Homer

Homer

Homer was probably born around 725 BC on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives.

He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems. Both works attributed to Homer—The Iliad and The Odyssey—are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but he was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time.

In The Iliad, Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall traveller's tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope.

We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact "Homer" may not be a real name but a kind of nickname meaning perhaps "the hostage" or "the blind one." Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand years' time.

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39 Items found
Essential Illiad
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Eyewitness Classics: Odyssey (adapted & annotated)
by Homer
1st edition from DK Children
for 3rd-8th grade
in Adapted or Abridged (Location: SER-ABR)
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Stanley F. Lombardo)
from Hackett Publishing Company
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Iliad
Everyman's Library
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$23.00
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$20.00
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Ancient Literature for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$17.00
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$18.00
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
from Franklin Library
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Iliad
by Homer (translation by Caroline Alexander)
from Ecco Press
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$19.99
Iliad
Signet Classics
by Homer (translation by W.H.D. Rouse), Afterword by Adam Nicolson
from Signet Classics
Ancient Literature for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$6.95
Iliad & Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$38.00 (1 in stock)
Iliad (retold)
by Homer & Barbara Leonie Picard
from Oxford University
for 4th-8th grade
Iliad - Memoria Press Package
by Stephen Musick
from Memoria Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$37.74
Iliad - MP Student Book
by Stephan Musick
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$14.05
Iliad - MP Teacher Book
by Stephan Musick
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$18.35
Iliad Graphic Novel
by Homer, adapted by Gareth Hinds
from Candlewick Press
for 3rd-8th grade
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
$17.99
Iliad of Homer
by Anonymous (translation by Samuel Butler)
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 9th-Adult
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$15.15
Iliad of Homer
by Homer (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from University of Chicago
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$15.00
Iliad: A Prose Rendering
by Homer, translated by Wes Callihan
from Roman Roads Media
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$27.99
Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Emily Wilson)
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 8th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$18.95
Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$17.00
Odyssey
Everyman's Library
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
from Franklin Library
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Odyssey
Signet Classics
by Homer, prose translation by W.H.D. Rouse
from Signet Classics
Ancient Literature for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$5.95
Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$20.00
Odyssey
Everyman's Library
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Odyssey
by Homer (translation by Robert Fitzgerald)
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$19.00
Odyssey (retold)
Puffin Classics
by Geraldine McCaughrean retells Homer
Puffin Classics from Puffin Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$6.99 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Odyssey (retold)
by Barbara Leonie Picard
from Oxford University
for 3rd-4th grade
Odyssey - Instructional DVDs
by Homer (translation by Samuel Butler), lectures by Sean Brooks
from Memoria Press
for 9th-Adult
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$38.50 (1 in stock)
Odyssey - Memoria Press Package
by Nick Kozar
from Memoria Press
for 7th-8th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$37.74
Odyssey - MP Student Book
by Stephan Musick
from Memoria Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$14.05
Odyssey - MP Teacher Book
by Stephan Musick
from Memoria Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$18.35 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Odyssey Graphic Novel
by Homer, adapted by Gareth Hinds
from Candlewick Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
$18.99
Odyssey of Homer
by Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
from Houghton Mifflin
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Odyssey of Homer
by Alfred J. Church (reteller), illustrated by John Flaxman
from Macmillan
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Odyssey of Homer
by Homer (translation by Samuel Butler)
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 9th-Adult
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$15.15
Odyssey of Homer
by Homer (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from HarperCollins
Ancient Literature/Epic Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$18.99
Odyssey: A Prose Rendering
by Homer, translated by Wes Callihan
from Roman Roads Media
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$27.99
The Odyssey
by Homer
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)