles
  • Stendhal
  • Stephen Hawking
  • Stephen King
  • Stephenie Meyer
  • Stieg Larsson
  • Suzanne Collins
  • Sylvia Plath
  • Ted Hughes
  • Tennessee Williams
  • Terry Brooks
  • Terry Pratchett
  • Thomas Mann
  • Thomas Pynchon
  • Tom Clancy
  • Tom Robbins
  • Toni Morrison
  • Truman Capote
  • Umberto Eco
  • Viktor Frankl
  • Virgil
  • Virginia Woolf
  • Vladimir Nabokov
  • Walt Whitman
  • Wilbur Smith
  • William Blake
  • William Faulkner
  • William Gibson
  • William Golding
  • William S. Burroughs
  • William Shakespeare
  • Zora Neale Hurston

Famous Authors

  • Agatha Christie
  • Alan Moore
  • Albert Camus
  • Aldous Huxley
  • Alexander Mccall Smith
  • Allen Ginsberg
  • Anaïs Nin
  • Anne Frank
  • Anne Rice
  • Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
  • Anton Chekhov
  • Arthur C. Clarke
  • Arthur Miller
  • Arundhati Roy
  • Astrid Lindgren
  • Ayn Rand
  • Barbara Cartland
  • Beatrix Potter
  • Beverly Cleary
  • Brian Jacques
  • C. S. Lewis
  • Carol Ann Duffy
  • Charles Dickens
  • Chinua Achebe
  • Christopher Hitchens
  • Christopher Marlowe
  • Christopher Paolini
  • Chuck Palahniuk
  • Clive Cussler
  • Cometan
  • Cormac McCarthy
  • Czesław Miłosz
  • D.H. Lawrence
  • Dale Carnegie
  • Dan Brown
  • Danielle Steel
  • Dante Alighieri
  • Daphne du Maurier
  • Dashiell Hammett
  • Dav Pilkey
  • David Baldacci
  • David Foster Wallace
  • David Sedaris
  • Dean Koontz
  • Debbie Macomber
  • Denis Diderot
  • Don DeLillo
  • Doris Lessing
  • Douglas Adams
  • Dr. Seuss
  • E.M. Forster
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Edith Wharton
  • Elbert Hubbard
  • Elie Wiesel
  • Ellen G. White
  • Émile Zola
  • Emily Dickinson
  • Enid Blyton
  • Eoin Colfer
  • Eric Carle
  • Erica Jong
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • Euripides
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Fernando Pessoa
  • Frank McCourt
  • Flannery O’Connor
  • Franz Kafka
  • Gabriel García Márquez
  • Geoffrey Chaucer
  • George Bernard Shaw
  • George Eliot
  • George Orwell
  • George R. R. Martin
  • Germaine Greer
  • Gertrude Stein
  • Giacomo Leopardi
  • Giovanni Boccaccio
  • Günter Grass
  • Gustave Flaubert
  • H. G. Wells
  • Hans Christian Andersen
  • Harper Lee
  • Haruki Murakami
  • Henning Mankell
  • Henrik Ibsen
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • Henry James
  • Henry Miller
  • Herman Melville
  • Hermann Hesse
  • Homer
  • Honoré De Balzac
  • Hunter S. Thompson
  • Ian Fleming
  • Ian McEwan
  • Isaac Asimov
  • Isabel Allende
  • Italo Calvino
  • Italo Svevo
  • J. G. Ballard
  • J. K. Rowling
  • J. R. R. Tolkien
  • J.D. Salinger
  • Jack Kerouac
  • Jack London
  • Jackie Collins
  • Jacqueline Wilson
  • James Frey
  • James Joyce
  • James Patterson
  • Jane Austen
  • Jean M. Auel
  • Jeff Kinney
  • Jeffrey Archer
  • Jo Nesbø
  • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
  • John Gray
  • John Grisham
  • John Irving
  • John Keats
  • John Milton
  • John Steinbeck

Recent Posts

  • 10 Famous Russian Authors You Must Read
  • 10 Famous Indian Authors You Must Read
  • 10 Famous Canadian Authors You Must Read
  • Top 10 Christian Authors You Must Read
  • 10 Best Graphic Novels Of All Time
  • 10 Best Adult Coloring Books Of All Time
  • 10 Best Adventure Books of All Time

Cont.

  • 10 Best Mystery Books of All Time
  • 10 Best Science Fiction Books Of All Time
  • 12 Best Nonfiction Books of All Times
  • Top 10 Greatest Romance Authors of All Time
  • 10 Famous Science Fiction Authors You Must Be Reading
  • Top 10 Famous Romance Novels of All Time

Cont.

  • 10 Famous Science Fiction Authors You Must Be Reading
  • Top 10 Famous Romance Novels of All Time
  • 10 Best Children’s Books of All Time
  • 10 Influential Black Authors You Should Read
  • 16 Stimulating WorkPlaces of Famous Authors
  • The Joy of Books

Copyright © 2023 FamousAuthors.org