Homer


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Homer was A Greek poet, to whom are attributed the great epics, the Iliad, the story of the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey, the tale of Ulysses's wanderings. The place of his birth is doubtful, probably a Greek colony on the coast of Asia Minor, and his date, once put as far back as 1200 BC, from the style of the poems attributed to him is now thought to be much later. Arguments have long raged over whether his works are in fact by the same hand, or have their origins in the lays of Homer and his followers (Homeridae), and there seems little doubt that the works were originally based on current ballads which were much modified and extended. Of the true Homer, nothing is positively known. The so-called Homeric hymns are certainly of a later age.

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Recent Forum Posts on Homer

Help Please!!!!!!!!!!!

I Really Need Help!!!!!!! i need to find out what odysseus finds out on his adventure. i need to find out what does he learn during his journey that helps him get home anyone help please my paper is due in a couple of weeks.


Which one do you like better The Odyssey or The Iliad

I want to do a vot one which book is the best so i want to ask everybody Which one do you like more The Odyssey or The Iliad


The odyssey

i need help on how to write a four paragraph essay on how telemachus struggles to become a man.throughout the epic.and i have to discuss it through at least three of the books,i was thinking 1-4


4 paragraph essay

ok so i have to write about how a boy struggles to become man.which is telemachus, and i dont have any idea what to write.any ideas?. and i have to trace its development trought at least 3 books


homer

What does it mean if you want to see something homeric? It's in a book I'm reading and it confuses me. thanks :)


Translate or Transform?

Hi! I've got a real bee in my bonnet, and I'm wondering what other people think. I've read so many different translations of Homer, and if you put them all side by side the variations are considerable - so much so, that if I didn't know the original text I'd be unsure which to trust. Translators of Homer (or any text) have to balance the literal translation with the idiom of their own language - they're not meant to paraphrase or add their own words or ideas. Yes, the meaning of the original text needs to be conveyed in translation, but not the thoughts of the Translator - that's for the Introduction! You may wonder why I'm so rattled - it's because a lot of people depend on translations to read the text, and I think the Translator has a duty not to mislead people.It may seem like I'm quibbling over a few words, but surely that's what a translation's all about - words? Especially in a text such as The Iliad and Odyssey, where the words are so beautiful. I have to depend on audiobooks to "read" now, since I lost my sight - and I've just listened to an almost sacrilegious destruction of The Odyssey!


Homer Iliad (or Odyssey?)

I'm pretty sure it's in the Iliad I just can't find where... There is a scene where a mother has to say goodbye to her son because soldiers are forcing the first-born males to die (he has to jump off a cliff). Does this ring a bell with anyone and if so, which chapter is it in? t.i.a.


Iliad or Odyssey or does it matter?

I have not read The Iliad or The Odyssey. Does it matter which I read first?


Logansvhs

hey dudes ths book is pretty sweet well i;) thnk so at least n e who yea l8tr


Homer's Riddle

The poet Homer is a bit of a riddle himself: tradition holds that he was blind, and various Greek cities claim to be his birthplace, but otherwise there is not much we know for sure about the man (or woman, as some scholars have claimed!) who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssee. There is no concrete evidence that shows that Homer was even a real person! Still, let’s stick with the legend. According to the legend, Homer himself did not know where he was born and he once stopped at Delphi to see if the Oracle could help him out. He was told `The isle of Ios is your mother’s country and it shall receive you dead; but beware the riddles of young children.’ As an old man, he happened to visit the island of Ios, and when he sat on the shore one day he met some children of local fishermen coming back from the sea and asked them what they had caught. They replied: What we caught we threw away, and what we didn’t catch we kept While Homer was trying to work it out, he remembered the oracle and realised his time was up. While still trying to figure out the answer to the riddle, he slipped, bumped his head and died. So, can you answer the riddle instead?


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