What is known about their author Homer. Brief biography of Homer

The Greek poet Homer was born approximately between the 12th and 18th centuries BC. He is famous for the epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", which had a huge influence on the European literary tradition. What else is known about Homer as their supposed author - read on.

Homeric question

Homer's biography still remains a mystery, because real facts from his life are unknown. Some scholars believe it was one person; others think that these iconic works were created by a whole group of poets.

The literary style of Homer, whoever he was, falls more into the category of a poet-storyteller, as opposed to the image of a lyric poet, for example, like Virgil or Shakespeare. These stories have repetitive elements, almost like a song's chorus, which may suggest a musical component. However, Homer's works are designated as epic rather than lyric poetry.

It was also not possible to determine the exact place where Homer was born, although scientists are still trying. It has long been said that seven cities claimed to be the poet’s native city: Smyrna, Ithaca, Colophon, Argos, Pylos, Athens, Chios. But scientists are getting closer to the opinion that Homer was from Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey) or lived near Chios, an island in the eastern Aegean Sea.

All this speculation about who he was eventually led to what is now known as the "Homeric question": did Homer really exist at all? This is considered one of the greatest literary mysteries today. But while these authorship issues may never be resolved, a poet named Homer - fictional or real - is still revered for his epic and influential great influence on the poetry of the whole world to the works: “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.

In fact, with such a colossal lack of information, almost every aspect of Homer's biography originates from his works. For example, the fact that Homer was blind - this statement is based solely on the character of the Odyssey, a blind singer-storyteller named Demodocus.

Famous poems of Homer

The Iliad and the Odyssey can be called the basis of the entire modern literature, and the poet himself is her forefather. These poems represent spirituality, wisdom, justice and courage. For many, Homer's works became the very first books - based on them in Ancient Greece Children were often taught to read. Translations of these poems into Latin appeared in the 3rd century BC. e., although the first translation into Russian was already in the 18th century.

The name "Iliad" comes from "Ilion", the second name of the city of Troy. In the poem, Homer describes an excerpt from the history of the ten-year Trojan War: the last forty-nine days before the fall of Troy. The central character of the poem turns out to be Achilles, a strong and valiant warrior, thirsting for revenge for his murdered friend Patroclus.

Despite the fact that Homer’s poem “The Iliad” is replete with scenes of battles, the main message of this poem is humanistic. Here even Zeus admits his dislike for the god of war, just as Achilles condemns any war other than defensive ones.

In the Odyssey, Homer tells us about the post-war period - a long and adventurous return from the Trojan War. The main character of the poem, another hero of Greek mythology, Odysseus, ten years after the end of the war, is still looking for a way back to his homeland and finds himself in different stories. Unlike the strong and brave Achilles from the Iliad, Odysseus’s main trump card is his sharp mind, thanks to which he managed to get out of more than one scrape, and even help others.

The poem is constructed in a light, fairy-tale genre. It wonderfully reveals the features of life, material culture, customs and traditions, as well as the organization of society in Ancient Greece.

Although in general modern science tends to attribute only the Iliad and the Odyssey to the works of the ancient Greek poet, Homer, according to some scientists, is also considered the author of poems called “The War of Mice and Frogs”, “Margit”, as well as a collection of thirty-three divine hymns called “Homeric hymns."

And now we invite you to listen to an interesting discussion of Homer’s poem “The Iliad” in the following video:

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!

The making of a poet

One of the most detailed stories about Homer's development as a poet comes from the pen of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, whom Cicero called “the father of history.” According to the ancient historian, the poet was named Melesigenes at birth. He lived with his mother in Smyrna, where he became a student of the owner of the school, Femius. Melesigenes was very smart and well versed in science.

The teacher died, leaving his best pupil to go to school. After working as a mentor for some time, Melesigenes decided to deepen his knowledge of the world. A man named Mentes, who was from the island of Lefkada, volunteered to help him. Melesigenes closed the school and went on a sea voyage on a friend’s ship to see new cities and countries.

Poet Homer

During his travels, the former teacher collected stories, legends, and asked about the customs of local peoples. Arriving in Ithaca, Melesigenes felt unwell. Mentes left his companion under the supervision of a reliable person and sailed to his homeland. Melesigenes set off on his further journey on foot. Along the way, he recited stories he had collected during his travels.

According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the storyteller in the city of Colophon finally went blind. There he took a new name for himself. Modern researchers tend to question the story told by Herodotus, as well as the writings of other ancient authors about the life of Homer.

Homeric question

In 1795, Friedrich August Wolf, in the preface to the publication of the text of the ancient Greek storyteller’s poems, put forward a theory called the “Homeric Question.” The main point of the scientist's opinion was that poetry in the time of Homer was an oral art. A blind wandering storyteller could not have been the author of a complex work of art.

Busts of Homer

Homer composed songs, hymns, and musical epics that formed the basis of the Iliad and Odyssey. According to Wolf, the finished form of the poem was achieved thanks to other authors. Since then, scholars of Homer have been divided into two camps: “analysts” support Wolff’s theory, and “unitarians” adhere to the strict unity of the epic.

Blindness

Some researchers of Homer's work say that the poet was sighted. The fact that philosophers and thinkers in Ancient Greece were considered people deprived of ordinary vision, but having the gift of looking into the essence of things, speaks in favor of the narrator’s absence of illness. Blindness could be synonymous with wisdom. Homer was considered one of the creators of a comprehensive picture of the world, the author of the genealogy of the gods. His wisdom was obvious to everyone.

Blind Homer with a guide. Artist William Bouguereau

Ancient biographers drew an accurate portrait of the blind Homer in their works, but they composed their works many centuries after the poet’s death. Since no reliable data about the poet’s life has been preserved, the interpretation of ancient biographers may not have been entirely correct. This version is supported by the fact that all biographies contain fictitious events involving mythical characters.

Works

Surviving ancient evidence suggests that in antiquity, Homer's writings were considered a source of wisdom. The poems provided knowledge regarding all spheres of life - from universal morality to the fundamentals of military art.

Plutarch wrote that great commander I always kept a copy of the Iliad with me. Greek children were taught to read from the Odyssey, and some passages from the works of Homer were prescribed by Pythagorean philosophers as a means to correct the soul.

Illustration for the Iliad

Homer is considered the author of not only the Iliad and the Odyssey. The storyteller could be the creator of the comic poem "Margate" and the "Homeric Hymns". Among other works attributed to the ancient Greek storyteller, there is a cycle of texts about the return of the heroes of the Trojan War to Greece: “Cypria”, “The Capture of Ilion”, “Ethiopida”, “The Lesser Iliad”, “Returns”. Homer's poems are distinguished by a special language that had no analogue in colloquial speech. The manner of narration made the tales memorable and interesting.

Death

There is a legend that describes the death of Homer. In his old age, the blind storyteller went to the island of Ios. While traveling, Homer met two young fishermen who asked him a riddle: “We have what we didn’t catch, and what we caught, we threw away.” The poet thought about solving the puzzle for a long time, but could not find the right answer. The boys were catching lice, not fish. Homer was so frustrated that he couldn't solve the riddle that he slipped and hit his head.

Elder Homer wearing a laurel wreath. Painting from the Henry Walters Museum

According to another version, the narrator committed suicide, since death was not as terrible for him as the loss of mental acuity.

There are about a dozen biographies of the storyteller that have come down to our time from antiquity, but they all contain fairy-tale elements and references to the participation of the ancient Greek gods in the events of Homer’s life.
The poet spread his works outside of Ancient Greece with the help of his students. They were called Homerids. They traveled to different cities, performing the works of their teacher in the squares.

Homer's work was very popular in Ancient Greece. About half of all ancient Greek papyrus scrolls found are excerpts from various works of the poet.
The narrator's works were transmitted orally. The poems we know today were collected and structured into coherent works from disparate songs by the army of poets of the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus. Some parts of the texts were edited taking into account the wishes of the customer.

Homer. Bas-relief at the Louvre

In 1915, the Soviet prose writer wrote the poem “Insomnia. Homer. Tight Sails”, in which he appealed to the narrator and heroes of the poem “Iliad”.
Until the mid-seventies of the twentieth century, the events described in Homer's poems were considered pure fiction. But the archaeological expedition of Heinrich Schliemann, who found Troy, proved that the work of the ancient Greek poet is based on real events. After such a discovery, admirers of Plato were strengthened in the hope that one day archaeologists would find Atlantis.

Homer is a famous ancient Greek poet, whose work not only served as a model for all ancient creators - he is considered the progenitor of European literature. Many representatives of modern generations associate ancient culture with his name, and acquaintance with world literature usually begins with the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, which belonged to (or were attributed to) this legendary author. Homer is the first ancient Greek poet whose creative legacy has survived to this day, and about half of the ancient Greek papyri of literary content discovered to date are fragments of his works.

Reliable, historically confirmed data about the personality of Homer, his life path are absent, and they were unknown even in ancient times. In antiquity, 9 biographies of Homer were created, and all of them were based on legends. Not only the years of his life are unknown, but also his century. According to Herodotus, this was the 9th century. BC e. Scientists of our time call approximately the 8th century. (or 7th century) BC e. There is no exact information about the place of birth of the great poet. It is believed that he lived in one of the areas of Ionia. Legend has it that as many as seven cities - Athens, Rhodes, Smyrna, Colophon, Argon, Salamis, Chios - challenged each other for the honor of calling themselves the birthplace of Homer.

According to tradition, the great poet is portrayed as a blind old man, but scientists are of the opinion that this is the influence of the ideas of the ancient Greeks, a feature of the biographical genre. The Greeks saw the relationship between poetic talent and prophetic gift in the example of many famous personalities who were deprived of sight, and believed that Homer belonged to this glorious cohort. In addition, in the Odyssey there is such a character as the blind singer Demodocus, who was identified with the author of the work himself.

From the biography of Homer there is such an episode as a poetic competition with Hesiod on the island of Euboea. The poets read their best works at the games organized in memory of the deceased Amphidemus. The victory, according to the will of the judge, went to Hesiod, since he glorified the peaceful life and work of farmers, but legend says that the public sympathized more with Homer.

Like everything else in Homer’s biography, it is not known for certain whether the famous poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” belonged to his pen. In science since the 18th century. there is the so-called Homeric question - this is the name of the controversy surrounding the authorship and history of writing legendary works. Be that as it may, it was they who brought the author fame for all time and entered the treasury of world literature. Both poems are based on legends and myths about the Trojan War, i.e. about the military actions of the Achaean Greeks against the inhabitants of the Asia Minor city, and represent heroic epic- large-scale canvas, actors which are both historical characters and heroes of myths.

The ancient Greeks considered these poems sacred, solemnly performed them on public holidays, they began and completed the learning process with them, seeing in them a treasury of a wide variety of knowledge, lessons of wisdom, beauty, justice and other virtues, and their author was revered almost as deity. According to the great Plato, Greece owes its spiritual development to Homer. The poetics of this master of words had a huge influence on the work of not only ancient authors, but also recognized classics of European literature living many centuries later.

There are so-called Homeric hymns, which in ancient times were attributed to the great blind man, but neither they nor other works of which Homer was called the author belong to his creative heritage.

According to Herodotus and Pausanias, death overtook Homer on the island of Ios (Cyclades archipelago).

Homer is the legendary poet-storyteller of Ancient Greece. It is he who is credited with creating the Iliad and Odyssey.

Unfortunately, there is no reliable information about the life and personality of Homer. It is only known that the Iliad and Odyssey were created later than the events they describe, but earlier than the 6th century BC, when their existence was reliably established. It turns out that the period of Homer’s life could be dated from the 12th to the 7th century BC. The latest date is considered the most likely.

Homer's birthplace is also unknown. Seven cities defended the right to be called his homeland: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, Athens. According to Herodotus and Pausanias, Homer died on the island of Ios in the Cyclades archipelago. Presumably, the Iliad and Odyssey were composed on the Asia Minor coast of Greece or on one of the islands that are adjacent to it.

Homer was portrayed as blind. Probably, in reality this was not the case, it was just the way it was accepted in the genre of ancient biography. Moreover, many outstanding legendary soothsayers and singers were blind, so the assumption that Homer was blind looked very plausible.

Homer (circa 460 BC)

Interesting to know: According to one of the legends, described in the “Contest between Homer and Hesiod,” a poetic duel took place between Homer and Hesiod. Allegedly, the poets met on the island of Euboea at games in honor of the deceased Amphidemus. There they read their best poems. The judge at the competition was King Paned, who attributed the victory to Hesiod. The king was pleased that he called the people to agriculture and peace, and not to war and massacres. But the audience's sympathies were still on Homer's side.

Homer is credited with works that were created later: the comic poems “Margit”, “The War of Mice and Frogs”, a cycle of works about the Trojan War and the return of heroes to Greece, for example, “Cypria”, “Ethiopida”, “The Lesser Iliad”, “The Capture” Ilion", "Returns". Under the name "Homeric Hymns" there was a collection of 33 hymns to the gods. Even in ancient times, the “Homeric question” arose, which is now understood as a set of problems associated with the origin and development of the ancient Greek epic.

In antiquity, Homer's poems personified Hellenic unity and heroism and were a source of wisdom and knowledge of all aspects of life. According to Strabo, Homer was the only one of the ancient poets who knew almost everything about the ecumene, its inhabitants, their origin, way of life and culture. Homer's data was considered the most authentic and trustworthy. They were used by Thucydides, Pausanias, and Plutarch.

Greek children learned to read from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer was quoted, commented on, and explained allegorically. Pythagorean philosophers read selected passages from Homer's poems. Thus, they called for correction of their souls. According to Plutarch, Alexander the Great always carried a copy of the Iliad with him. He kept it under his pillow along with the dagger.

Bust of Homer in the Louvre

Nothing is known for certain about the personality and fate of the legendary ancient Greek poet. Historians have been able to establish that Homer could have lived around the 8th century BC. The poet's birthplace has also not yet been established. 7 Greek cities fought for the right to be called his homeland. Among these settlements were Rhodes and Athens. The time and place of death of the ancient Greek storyteller also raises considerable controversy. The historian Herodotus claimed that Homer died on the island of Ios.

The dialect used by Homer when writing his poems does not indicate the place and time of the poet's birth. The author of the Iliad and Odyssey used a combination of Aeolian and Ionian dialects of Greek. Some researchers claim that poetic koine was used to create the works.

It is generally accepted that Homer was blind. However, there is no reliable evidence of this. Many outstanding singers and poets of Ancient Greece were blind. The physiological disability prevented them from doing other work. The Greeks associated the gift of poetry with the gift of divination and treated blind storytellers with great respect. Perhaps Homer's occupation led him to the conclusion that the poet was blind.

Name meaning

In the Ionian dialect the word "gomer" sounds like "omiros". The mysterious name was first mentioned in the 7th century BC. Scientists are still debating whether the word "Homer" is a proper name, or just a nickname. At different times the poet's name was given different interpretations: “blind”, “hostage”, “going for”, “accompanist”, “compiler” and others. However, all these interpretations look unconvincing.

one of the craters on Mercury was named in honor of the great ancient Greek poet;
a mention of Homer can be found in Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. Dante placed his “colleague” in the first circle of hell. The ancient Greek poet, according to Alighieri, was a virtuous person during his life and did not deserve to suffer after death. The pagan cannot go to heaven, but he must find a special place of honor in hell;
Around the 3rd century BC, an essay was created about the poetic duel between Homer and Hesiod. Tradition says that the poets met at games on one of the Greek islands. Everyone read the best of their works in honor of the tragic death of Amphidemus. Homer had the sympathy of his listeners on his side. However, King Paned, who acted as a judge at the duel, declared the winner Hesiod, who called for a peaceful life while Homer called for massacres.

Homeric question

This is the name given to a set of problems associated with the creation and authorship of the poems “Odyssey” and “Iliad”.

During antiquity

According to a legend widespread in the ancient period, the basis for the Homeric epic was the poems created during the Trojan War by the poetess Fantasia.

New time

Until the beginning of the 18th century, the authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey did not raise any doubts. The first doubts began to appear already at the end of the 18th century, when J. B. Viloison published the so-called scholia to the Iliad. They surpassed the poem in volume. The scholia contained huge amount options that belonged to many famous ancient philologists.

Viloison's publication indicated that philologists living before our era doubted that one of the most famous works of ancient literature was created by Homer. In addition, the poet lived in a non-literate era. The author could not have created such a long poem without recording the fragments he had already composed. Friedrich August Wolf hypothesized that both the Odyssey and the Iliad were significantly shorter at the time of their composition. And since the works were transmitted only orally, each subsequent narrator added something of himself to the poems. Consequently, it is generally impossible to talk about any specific author.

According to Wolf, the Homeric poems were first edited and written down under Pisistratus (the Athenian tyrant) and his son. In history, the edition of poems initiated by the Athenian ruler is called “pisistratic”. Final version famous works was necessary for their performance at the Panathenaia. Wolf's hypothesis is supported by such facts as contradictions in the texts of the poems, deviations from the main plot, mention of events that occurred at different times.

There is a "small song theory" created by Karl Lachmann, who believes that the original work consisted of just a few songs that were easy to remember. Their number increased over time. A similar theory was put forward by Gottfried Hermann. However, according to Hermann, dreams were not added to the poem. The already existing fragments were simply expanded. The hypothesis put forward by Hermann is called the “primordial core theory.”

The opposite views are held by the so-called “Unitarians.” In their opinion, deviations from the main plot and contradictions cannot be considered evidence that the work was written by several authors at different times. Perhaps this was the author's intention. In addition, the Unitarians rejected the “Pisistratan edition.” Probably, the legend that the ruler of Athens gave an order to edit the poems appeared in the Hellenistic era. At that time, monarchs tried to acquire and store the most valuable manuscripts famous authors. Thus, libraries appeared, for example, the Alexandria.

"Iliad" and "Odyssey"

Historical background

In the 19th century, science was dominated by the view that the 2 most famous works, attributed to Homer, have no historical basis. The excavations of Heinrich Schliemann helped refute the unhistorical nature of the poems. A little later, Egyptian and Hittite documents were discovered that described events that had similarities to the events of the Trojan War.

The poems have a range of artistic features. Many of them contradict logic and make one think that the works were created by several authors. One of the main “proofs” that Homer is not the only writer who took part in the creation of poems is the “law of chronological incompatibility” formulated by F. F. Zelinsky. The researcher claims that Homer depicted parallel events coming one after another. As a result, the reader may get the impression that the actions of the heroes of the Odyssey and the Iliad were carried out at different periods of time and are not related to each other. This feature makes you think about contradictions that actually do not exist.

Both poems are characterized by complex epithets, for example, “rose-fingered.” Moreover, epithets characterize not a temporary, but a permanent quality inherent in an object even at that moment when it is not expressed in any way and the viewer cannot see it. Achilles is called "fleet-footed" even when resting. The Achaeans were given the epithet “lush-legged”. The author characterizes them this way all the time, regardless of whether they are in armor or not.

In his poem “The Iliad,” Homer depicted one of the episodes of the Trojan War, revealing the character of the characters and showing all the intrigues that preceded the start of the conflict.

Homer's poem "Odyssey" describes the events that occurred 10 years after the victory over Troy, where main character Odysseus is captured by a nymph while returning home after the war, where his wife Penelope is waiting for him.

Influence on world literature

The poems of the ancient Greek author had a huge influence on literature different countries. Homer was loved not only in his homeland. In Byzantium, his works were compulsory to study. To this day, manuscripts of the poems have been preserved in the archives, indicating their popularity. In addition, learned men of Byzantium created commentaries and scholia on the works of Homer. It is known that the commentaries to the poems of Bishop Eustathius took up no less than seven volumes. After Byzantine Empire ceased to exist, some manuscripts ended up in Western Europe.

Brief biography mysterious Homer