Homer interesting facts from life in brief. Homer - legendary ancient Greek poet-storyteller

Homer is a famous ancient Greek poet, whose work not only served as a model for all ancient creators - he is considered the progenitor of European literature. Many representatives of modern generations associate ancient culture with his name, and acquaintance with world literature usually begins with the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, which belonged to (or were attributed to) this legendary author. Homer is the first ancient Greek poet whose creative legacy has survived to this day, and about half of the ancient Greek papyri of literary content discovered to date are fragments of his works.

There are no reliable, historically confirmed data about the personality of Homer, his life path, and they were unknown even in antiquity. In antiquity, 9 biographies of Homer were created, and all of them were based on legends. Not only the years of his life are unknown, but also his century. According to Herodotus, this was the 9th century. BC e. Scientists of our time call approximately the 8th century. (or 7th century) BC e. There is no exact information about the place of birth of the great poet. It is believed that he lived in one of the areas of Ionia. Legend has it that as many as seven cities - Athens, Rhodes, Smyrna, Colophon, Argon, Salamis, Chios - challenged each other for the honor of calling themselves the birthplace of Homer.

According to tradition, the great poet is portrayed as a blind old man, but scientists are of the opinion that this is the influence of the ideas of the ancient Greeks, a feature of the biographical genre. The Greeks saw the relationship between poetic talent and prophetic gift in the example of many famous personalities who were deprived of sight, and believed that Homer belonged to this glorious cohort. In addition, in the Odyssey there is such a character as the blind singer Demodocus, who was identified with the author of the work himself.

From the biography of Homer there is such an episode as a poetic competition with Hesiod on the island of Euboea. Poets read their best works at games organized in memory of the deceased Amphidemus. The victory, according to the will of the judge, went to Hesiod, since he glorified the peaceful life and work of farmers, but legend says that the public sympathized more with Homer.

Like everything else in Homer’s biography, it is not known for certain whether the famous poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” belonged to his pen. In science since the 18th century. there is the so-called Homeric question - this is the name of the controversy surrounding the authorship and history of writing legendary works. Be that as it may, it was they who brought the author fame for all time and entered the treasury of world literature. Both poems are based on legends and myths about the Trojan War, i.e. about the military actions of the Achaean Greeks against the inhabitants of the Asia Minor city, and represent a heroic epic - a large-scale canvas, the characters of which are both historical characters and heroes of myths.

The ancient Greeks considered these poems sacred, solemnly performed them on public holidays, they began and completed the learning process with them, seeing in them a treasury of a wide variety of knowledge, lessons of wisdom, beauty, justice and other virtues, and their author was revered almost as deity. According to the great Plato, Greece owes its spiritual development to Homer. The poetics of this master of words had a huge influence on the work of not only ancient authors, but also recognized classics of European literature living many centuries later.

There are so-called Homeric hymns, which in ancient times were attributed to the great blind man, but neither they nor other works of which Homer was called the author belong to his creative heritage.

According to Herodotus and Pausanias, death overtook Homer on the island of Ios (Cyclades archipelago).

HOMER, the first of the Greek poets whose works have come down to us, and generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest of European poets. We do not have any reliable information about him and his life.

Many cities laid claim to the right to be called the poet’s homeland, among them Smyrna and Chios in Asia Minor. In the same way, ancient chronographs differ in the dates of Homer’s life: some make him contemporary with the Trojan War (early 12th century BC), but Herodotus believed that Homer lived in the mid-9th century. BC. Modern scholars tend to attribute his activities to the 8th or even 7th century. BC, indicating as his main place of stay Chios or some other region of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor. In ancient times, Homer, in addition to the Iliad and Odyssey, was credited with the authorship of other poems (fragments from some of them have survived), but modern researchers usually believe that their authors lived later than Homer.

Nothing is known for certain about the life and personality of Homer.

It is clear, however, that the Iliad and Odyssey were created much later than the events described in them, but earlier than the 6th century BC. e., when their existence was reliably recorded. Thus, the chronological period in which Homer’s life could be localized is from the 12th to the 7th century BC. e., but the most likely date is the latest.

Homer's birthplace is unknown. Seven cities fought for the right to be called his homeland: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens. Probably, the Iliad and Odyssey were composed on the Asia Minor coast of Greece, inhabited by Ionian tribes, or on one of the adjacent islands. However, the Homeric dialect does not even provide accurate information about Homer’s tribal affiliation, since it is a combination of the Ionian and Aeolian dialects of the ancient Greek language. There is an assumption that the Homeric dialect represents one of the forms of poetic Koine, which was formed long before the estimated time of Homer's life. Traditionally, Homer is portrayed as blind. It is most likely that this idea does not come from the real facts of Homer’s life, but is a reconstruction typical of the genre of ancient biography. Since many outstanding legendary soothsayers and singers were blind (for example, Tiresias), according to ancient logic that connected the prophetic and poetic gifts, the assumption of Homer’s blindness looked very plausible. In addition, the singer Demodocus in the Iliad is blind from birth, which could also be perceived as autobiographical. There is a legend about the poetic duel between Homer and Hesiod, described in the work “The Contest of Homer and Hesiod,” created no later than the 3rd century. BC e., and according to many researchers, much earlier. The poets allegedly met on the island of Euboea at games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus and each read their best poems. King Paned, who acted as a judge at the competition, awarded victory to Hesiod, since he calls for agriculture and peace, and not for war and massacres. However, the audience's sympathies were on Homer's side. In addition to the Iliad and the Odyssey, a number of works are attributed to Homer, undoubtedly created later: “Homeric hymns”, the comic poem “Margit”, etc. They tried to explain the meaning of the name “Homer” back in antiquity, the options “hostage” or “blind” were proposed. .

Homer - Greek Homeros, lat. Homerus, a poet who stands at the origins of Greek and, therefore, European literature, whose name is associated with the oldest literary genre of the Greeks, the heroic epic, especially the Iliad and Odyssey. Already in ancient times, nothing reliable was known about the personality and time of Homer’s life. He was depicted as a blind old man. Of the cities that claimed the right to be considered his homeland, the claims of Smyrna in Ionian Asia Minor and the island of Chios seem to be the most justified. It is generally accepted that Homer lived around the 8th century BC. Homer is a poet of classical antiquity, but at the same time he is a great teacher-mentor and a model for all of antiquity. “The Homeric Question” (the question about the author and the circumstances of the emergence of the Homeric epic) existed already in antiquity. Back in the 6th century. BC. By order of Pisistratus, the texts of Homer were examined. Up to 5th century BC. In addition to the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer was also credited with numerous epic poems (the so-called epic cycle Cypria, Margaret, Homeric hymns). Homer was considered the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey until the “chorizonten” (dividers) challenged his authorship of the Odyssey in the Hellenistic era. In modern times, F. A. Wolf in his “Prolegomena ad Homerum” (1795) again raised this question. Between scholars who divided the epic into separate songs (Lachmann's song theory) and Unitarians who defended the strict unity of the epic stood scholars who accepted later interpolations, expansions, and compilations of several minor epics, or considered Homer only as the editor of the epic. The state of modern research allows us to consider Homer the author of the Iliad. He used more ancient songs, drawing on epic traditions and acting according to a single plan. These songs, heroic tales and small epics are an oral preliminary stage that leads into the world of the 2nd millennium to the early Greek tribes that penetrated the Mediterranean. The question of the extent to which the Cretan-Mycenaean culture is reflected in the Iliad again became controversial after an attempt was made to decipher Linear B. The songs were performed by wandering rhapsodists at meals of the noble society (nobility). Whether these rhapsodes had at least partially written texts is controversial, as is the question of the written text of Homer's epic. The use of the B. letter is considered very probable today, given the artistic composition of the poems. The Iliad, named after the Greek city of Ilion (Troy), depicts a 49-day period of time in 24 books, the end of the 10-year Greek struggle for Troy. Its theme is the anger of Achilles, from whom Agamemnon stole his slave Briseis, because of which Achilles refused to participate in battles. After his friend Patroclus is killed, Achilles re-enters the battle to avenge him. From his mother Thetis, Achilles receives the armor forged for him by Hephaestus (description of the shield in the 18th book) and kills Hector in battle. The epic ends with funeral games in honor of Patroclus. The Iliad reflects different eras. Numerous episodic events along with the main action show heroes, often descended from the gods, in difficult battles. The gods take part in the struggle on both sides, and multiple scenes with the gods take on the character of a burlesque. What follows are small poetic additions to the Odyssey, which is apparently a later work and not Homer's. The poem probably belongs to a student of Homer (?) and was revised later. The 24 books chronicle Odysseus's 10-year journey and return to his homeland to his wife Penelope. Before returning home, Odysseus stops with the nymph Calypso. After the shipwreck, appearing before the Phaeacians, the hero talks about the events he experienced. The poem tells how Penelope, waiting for her husband to return home, cunningly delays her marriage with the suitors; her son Telemachus assists Odysseus, who has returned home unrecognized, in beating the suitors. In the epic, many stories about sea voyages are intertwined with fairy-tale motifs. Vase painting, as well as wall painting, in various variations represents numerous scenes from the “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, plastic created an idealized portrait of the blind poet “Iliad” and “Odyssey” are written in hexameter, their language is built on the long traditions of artistic speech from the Ionian -Aeolian elements. Distinct phrases repeated in the form of formulas probably refer to the oral initial stages preserved in the epic. Among the unattainable peaks of Homer's epic are flights of fantasy, the power of eloquence, slowing down the pace of action to create dramatic tension, in particular, art, naturalness in the depiction of life, the beauty of comparisons, testifying to the amazing observation, human participation and psychological sensitivity of the author. In the field of epic, the Iliad and the Odyssey are the highest examples of poetic works. The most widely read author for 3000 years, Homer was studied in school very early and right up to Byzantine times. Having become the standard for evaluating any poem of antiquity, Homer's epic gave impetus to all subsequent artistic creativity. Livy Andronicus translated the Odyssey into Latin, Virgil, with his Aeneid, wanted to reach the level of the Homeric epic. In the areas of the Latin language, in the Middle Ages, and in Romanesque countries until modern times, the epic of Virgil had a greater influence than the epic of Homer. In the 18th century, under the influence of R. Wood (England), Homer was again recognized as an unsurpassed genius. From that time on, his poetry began to have a strong influence on the classics of world literature (Lessing, Herder, Goethe).

Homer is an ancient Greek poet. To date, there is no convincing evidence of the reality of the historical figure of Homer. According to ancient tradition, it was customary to imagine Homer as a blind wandering singer-aed; seven cities argued for the honor of being called his homeland. He was probably from Smyrna (Asia Minor), or from the island of Chios. It can be assumed that Homer lived around the 8th century BC.

Homer is credited with authoring two of the greatest works of ancient Greek literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey. In ancient times, Homer was recognized as the author of other works: the poem “Batrachomachia” and the collection of “Homeric hymns.” Modern science assigns only the Iliad and the Odyssey to Homer, and there is an opinion that these poems were created by different poets and at different historical times. Even in ancient times, the “Homeric question” arose, which is now understood as a set of problems related to the origin and development of the ancient Greek epic, including the relationship between folklore and literary creativity itself.

The time of creation of poems. History of the text

Biographical information about Homer given by ancient authors is contradictory and implausible. “Seven cities, arguing, are called the homeland of Homer: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Pylos, Argos, Ithaca, Athens,” says one Greek epigram (in fact, the list of these cities was more extensive). Regarding the time of Homer's life, ancient scholars gave various dates, starting from the 12th century BC (after the Trojan War) and ending with the 7th century BC; There was a widespread legend about a poetic competition between Homer and Hesiod. Most researchers believe that Homer's poems were created in Asia Minor, in Ionia in the 8th century BC, based on mythological tales about the Trojan War. There is late antique evidence of the final edition of their texts under the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus in the mid-6th century BC, when their performance was included in the festivals of the Great Panathenaia.

In ancient times, Homer was credited with the comic poems “Margit” and “The War of Mice and Frogs”, a cycle of works about the Trojan War and the return of heroes to Greece: “Cypria”, “Aethiopida”, “The Little Iliad”, “The Capture of Ilion”, “Returns” ( so-called “cyclical poems”, only small fragments have survived). Under the name "Homeric Hymns" there was a collection of 33 hymns to the gods. During the Hellenistic era, philologists of the Library of Alexandria Aristarchus of Samothrace, Zenodotus of Ephesus, Aristophanes of Byzantium did a great deal of work collecting and clarifying the manuscripts of Homer’s poems (they also divided each poem into 24 cantos according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet). The sophist Zoilus (4th century BC), nicknamed “the scourge of Homer” for his critical statements, became a household name. Xenon and Hellanicus, so-called. “dividing”, expressed the idea that Homer may have owned only one “Iliad”; they, however, did not doubt either the reality of Homer or the fact that each of the poems had its own author.

Homeric question

The question of the authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey was raised in 1795 by the German scientist Friedrich August Wolf in the preface to the publication of the Greek text of the poems. Wolf considered it impossible to create a large epic in an unwritten period, believing that the tales created by various aeds were written down in Athens under Peisistratus. Scientists were divided into “analysts”, followers of Wolf’s theory (German scientists K. Lachmann, A. Kirchhoff with his theory of “small epics”; G. Herman and the English historian J. Groth with their “theory of the main core”, in Russia it was shared by F . F. Zelinsky), and “unitarians”, supporters of the strict unity of the epic (Homer translator Johann Heinrich Voss and philologist G.V. Nitsch, Johann Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in Germany, Nikolai Ivanovich Gnedich, Vasily Andreevich

Zhukovsky, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in Russia).

Homeric poems and epics

In the 19th century, the Iliad and Odyssey were compared with the epics of the Slavs, skaldic poetry, Finnish and German epics. In the 1930s The American classical philologist Milman Parry, comparing Homer's poems with the living epic tradition that still existed at that time among the peoples of Yugoslavia, discovered in Homer's poems a reflection of the poetic technique of folk singers. The poetic formulas they created from stable combinations and epithets (“swift-footed” Achilles, “shepherd of nations” Agamemnon, “much-witted” Odysseus, “sweet-tongued” Nestor) made it possible for the narrator to “improvise” perform epic songs consisting of many thousands of verses.

The Iliad and Odyssey belong entirely to the centuries-old epic tradition, but this does not mean that oral creativity is anonymous. “Before Homer, we cannot name anyone’s poem of this kind, although, of course, there were many poets” (Aristotle). Aristotle saw the main difference between the Iliad and the Odyssey from all other epic works in the fact that Homer does not unfold his narrative gradually, but builds it around one event - the basis of the poems is the dramatic unity of action. Another feature that Aristotle also drew attention to: the character of the hero is revealed not by the author’s descriptions, but by the speeches uttered by the hero himself.

Language of poems

The language of Homer's poems - exclusively poetic, “supra-dialectal” - was never identical to living spoken language. It consisted of a combination of Aeolian (Boeotia, Thessaly, the island of Lesbos) and Ionian (Attica, island Greece, the coast of Asia Minor) dialect features with the preservation of the archaic system of earlier eras. The songs of the Iliad and Odyssey were metrically shaped by the hexameter, a poetic meter with roots in Indo-European epic, in which each verse consists of six feet with a regular alternation of long and short syllables. The unusual poetic language of the epic was emphasized by the timeless nature of events and the greatness of the images of the heroic past.

Homer and archeology

Sensational discoveries of the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870-80s. proved that Troy, Mycenae and the Achaean citadels are not a myth, but a reality. Schliemann's contemporaries were struck by the literal correspondence of a number of his findings in the fourth shaft tomb in Mycenae with the descriptions of Homer. The impression was so strong that the era of Homer became associated for a long time with the heyday of Achaean Greece in the 14th-13th centuries BC. The poems, however, also contain numerous archaeologically attested features of the “heroic age” culture, such as mention of iron tools and weapons or the custom of cremation of the dead.

A comparison of the evidence of the Homeric epic with archaeological data confirms the conclusions of many researchers that in its final edition it took shape in the 8th century BC, and many researchers consider the “Catalog of Ships” (Iliad, 2nd Canto) to be the oldest part of the epic. . Obviously, the poems were not created at the same time: “The Iliad” reflects ideas about the person of the “heroic period”; “The Odyssey” stands, as it were, at the turn of another era - the time of the Great Greek colonization, when the boundaries of the world mastered by Greek culture expanded.

Homer in antiquity

For people of antiquity, Homer's poems were a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism, a source of wisdom and knowledge of all aspects of life - from military art to practical morality. Homer, along with Hesiod, was considered the creator of a comprehensive and orderly mythological picture of the universe: the poets “compiled genealogies of the gods for the Hellenes, provided the names of the gods with epithets, divided virtues and occupations among them, and drew their images” (Herodotus). According to Strabo, Homer was the only poet of antiquity who knew almost everything about the ecumene, the peoples inhabiting it, their origin, way of life and culture. Thucydides, Pausanias, and Plutarch used Homer’s data as authentic and trustworthy. The father of tragedy, Aeschylus, called his dramas “crumbs from the great feasts of Homer.”

Greek children learned to read from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer was quoted, commented on, and explained allegorically. The Pythagorean philosophers called on the Pythagorean philosophers to correct souls by reading selected passages from Homer’s poems. Plutarch reports that Alexander the Great always carried a copy of the Iliad with him, which he kept under his pillow along with a dagger.

Translations of Homer

In the 3rd century. BC e. The Roman poet Livy Andronicus translated the Odyssey into Latin. In medieval Europe, Homer was known only through quotations and references from Latin writers and Aristotle; Homer's poetic glory was eclipsed by the glory of Virgil. Only at the end of the 15th century. The first translations of Homer into Italian appeared (Angelo Poliziano and others). An event in European culture of the 18th century. There were translations of Homer into English by Alexander Popa and into German by I. G. Voss. For the first time, fragments of the Iliad were translated into Russian into twenty-syllable syllabics - the so-called. Alexandrian - verse by Mikhail Lomonosov. At the end of the 18th century. E. Kostrov translated the first six songs of the Iliad (1787) in iambic; Prose translations of P. Ekimov’s “Iliad” and P. Sokolov’s “Odyssey” were published.

The titanic work of creating the Russian hexameter and adequately reproducing Homer’s figurative system was done by N. I. Gnedich, whose translation of the Iliad (1829) still remains unsurpassed in the accuracy of philological reading and historical interpretation. The translation of “The Odyssey” by Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1842-49) is distinguished by the highest artistic skill. In the 20th century, Gmer's Iliad and Odyssey were translated by the Russian writer Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev.

Homer, whose biography interests many today, is the first poet of Ancient Greece whose works have survived to this day. He is still considered one of the best European poets today. However, there is no reliable information about Homer himself. Nevertheless, we will try to reconstruct his biography, at least in general terms, based on the available information.

What does Homer's name mean?

The name "Homer" first appears in the 7th century. BC e. It was then that Callinus of Ephesus gave this name to the creator of Thebaid. They tried to explain the meaning of this name back in antiquity. The following options were offered: “blind” (Ephorus of Kim), “following” (Aristotle), “hostage” (Hesychius). However, modern researchers believe that all of them are as unconvincing as the proposals of some scientists to attribute to him the meaning of “accompanist” or “compiler”. Surely in its ionic form this word is a real personal name.

Where is Homer from?

The biography of this poet can only be reconstructed speculatively. This even applies to Homer's birthplace, which is still unknown. Seven cities fought for the right to be considered his homeland: Chios, Smyrna, Salamis, Colophon, Argos, Rhodes, Athens. It is likely that the Odyssey and the Iliad were created on the Asia Minor coast of Greece, which was inhabited at that time by Ionian tribes. Or perhaps these poems were composed on one of the adjacent islands. The Homeric dialect, however, does not provide any precise information about which tribe Homer belonged to, whose biography remains a mystery. It is a combination of the Aeolian and Ionian dialects of ancient Greek. Some researchers suggest that it is one of the forms of the poetic Koine that formed long before Homer.

Was Homer blind?

Homer is an ancient Greek poet, whose biography has been reconstructed by many, from ancient times to the present day. It is known that he is traditionally depicted as blind. However, it is most likely that this idea of ​​him is a reconstruction, typical of the genre of ancient biography, and does not come from real facts about Homer. Since many legendary singers and soothsayers were blind (in particular, Tiresias), according to the logic of antiquity, which linked the poetic and prophetic gifts, the assumption that Homer was blind seemed plausible.

Years of Homer's life

Antique chronographs also differ in determining the time when Homer lived. The writer whose biography interests us could have created his works in different years. Some believe that he was a contemporary, that is, he lived at the beginning of the 12th century. BC e. However, Herodotus argued that Homer lived around the middle of the 9th century. BC e. Modern scholars tend to date his activities to the 8th or even 7th century BC. e. At the same time, Chios or another region of Ionia, located on the coast of Asia Minor, is indicated as the main place of life.

Homer's work

In ancient times, Homer, in addition to the Odyssey and the Iliad, was credited with the authorship of several other poems. Fragments of several of them have survived to this day. However, today it is believed that they were written by an author who lived later than Homer. This is the comic poem "Margit", "Homeric Hymns", etc.

It is clear that the Odyssey and Iliad were written much later than the events described in these works. However, their creation can be dated no earlier than the 6th century BC. e., when their existence was reliably recorded. Thus, Homer's life can be attributed to the period from the 12th to the 7th century BC. e. However, the latest date is the most likely.

Duel between Hesiod and Homer

What more can be said about such a great poet as Homer? Biography for children usually omits this point, but there is a legend about a poetic duel that took place between Hesiod and Homer. It was described in a work created no later than the 3rd century. BC e. (and some researchers believe that much earlier). It's called "The Contest between Homer and Hesiod." It tells that the poets allegedly met at games in honor of Amphidemus, held on about. Euboea. Here they read their best poems. The judge at the competition was King Paned. Victory was awarded to Hesiod because he called for peace and agriculture, and not for massacres and war. However, the audience's sympathies were precisely on Homer's side.

Historicity of the Odyssey and Iliad

In science in the mid-19th century, the prevailing opinion was that the Odyssey and the Iliad were unhistorical works. However, he was refuted by the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann, which he carried out in Mycenae and on the Hissarlik hill in the 1870-80s. The sensational discoveries of this archaeologist proved that Mycenae, Troy and the Achaean citadels existed in reality. The contemporaries of the German scientist were struck by the correspondence of his findings in the 4th hipped tomb, located in Mycenae, with the descriptions made by Homer. Egyptian and Hittite documents were later discovered that show parallels with the events of the Trojan War. A lot of information about the time of action of the poems was provided by the decipherment of the Mycenaean syllabary writing. However, the relationship between Homer's works and available documentary and archaeological sources is complex and cannot therefore be used uncritically. The fact is that in traditions of this kind there should be large distortions of historical information.

Homer and the education system, imitation of Homer

The ancient Greek education system, which emerged towards the end of the classical era, was based on the study of Homer's works. His poems were memorized in whole or in part, recitations were organized based on their themes, etc. Later, Rome borrowed this system. Here since the 1st century AD. e. Virgil took Homer's place. Large hexametric poems were created in the post-classical era in the dialect of the ancient Greek author, as well as in competition with or in imitation of the Odyssey and Iliad. As you can see, many were interested in the work and biography of Homer. A summary of his works formed the basis for many works by authors who lived in Ancient Rome. Among them we can note the “Argonautica” written by Apollonius of Rhodes, the work of Nonnus of Panopolitanus “The Adventures of Dionysus” and Quintus of Smyrna “Post-Homeric Events”. Recognizing the merits of Homer, other poets of ancient Greece refrained from creating a large epic form. They believed that flawless perfection could only be achieved in a small work.

Homer's influence on the literature of different countries

In ancient Roman literature, the first surviving work (albeit in fragments) was a translation of the Odyssey. It was made by the Greek Livius Andronicus. Let us note that the main work of Rome - in the first six books is an imitation of the Odyssey, and in the last six - of the Iliad. In almost all the works of antiquity one can discern the influence of the poems that Homer created.

His biography and work were also of interest to the Byzantines. In this country Homer was carefully studied. To date, dozens of Byzantine manuscripts of his poems have been discovered. This is unprecedented for works of antiquity. Moreover, Byzantine scholars created commentaries and scholia on Homer, compiled and rewrote his poems. Seven volumes are occupied by Archbishop Eustathius' commentary on them. Greek manuscripts came to the West in the last years of the Byzantine Empire, and then after its collapse. This is how Homer was rediscovered by the Renaissance.

The short biography of this poet, created by us, leaves many questions unresolved. All of them together constitute the Homeric question. How did different researchers solve it? Let's figure it out.

Homeric question

The Homeric question is still relevant today. This is a set of problems that relate to the authorship of the Odyssey and the Iliad, as well as to the personality of their creator. Many pluralist scholars believed that these poems were not truly the works of Homer, who many believed did not exist at all. Their creation is attributed to the 6th century BC. e. These scholars believe that the poems were most likely created in Athens, when songs of different authors, passed down from generation to generation, were collected together and recorded in writing. Unitarians, on the contrary, defended the compositional unity of Homer's creations, and therefore the uniqueness of their creator.

Homer's poems

This ancient Greek author is a brilliant, priceless work of art. Over the centuries, they have not lost their deep meaning and relevance. The plots of both poems are taken from a multifaceted and extensive cycle of legends dedicated to the Trojan War. The Odyssey and Iliad depict only small episodes from this cycle. Let us briefly characterize these works, completing our story about such a great man as Homer. The poet, whose brief biography we reviewed, created truly unique works.

"Iliad"

It talks about the events of the 10th year of the Trojan War. The poem ends with the death and burial of the main Trojan warrior Hector. The ancient Greek poet Homer, whose brief biography is presented above, does not talk about further events of the war.

War is the main thread of this poem, the main element of its characters. One of the features of the work is that the battle is depicted mainly not as bloody battles of the masses, but as a battle of individual heroes who demonstrate exceptional strength, courage, skill and perseverance. Among the battles, one can highlight the key duel between Achilles and Hector. The martial arts of Diomedes, Agamemnon and Menelaus are described with less heroism and expressiveness. The Iliad depicts very vividly the habits, traditions, moral aspects of life, morality and life of the ancient Greeks.

"Odyssey"

We can say that this work is more complex than the Iliad. In it we find many features that are still being studied from a literary point of view. This epic poem mainly deals with the return of Odysseus to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War.

In conclusion, we note that the works of Homer are a treasury of wisdom of the people of Ancient Greece. What other facts might be interesting about a person like Homer? Brief biography for children and adults often contains information that he was an oral storyteller, that is, he did not speak writing. However, despite this, his poems are distinguished by high skill and poetic technique, they reveal unity. "The Odyssey" and "Iliad" have characteristic features, one of which is the epic style. The sustained tone of the narrative, unhurried thoroughness, complete objectivity of the image, unhurried development of the plot - these are the characteristic features of the works that Homer created. A short biography of this poet, we hope, has aroused your interest in his work.

Homer is known to the world as an ancient Greek poet. Modern science recognizes Homer as the author of such poems as the Iliad and the Odyssey, but in antiquity he was recognized as the author of other works. It is worth saying that the existence of Homer’s personality is, in principle, questioned. There is also an opinion that the authorship of both the Iliad and the Odyssey belongs to different people who lived at different times. There are also works called Homeric hymns, but they are not counted among the creations of Homer himself.

Be that as it may, Homer is the first ancient poet whose works have survived to this day. During his lifetime, 9 biographies of him were compiled. So, according to Herodotus, the poet lived in the 9th century. BC e. To this day, the place of his birth remains a mystery, but it is generally accepted that he lived in Asia Minor, in Ionia. According to legend, as many as 7 of the largest Greek city policies argued for the right to call themselves the homeland of the creator.

It is traditional to portray Homer as blind, but scientists explain this not so much by the real state of his vision, but by the influence of the culture of the ancient Greeks, where poets were identified with prophets.

In the poet's biography there is a place for a poetic battle with such a person as Hesiod. It took place on the island of Euboea during games in memory of the deceased. Hesiod emerged victorious because he raised more populist themes. However, Homer was more sympathetic to the audience.

Since the 17th century, scientists have been faced with the so-called Homeric question - a dispute about the authorship of legendary poems. But, no matter what scientists argue about, Homer went down in the history of world literature, and in his homeland he had special respect for a long time after his death. His epics were considered sacred, and Plato himself said that the spiritual development of Greece was the merit of Homer.

The legendary storyteller died on the island of Ios.

Homer's biography about the main thing

Before talking about the biographical facts of Homer, it should be noted that his name translated from ancient Greek means “blind.” Perhaps it was for this reason that the assumption arose that the ancient Greek poet was blind.

If we talk about the exact date of Homer’s birth, it is not known for certain until today. But there are several versions of his birth.

So, version one. According to her, Homer was born very little time after the end of the war with Troy.

According to the second version, Homer was born during the Trojan War and saw all the sad events. If you follow the third version, Homer's life span varies from 100 to 250 years after the end of the Trojan War.

But all versions are similar in that the period of Homer’s creativity, or rather his heyday, falls at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 9th century BC.

The exact date of Homer’s birth is unknown, and the place where the ancient rhetorician was born is also unknown. As many as seven cities in Greece are arguing over where Homer was actually born. These are, for example, Athens, Colophon, Smyrna, Argos and others.

Due to the insufficiency of many biographical data, a large number of legends began to appear in connection with the personality of Homer.

One of them says that shortly before his death, Homer turned to the seer so that he would reveal the secret of his origin into the world. Then the seer named Ios as the place where Homer would die. Homer went there. He remembered the sage’s admonition to beware of riddles from young people. But remembering is one thing, but in reality it always turns out differently. The boys who were fishing saw the stranger, got into conversation with him and asked him a riddle. He could not find an answer to it, he went in his thoughts, stumbled and fell. Three days later, Homer died. He was buried there.

Homer penned two brilliant poems: “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad.” The Greeks have always believed and continue to think so. Some critics began to question this fact and began to express the point of view according to which these works appeared only in the 18th century and they did not belong to Homer at all.

In the 18th century, German linguists published a work in which they talk about the fact that during Homer’s life there was no writing, texts were stored in memory and passed on from mouth to mouth. Therefore, such significant texts could not be preserved in this way.

It is worth noting that such famous masters of the pen as Goethe and Schiller still gave the authorship of the poems to Homer. We believe that it is important to provide additional interesting facts related to the biography and work of the ancient Greek rhetorician.

Firstly, a selective translation of Homer’s texts was carried out by Mikhail Lomonosov.

Secondly, in 1829 Nikolai Gnedich translated the Iliad completely into Russian for the first time.

Thirdly, today there are nine versions of Homer’s biography, but none can be considered completely documentary. Fiction occupies a large place in each description.

5, 6, 7 grade ancient Greece for children

Interesting facts and dates from life

Homer is an ancient Greek poet - storyteller, collector of legends, author of the ancient literary works "Iliad" and "Odyssey".

Historians do not have exact data on the narrator’s date of birth. The poet's birthplace also remains a mystery. Historians believe that the most likely period of Homer’s life is the X-VIII centuries BC. One of six cities is considered the place of the poet’s possible homeland: Athens, Rhodes, Chios, Salamis, Smyrna, Argos.

More than a dozen other settlements of Ancient Greece were mentioned by different authors at different times in connection with the birth of Homer. Most often, the narrator is considered a native of Smyrna. Homer's works refer to the ancient history of the world; they make no mention of his contemporaries, which complicates dating the period of the author's life. There is a legend that Homer himself did not know the place of his birth. From the Oracle, the storyteller learned that the island of Ios was the birthplace of his mother.

Biographical data about the life of the narrator, presented in medieval works, raise doubts among historians. In works about the poet's life it is mentioned that Homer is the name that the poet received due to his acquired blindness. Translated, it can mean “blind” or “slave.” At birth, his mother named him Melesigenes, which means “born by the Meles River.” According to one legend, Homer went blind when he saw the sword of Achilles. As a consolation, the goddess Thetis endowed him with the gift of singing.

There is a version that the poet was not a “follower”, but a “leader”. They named him Homer not after the storyteller became blind, but on the contrary, he regained his sight and began to speak wisely. According to most ancient biographers, Melesigenes was born of a woman named Crifeis.

The storyteller performed at the feasts of noble people, at city meetings, and in markets. According to historians, Ancient Greece experienced its heyday during the life of Homer. The poet recited parts of his works while traveling from city to city. He was respected, had lodging and food, and was not the dirty wanderer that biographers sometimes portray him to be.

There is a version that the Odyssey, the Iliad and the Homeric Hymns are the works of different authors, and Homer was only a performer. Historians consider the version that the poet belonged to a family of singers. In ancient Greece, crafts and other professions were often passed down from generation to generation. In this case, any family member could act under the name of Homer. From generation to generation, the stories and manner of performance were passed on from relative to relative. This fact would explain the different periods of creation of the poems, and would clarify the issue of the dates of the narrator’s life.

The making of a poet

One of the most detailed stories about Homer's development as a poet comes from the pen of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, whom Cicero called “the father of history.” According to the ancient historian, the poet was named Melesigenes at birth. He lived with his mother in Smyrna, where he became a student of the owner of the school, Femius. Melesigenes was very smart and well versed in science.

The teacher died, leaving his best pupil to go to school. After working as a mentor for some time, Melesigenes decided to deepen his knowledge of the world. A man named Mentes, who was from the island of Lefkada, volunteered to help him. Melesigenes closed the school and went on a sea voyage on a friend’s ship to see new cities and countries.

During his travels, the former teacher collected stories, legends, and asked about the customs of local peoples. Arriving in Ithaca, Melesigenes felt unwell. Mentes left his companion under the supervision of a reliable person and sailed to his homeland. Melesigenes set off on his further journey on foot. Along the way, he recited stories he had collected during his travels.

According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the storyteller in the city of Colophon finally went blind. There he took a new name for himself. Modern researchers tend to question the story told by Herodotus, as well as the writings of other ancient authors about the life of Homer.

Homeric question

In 1795, Friedrich August Wolf, in the preface to the publication of the text of the ancient Greek storyteller’s poems, put forward a theory called the “Homeric Question.” The main point of the scientist's opinion was that poetry in the time of Homer was an oral art. A blind wandering storyteller could not be the author of a complex work of art.

Homer composed songs, hymns, and musical epics that formed the basis of the Iliad and Odyssey. According to Wolf, the finished form of the poem was achieved thanks to other authors. Since then, scholars of Homer have been divided into two camps: “analysts” support Wolff’s theory, and “unitarians” adhere to the strict unity of the epic.

Blindness

Some researchers of Homer's work say that the poet was sighted. The fact that philosophers and thinkers in Ancient Greece were considered people deprived of ordinary vision, but having the gift of looking into the essence of things, speaks in favor of the narrator’s absence of illness. Blindness could be synonymous with wisdom. Homer was considered one of the creators of a comprehensive picture of the world, the author of the genealogy of the gods. His wisdom was obvious to everyone.

Ancient biographers drew an accurate portrait of the blind Homer in their works, but they composed their works many centuries after the poet’s death. Since no reliable data about the poet’s life has been preserved, the interpretation of ancient biographers may not have been entirely correct. This version is supported by the fact that all biographies contain fictitious events involving mythical characters.

Works

Surviving ancient evidence suggests that in antiquity, Homer's writings were considered a source of wisdom. The poems provided knowledge regarding all spheres of life - from universal morality to the basics of military art.

Plutarch wrote that the great commander always kept a copy of the Iliad with him. Greek children were taught to read from the Odyssey, and some passages from the works of Homer were prescribed by Pythagorean philosophers as a means to correct the soul.

Homer is considered the author of not only the Iliad and the Odyssey. The storyteller could be the creator of the comic poem "Margate" and the "Homeric Hymns". Among other works attributed to the ancient Greek storyteller, there is a cycle of texts about the return of the heroes of the Trojan War to Greece: “Cypria”, “The Capture of Ilion”, “Ethiopida”, “The Lesser Iliad”, “Returns”. Homer's poems are distinguished by a special language that had no analogue in colloquial speech. The manner of narration made the tales memorable and interesting.

Death

There is a legend that describes the death of Homer. In his old age, the blind storyteller went to the island of Ios. While traveling, Homer met two young fishermen who asked him a riddle: “We have what we didn’t catch, and what we caught, we threw away.” The poet thought about solving the puzzle for a long time, but could not find the right answer. The boys were catching lice, not fish. Homer was so frustrated that he couldn't solve the riddle that he slipped and hit his head.

According to another version, the narrator committed suicide, since death was not as terrible for him as the loss of mental acuity.

• There are about a dozen biographies of the storyteller that have come down to our time from antiquity, but they all contain fairy-tale elements and references to the participation of the ancient Greek gods in the events of Homer’s life.
• The poet spread his works outside of Ancient Greece with the help of his students. They were called Homerids. They traveled to different cities, performing the works of their teacher in the squares.

• Homer's work was very popular in Ancient Greece. About half of all ancient Greek papyrus scrolls found are excerpts from various works of the poet.
• The narrator's works were transmitted orally. The poems we know today were collected and structured into coherent works from disparate songs by the army of poets of the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus. Some parts of the texts were edited taking into account the wishes of the customer.

• In 1915, the Soviet prose writer wrote the poem “Insomnia. Homer. Tight Sails”, in which he appealed to the narrator and heroes of the poem “Iliad”.
• Until the mid-seventies of the twentieth century, the events described in Homer's poems were considered pure fiction. But the archaeological expedition of Heinrich Schliemann, who found Troy, proved that the work of the ancient Greek poet is based on real events. After such a discovery, admirers of Plato were strengthened in the hope that one day archaeologists would find Atlantis.