HOMER 2024 Message--FR DR M. D. THOMAS, DIRECTOR, IHPS, NEW DELHI

#homer
Homer (25 August 2024) Message
by Fr Dr M. D. Thomas, Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi

Homer was a Greek poet of the 8th century BC. He is credited as the author of Iliad and Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. He is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.

Homer’s Iliad centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The Odyssey chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy.

The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries. The predominant influence is Eastern Ionic.

Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. Despite being predominantly known for its tragic and serious themes, the Homeric poems also contain instances of comedy and laughter.

Homer’s epic poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honour. To Plato, Homer was simply the one who ‘has taught Greece’.

In Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Virgil refers to Homer as ‘Poet sovereign’, king of all poets. In the preface to his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the ‘greatest of poets’.

From antiquity to the present day, Homeric epics have inspired many famous works of literature, music, art, and film.

The question of by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed continues to be debated. Scholars remain divided as to whether the two works are the product of a single author or not. It is thought that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC.

Many accounts of Homer’s life circulated in classical antiquity. The most widespread account was that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.

Today, only the Iliad and the Odyssey are associated with the name ‘Homer’. In antiquity, a large number of other works were sometimes attributed to him, including the Homeric Hymns, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, several epigrams, the Little Iliad, the Nostoi, the Thebaid, the Cypria, the Epigoni, and the like.

Some ancient accounts about Homer were established early and repeated often. They include that Homer was blind, that he resided at Chios, that he was the son of the river Meles and the nymph Critheis, that he was a wandering bard, that he composed a varying list of other works, the ‘Homerica’, that he died in Ios, and the like.

The two best known ancient biographies of Homer are the Life of Homer by the Pseudo-Herodotus and the Contest of Homer and Hesiod.

The study of Homer is one of the oldest topics in scholarship, dating back to antiquity. Nonetheless, the aims of Homeric studies have changed over the course of the millennia. The earliest preserved comments on Homer concern his treatment of the gods. The allegorist Theagenes of Rhegium argued that the Homeric poems are allegories.

The Iliad and the Odyssey were widely used as school texts in ancient Greek and Hellenistic cultures. They were the first literary works taught to all students. The Iliad, particularly its first few books, was far more intently studied than the Odyssey during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Nearly all scholars agree that the Iliad and the Odyssey are unified poems, in that each poem shows a clear overall design, and that they are not merely strung together from unrelated songs. It is also generally agreed that each poem was composed mostly by a single author, who probably relied heavily on older oral traditions.

The first printed edition of Homer was produced in 1488 in Milan, Italy. Today scholars use medieval manuscripts, papyri and other sources. Some argue for a ‘multi-text’ view, rather than seeking a single definitive text.

Homer was a singer and performer, thus known as a bard. He used the earliest alphabet. He was one of the earliest academics in history.

Homer may have been the first to write the stories down, or simply the only writer whose recordings of the stories survived the years. He may have been motivated by reasons of national or cultural pride to record these stories, or he may have simply been recording what he believed to be actual history for posterity.

As we remember the Greek Poet Homer, on behalf of Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, I wish to make a strong appeal to my fellow humans in India and world over, let us draw inspiration from the great legend poet Homer and contribute to the poetic and literary culture of the humans. Hail the great Greek poet, Homer! Thank you!