Homer

Statue of Homer. Handmade of alabaster,and painted in museum patina.

The masterpieces

Homer the poet is the author of the poetic work of the Iliad, [1] from the first texts of the Historical period of ancient Greece, known as “Homeric Epics”. The Iliad consists of 15,693 verses and refers to the last fifty-one (51), crucial days of the Trojan War. Which, according to legend, lasted a total of 10 years.  The Odyssey consists of about 12,110 verses .  And describes Odysseus’ ten-year struggle for nostos (return to Ithaca after his conquest of Troy). 

THE LIFE AND THE IMPACT  OF HOMER

Although these two great epic poems of ancient Greece have always been attributed to the shadowy figure of Homer.  Little is known of him beyond the fact that his was the name attached in antiquity by the Greeks themselves to the poems.  That there was an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping the Iliad and the Odyssey—so much may be said to be probable. If this assumption is accepted, then Homer must assuredly be one of the greatest of the world’s literary artists.
He is also one of the most influential authors in the widest sense.  For the two epics provided the basis of Greek education and culture throughout the Classical age .  Also formed the backbone of humane education down to the time of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.

Indirectly through the medium of Virgil’s Aeneid (which was loosely molded after the patterns of the Iliad and the Odyssey), directly through their revival under Byzantine culture from the late 8th century CE onward, and subsequently through their passage into Italy with the Greek scholars who fled westward from the Ottomans, the Homeric epics had a profound impact on the Renaissance culture of Italy. Since then the proliferation of translations has helped to make them the most important poems of the Classical European tradition.