Homer, possibly an 8th-century BC Greek poet, is traditionally credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that defined ancient Greek literature and education. The Iliad unfolds around the fierce dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles during the final year of the Trojan War; the Odyssey traces Odysseus’s perilous ten-year voyage home after Troy’s fall, emphasizing human endurance under divine punishment. Written in an artificial epic dialect blending Ionic and Aeolic features and composed in dactylic hexameter, these works draw on formulaic phrases, repeated scenes, and ring composition typical of oral poetry.
From antiquity onward, Homer’s identity has been shrouded in myth. Ancient biographies variously imagined him as a blind Ionian bard, a divine descendant, or a wandering rhapsode from places across the Greek world, while modern scholars largely see these stories as legendary. The “Homeric Question” emerged as scholars debated whether one author composed both poems, how they were assembled from oral traditions, and when they were written down. Competing schools—Analysts, Unitarians, Neoanalysts, and proponents of the Oral-Formulaic Theory—have argued over whether the epics are stitched-together lays, unified creations, or evolving performances later fixed in text.
Archaeology and linguistic study suggest the poems blend Bronze Age and early Iron Age elements, preserving memories of older societies while inventing others. The texts were likely stabilised in Athens by the time of Pisistratus and later edited by Hellenistic scholars in Alexandria. Revered by figures from Plato to Dante and Pope, Homer’s epics continue to inspire translations, commentary, and reinterpretation into the modern era.