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| Idealized portrayal of Homer |
Firstly, it's important to note that historians are not exactly sure if Homer was in fact one man, or many. There are two popular theories: He was a blind poet who lived sometime around 850-750 BCE; or Homer is to be considered a mythical character, the legendary founder of a guild of rhapsodes called the Homeridae, then “Homer” means the works attributed to the rhapsodes of the guild, who might have composed primarily in a single century or over a period of centuries.
When the Emperor Hadrian asked the Oracle at Delphi about Homer, the Pythia proclaimed that he was Ithacan, the son of Epikaste and Telemachus, from the Odyssey. Homer is credited as the author of the Odyssey and the Iliad.
Personally, I like to think of Homer as the blind poet, with possibly seer capabilities.
The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, c.1250 BCE, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. The Iliad features many Hellenic gods and goddesses as they fight and play great roles in human warfare. Not only does this story give insight into Ancient greek life and warfare, it also gives us some ideas into the personalities of the Greek deities.
The Odyssey is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad. The poem centers on the Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. Once again, Hellenic deities play a large role in the story.
The Iliad is the oldest extant work of Western literature, with the Odyssey being the second. The stories are written in dactylic hexameter, a rhythmic scheme, which means that when read aloud, there is a structured rhythm and flow to how the words are read. Imagine musical poetry, where each sentence has a certain number of long and short sounds.
The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three anonymous Ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter—dactylic hexameter—as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect. They are not believed to have been written by Homer, however the term Homeric Hymn has stuck.
The HoM recites the Homeric Hymns during our monthly libations to the gods. Not only is it a verbal, energetic offering to the gods, but it also helps to remind/inform those present what the deity in question is all about.
The Odyssey is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad. The poem centers on the Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. Once again, Hellenic deities play a large role in the story.
The Iliad is the oldest extant work of Western literature, with the Odyssey being the second. The stories are written in dactylic hexameter, a rhythmic scheme, which means that when read aloud, there is a structured rhythm and flow to how the words are read. Imagine musical poetry, where each sentence has a certain number of long and short sounds.
The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three anonymous Ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter—dactylic hexameter—as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect. They are not believed to have been written by Homer, however the term Homeric Hymn has stuck.
The HoM recites the Homeric Hymns during our monthly libations to the gods. Not only is it a verbal, energetic offering to the gods, but it also helps to remind/inform those present what the deity in question is all about.
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