Homer and his works

Homer was the Greek poet who wrote the Iliad, and the Odyssey.  He lived anywhere from around 850 B.C. to the 12^th century.  He is known as debatably the greatest Greek poet in history. 

His poem the Iliad is “set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) 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.”  This poem is thought to be one of the oldest pieces of Western literature.

Here is one of the quotes from the Iliad.

Sing, goddess, of Achilles' ruinous anger
Which brought ten thousand pains to the Achaeans,
And cast the souls of many stalwart heroes
To Hades, and their bodies to the dogs
And birds of prey.

Homer’s other famous work was the Odyssey.  It also is an epic poem, that tells about the Greek hero Odysseus.  “The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known in Roman myths) and his long journey home following the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci, who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage.”

There were also other pieces of literature that were attributed to Homer, besides the Iliad and the Odyssey.  In fact, the total Epic Cycle has been attributed to Homer.  The Epic Cycle is a collection of Greek poems that include: the Little Iliad, the Nostoi, the Telegony, and many others.

Homer was truly a great poet, and his poems have lived on as standards of Western literature throughout the world.