1. A BIOGRAPHY http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/3a_p1.html
HOMER
A BIOGRAPHY

2. Homer
Nothing is known of the life of Homer, but as author of two of ancient Greece's most important literary works - the Iliad and the Odyssey - his importance to Greek culture can hardly be underestimated.
Bust of Homer in the Louvre, Paris

3. HOMER
At least seven different places claimed that Homer was born on their soil in the ancient world.
The two with the strongest claims are the island of Chios and the city of Smyrna (modern Izmir, in Turkey).
Ephesus was another city-state that claimed to be the birthplace of Homer.
The consensus of opinion is that Homer probably lived and worked in Ionia, the region along what is now the west coast of Turkey.

4. Homer
According to a hymn written in honour of the god Apollo, he was a blind man from the island of Chios, in the eastern Mediterranean. Chios was home to a guild of poets, or rhapsodists, called the Homeridai, and seems to be one of the most likely candidates. However, many other Greek cities have also claimed to have been his home, as an old Greek epigram says:

5. Homer
"Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead, through which the living Homer begged his bread?“
bama.ua.edu

6. Homer
Homer's verses were first set down in writing around 700 BC, soon after the Greeks invented their own alphabet by incorporating vowels into the existing Phoenician alphabet. The verses were probably significantly older than this, because we know that until this point they had been memorized by traveling bards who earned a living by reciting them.

7. Homer
Homer's most important contribution to Greek culture was to provide a common set of values that enshrined the Greeks' own ideas about themselves. His poems provided a fixed model of heroism, nobility and the good life to which all Greeks, especially aristocrats, subscribed. In his works, disgrace due to dishonor is the worst that can happen to a hero, and a short life of glorious deeds is considered far superior to a long life of peace and mediocrity, since by great deeds a man might become immortal.

8. Homer
His portrayal of the gods is also interesting since in many ways they are used for comic relief, possessing far less dignity than their heroic mortal counterparts.

9. Homer Greek poet Is believed to have been born around 750 BC
Legends depicting him as blind may have been extrapolated from his portrayal of the blind bard, Demodocus in the Odyssey. However, he is also described as sighted in the same epic and, therefore, must infer the possibility of embellishment by admirers who placed in him the tradition of the blind prophet of the myths, Tiresias.
“Homer” is believed to be commonly used as a term for blind men who wandered the countryside reciting epic poetry

10. HOMER
The ancient Greeks attributed to him the great epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey.
The text of The Illiad and The Odyssey were not written down upon creation.
Modern scholars generally agree that he composed (but probably did not literally write) The Iliad, most likely relying on oral traditions, and at least inspired the composition of The Odyssey.
The Iliad, set during the Trojan War, tells the story of the wrath of Achilles.
The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus as he travels home from the war.
The two epics provided the basis of Greek education and culture in the Classical age, and they have remained among the most significant poems of the European tradition.

11. HOMER
John Ogilby's translation of The Odyssey (1669) is only the second complete English translation and includes scholarly annotations. Following the publication of his translation, his reputation as a scholar and translator of classic texts reached new heights.
Thomas Hobbes, who translated The Odyssey in 1675 chose not to include annotations. He wrote: "But why without Annotations? Because I had no hope to do it better than it is already done by Mr. Ogilby."