Homer (eighth–7th century b.C.E.) Epic
poet and, in keeping with ancient culture, author
of the Iliad and Odyssey. Scholars usually date
the Homeric epics to the 8th or seventh
century b.C.E. Several towns claimed to be the
birthplace of Homer; the most dependable clue to
his origins is the Ionian dialect of his poetry.
While the ancients continuously call
Homer as the writer of the Iliad and Odyssey, a
splendid deal of uncertainty surrounds the identification
of the writer(s) of the two Homeric epics, the
occasions in their composition and perfor-
mance, and the mechanics of their advent and
transmission as literary texts. The maximum we can
reliably state is that the Iliad and Odyssey have
come down to us as the works of “Homer,” a
determine of legend overla
