(Reproduction/Wikimedia Commons)
Homer would have been a Greek poet who is attributed with the authorship of two great classical works of Antiquity: the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey. The problem is that to this day, no concrete proof has yet been found that he actually existed. “Exact data on who Homer was, where he lived, on what date he composed the two poems are open questions. Maybe there were two authors and the works might not even have been composed in Greece”, says archaeologist Elaine Veloso Hirata, from USP. The first indirect references to the poet and quotations from his epics date from the middle of the 7th century BC, so it is speculated that, if he really existed, he must have lived around the 8th or 9th centuries BC This hypothesis is supported by the analysis of the style and content of Homeric works.
In The Odyssey, for example, there are mentions of Phoenician traders and other details that lead historians to suggest that its composition took place around the 9th century BC. 8 BC That is, the interval between one epic and another is large, but theoretically it would still be possible that they had been created by a single author. One thing, however, is certain: the dissemination of works attributed to Homer throughout a large part of the ancient world was a consequence of the growth of the book trade in the 5th century BC and the proliferation of libraries in various regions from the following century on.
It was at this time that the famous Greek historian Herodotus came to consider Homer as one of the main formulators of all Greek mythology. It was based on the existence of more than 30 poems in honor of the gods, the Homeric Hymns, also supposedly composed by the poet, but whose exact authorship was never possible to determine. Produced or not by Homer, the fact is that this set of works really helped to define ethical principles and standards of behavior that guided the conduct of Greek society for many centuries.
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Place of birth disputed
Two cities present themselves as the birthplace of the Greek authorFor centuries, the Greek city of Khíos has disputed with the Turkish city of Smyrna the glory of having been the place where Homer was born – whose hypothetical image appears in the bust at the side. For now, the break looks more favorable for the Turks. It is that geographical details mentioned in the works attributed to the poet indicate that it would be more likely that he was born in the region called Ionia in antiquity. This region is now part of the west coast of Turkey, exactly where Smyrna is located. Do Greeks and Egyptians still believe in the gods of their mythology?