Home Vs. Homers

Homer was a legendary early Greek poet and writer traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Wikipedia;"The Odyssey"; Homer was even later credited with the entire Epic Cycle, which was a collection of poems on the Trojan War as well as the Theban poems about Oedipus and his sons.

ibid; homer Scholars believe that Homer was blind, and various Ionian cities are claimed to be his birthplace, but other than those speculations nothing is known about the author, and poet "Homer".

ibid; homer There is considerable scholarly debate about whether Homer was actually a real person, or the name given to one or more oral poets who sang traditional epic material.

ibid; Homer

ibid; Homer The most prominent of these arguments is the debate as to whether the same poet was responsible for both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Some think that both epics are too well organized to be written by more than one person.

ibid While many find it unlikely that the Odyssey was written by one man or woman, and others find that the epic is generally in the same writing style.

ibid The Iliad and the Odyssey are told throughout multiple books, which leads the mind to believe that it is brilliantly set up to have been written by more than one person.

The Iliad is the story of a brief event in the ninth year of the Trojan war,which the Greeks claim lasted ten years.

Homer; Butler, Samuel (translator); The Iliad The Iliad focuses mainly on Achilles and his rage against king Agamemnon, the Greek commander-in-chief. Achilles becomes furious when Agamemnon takes a slave girl Achilles has been awarded.

Wikipedia; "The Iliad"; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad Achilles withdraws from the battle and prays to his mother, Thetis, a goddess, to turn the tide of battle against the Greeks.

Homer; Butler, Samuel (translator); The Iliad; book 1

The gods grant Achilles his prayer, and he does not return to battle until his best friend is killed by the great Trojan hero, Hector.

ibid; book 16 Because of this, Achilles throws himself into the battle, fights Hector, and kills him; in a final gesture of contempt, he drags Hector's lifeless body around the walls of Troy.

ibid; book 19-21 Later, Achilles pride and arrogance causes his downfall when Hector's brother strikes his heel with a poisonous bolt during battle.

Wikipedia; "The Iliad"; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad; aftermath If there is a "theme" to the epic, it is "Achilles choice."

Gagarian, Michael, and Paul Woodruff; Early Greek Political Thought from Homer to the Sophists; pg. 31 Achilles has been offered a choice: either he can be a great and famous hero in war and die young, or the can live a long, happy life without any lasting fame whatsoever. Although Achilles initially chooses not to die young, the death of his friend forces him to make the choice that will make him famous for all time, but tragically dead at a young age.

The second epic,The Odyssey, is the story of the homecoming of another of the great Greek heroes at Troy, Odysseus. Unlike Achilles, Odysseus is not famous for his great strength or bravery, but for his ability to deceive and trick. It is Odysseus's idea to take Troy by offering the citizens a large wooden horse secretly filled with Greek soldiers.

ibid; aftermath His homecoming has been delayed for ten years because of the anger of the gods; finally, in the tenth year, he is allowed to go home.

Homer; Butler, Samuel (translator); The Odyssey; book 5 He hasn't been misspending his time, though; for most of the ten years he has been living on an island with the goddess Kalypso, who is madly in love with him.

ibid; book 3 Odysseus, like Achilles, is offered a choice: he may either live on the island with Kalypso and be immortal like the gods, or he may return to his wife and his country and be mortal like the rest of us.

ibid; book 5

ibid; book 5 He chooses to return, and much of the rest of the work is a long exposition on what it means to be "mortal."