Homer Biography
 |
| Homer |
The
Iliad and the Odyssey are two great epic poems of ancient Greece. It is said
that these epics have been written by Homer. But there is no concrete evidence
behind it. If assumption is accepted, then Homer must assuredly be
one of the greatest of the world’s literary artists.
Virtually
nothing is known about the life of Homer. The great historian Herodotus told
that Homer was probably an Ionian who lived in the 9th or 8th century
BC. According to historians, Homer making use of the prevailing oral traditions
composed Iliad and was perhaps the significant inspiration behind Odyssey.
The
significance of the Homerian composition can be gauged from the fact that they
were the most important influences over the classical Greek culture and
education which in turn formed the backbone of cultural and educational
practices even in the Roman Empire and also the subsequent spread of
Christianity. The Greeks regarded the great epics more than literature. They
valued them not only as a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism but also as an
ancient source of moral and practical instruction.
Qualities
of the Iliad and the Odyssey are indicative of his taste and his view of the
world, but something more specific is revealed by these two epics. According to
American scholar Milman Parry, the Homerian tradition was essentially oral and
the epics were in fact created and conveyed by word of mouth rather than any
specific written methods. Indeed Homer’s own term for a poet is aoidos,‘singer’.
Homer was successful in revamping the existing style of episodic and anecdotal
poems by creating a monumental work with complex psychological and literary
effects, which is quite long, requiring more than an evening to perform. Homer
himself behaved in important ways like a traditional oral poet.
Both the
Iliad and the Odyssey are nucleus of remarkable tales and are set around the
Trojan War and its aftermath. The Iliad tells the story of the wrath (anger) of
Achilles and its disastrous consequences in the 10 years long Trojan War. The
principal action covers the events of only four days in the final year of the
war. The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, who after 10
years of wandering returns home from the Trojan War. He is recognized only by
his nurse and his faithful dog. He destroys the importunate (repeatedly making
requests or demands) suitors of his wife Penelope and re-establishes himself in
the kingdom. His son Telemachus helps him to achieve this. For the composition
of these two great epics, Homer collected facts about the legendary Trojan War,
taking great pains.
Most
scholars are unwilling to attribute the creation of these two epics to a single
author and believe that these are the results of a group effort. However, as
the singular sources revealing the various facets of ancient Greek
civilization, the epics are extremely significant. The epics are viewed as
symbols of Hellenic unity and identity and are credited as the actual source of
most of their moral codes and traditional institutions.
Iliad
and Odyssey have had a profound influence on western literature and have been
translated into modern languages countless times. Their value lies chiefly in
the poetry itself, which often moves from sublime passages dealing with gods
and heroic exploits to passages expressing deep human emotions. The Iliad and
the Odyssey are impressive amalgam of literacy power and refinement. They,
however, owe their pre-eminence not so much to their antiquity and to their
place in Greek culture as a whole but to their timeless succession expressing
on a massive scale so much of the triumph and the frustration of human life.
The Iliad and the Odyssey now rank among the most precious treasures in world literature
and they have inspired a number of poets down the ages.
The very
archaism (obsolete) of these age-old tales depends on Homer’s ability and
creativity to impart to these tales something of the universal validity to
which all great literature aspires and which Homer achieved consistently and
with an apparent ease.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
Post a Comment