1. Homer The Greatest Ancient Greek Epic Poet

2. Homer’s Controversy  Lived in the 8 th century B.C., but some say that he lived as late as the 12 th century  The Iliad and The Odyssey are dated back to the 8 th century  The Homeric Question concerns the doubts and consequent debate over the identity of Homer, and the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

3. Early Life  Born in Babylon as Tigranes or Melesigenes  Changed name to Homer when he was taken hostage by the Greeks. Homer or “homeros” in Greek, means hostage.  Many speculate that he was blind, and some even go as far to wonder if Homer ever existed

4. We Don’t Write Things Down  In Homer’s era, historians and entertainers did not write anything down  Greeks had no written history books, or written religious stories, including the Bible  “Singers” traveled from village to village telling townspeople their stories  There was no conflict among religion, history, or just good fun

5. Doing it from Memory  The Iliad and The Odyssey were sung from memory, and at times, the singers had to improvise  The songs had to follow a rhythm or a beat, and never pause the story to remember what comes next  Stories contained “homeric similes”, which broke the story down in layman’s terms

6. The Iliad / Ilias  The Iliad was written before The Odyssey  The Iliad tells of a ten-year war fought on the plains outside the walls of a great city called Troy (Ruins can still be seen in Western Turkey)  The Iliad also explores how the Trojan War supposedly began  The Iliad is the primary model for the epic of war

7. The Odyssey / Odysseia  The Odyssey consists of 11,300 lines  The story cannot be told in one sitting, but instead over the span of several days  The Odyssey like The Iliad is used to teach Greek virtues  The Odyssey is the model for the epic of the long journey  The Odyssey follows Odysseus as he tries to make his way home after being gone for 20 years