Homer (Homeros) was an ancient Greek poet. Nothing is known with certainty about him, some even doubting whether he ever existed. The most probable opinion is that he was a native of some locality on the sea-board of Asia Minor, and that he lived between 950 and 850 BC. The earliest mention of the name of Homer is found in Xenophanes in the 6th century BC. The common statement that he was blind may safely be discarded. The poems that have been generally attributed to Homer are the Iliad and Odyssey. The Batrachomyomachia, or Battle of the Frogs and Mice, and certain hymns to the gods also passed under his name, though belonging to a later period.
The Iliad in its present form consists of twenty-four books, and tells the story of the siege of Troy from the quarrel of Achilles with Agamemnon to the burial of Hector, with subordinate episodes.
The Odyssey is also in twenty-four books, and records the adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses) on his return voyage to his home in Ithaca after the fall of Troy.
Even as early as the beginning of the Christian era, certain Greek critics (the Separatists) maintained that the two poems were the work of different poets, but the general belief continued to be that there was one author for both. The entire system of Homeric criticism, however, was revolutionized in 1795 by F. A. Wolf in his Prolegomena to Homer. He asserted that the Iliad and Odyssey were not originally committed to writing, and were not two complete and independent poems, but originally a series of songs of different poets (Homer and others), celebrating single exploits of heroes, and first connected as wholes by Pisistratus, about 540 BC. Some of Wolf's arguments have been proved erroneous, but since his time the old views in regard to the Iliad and Odyssey have been held by comparatively few of the ablest scholars, though what theory is now the most common is difficult to say.
Among the most conservative theories is that which assigns to Homer a central or basal portion of both Iliad and Odyssey, to which additions by other poets were gradually united; but generally the Odyssey is regarded as of somewhat later date than the Iliad, and not by the poet who produced the Iliad in its original form. Research Homer
John Gay was an English dramatist and poet. He was born in 1685 at Barnstaple and died in 1732. He published his first poem, 'Wine' in 1708. Apprenticed to a silk mercer in London, in 1712 he became secretary to Anne, Duchess of Monmouth. In 1713 he published his Rural Sports, which he dedicated to Pope, with whom he formed a close friendship. In 1714 his caricature of Ambrose Philips' pastoral poetry was published, under the title of the Shepherd's Week, and dedicated to LordBolingbroke, by whose interest he was appointed secretary to the Earl of Clarendon, in his embassy to the court of Hanover. His mock-heroic poem, Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, appeared in 1715, and in that year also was acted his burlesquedrama of What d'ye Call It? but his next piece, the farce Three Hours after Marriage, altogether failed. In 1720 he published his poems by subscription, in 1724 his tragedy, The Captives, and in 1727 his well-known Fables. His Beggar's Opera, the notion of which seems to have been afforded by Swift, was first acted in 1728, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, where it ran for sixty-three nights, but the lord-chamberlain refused to license for performance a second part entitled Polly. He also wrote the pastoralAcis and Galatea and the operaAchilles. The closing years of his life were mostly spent in the house of the Duke of Queensberry. Research John Gay
Thomas Banks was an English sculptor. He was born in 1735 and died in 1805. He studied sculpture in the Royal Academy, and in Italy, where he executed several excellent pieces, particularly a bass-relief representing Caractacus brought prisoner to Rome, and a Cupid catching a Butterfly, the latter work being afterwards purchased by the EmpressCatharine. On leaving Italy he spent two unsatisfactory years in Russia, and then returned to England, where he was soon after made an academician. Among his other works was a colossal statue of Achilles Mourning the Loss of Briseis in the hall of the British Institution, and the monument of Sir Eyre Coote in WestminsterAbbey. Research Thomas Banks
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero. He is the chief character in Homer's Iliad. His father was Peleus, ruler of Phthia in Thessaly, his mother the sea-goddess Thetis. When only six years of age he was able to overcome lions and bears. His guardian, Cheiron the Centaur, having declared that Troy could not be taken without his aid, his mother, fearing for his safety, disguised him as a girl, and introduced him among the daughters of Lycomedes of Scyros. Her desire for his safety made her also try to make him invulnerable when a child by anointing him with ambrosia, and again by dipping him in the river Styx, from which he came out proof against wounds, all but the heel, by which she held him.
His place of concealment was discovered by Odysseus (Ulysses), and he promised his assistance to the Greeks against Troy. Accompanied by his close friend, Patroclus, he joined the expedition with a body of followers (Myrmidons) in fifty ships, and occupied nine years in raids upon the towns neighbouring to Troy, after which the siege proper commenced. On being deprived of his prize, the maiden Briseis, by Agamemnon, he refused to take any further part in the war, and
disaster attended the Greeks.
Patroclus now persuaded Achilles to allow him to lead the Myrmidons to battle dressed in his armour, and he having been slain by Hector, Achilles vowed revenge on the Trojans, and forgot his anger against the Greeks. He attacked the Trojans and drove them back to their walls, slaying them in great numbers, chased Hector, who fled before him three times round the walls of Troy, slew him, and dragged his body at his chariot-wheels, but afterwards gave it up to Priam, who came in person to beg for it. He then performed the funeral rites of Patroclus, with which the Iliad closes. He was killed in a battle at the Scasan Gate of Troy by an arrow from the bow of Paris which struck his vulnerable heel. In discussions on the origin of the Homeric poems the term Achilleid is often applied to those books (i. viii. and xi.-xxii.) of the Iliad in which Achilles is prominent, and which some suppose to have formed the original nucleus of the poem. Research Achilles
In Greek mythology, Agenor was a son of Poseidon and Libya. He became king of Phoenicia. He married Telephassa who bore him Europa, Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix. When Zeus abducted Europa, Agenor sent his sons to find her, they went accompanied by their mother and none returned. In Greek mythology Agenor was a son of Antenor. He fought in the Trojan War, and saved the Trojans by challenging the Greek champion when Achilles was about to storm the Scaean Gates. Apollo kept Agenor safe, and later assumed the shape of
Agenor to divert Achilles' attention. In Greek mythology, Agenor was a king of Pleuron, and the father of Thestius. Research Agenor
In Greek mythology, Ajax was son of Telamon, king of Salamis, he was second only to Achilles among the Greek heroes in the Trojan War. According to subsequent Greek legends, Ajax went mad with jealousy when Agamemnon awarded the armour of the dead Achilles to Odysseus. He later committed suicide in shame. Research Ajax
in Greek mythology, the Amazons were a group of female warriors living in Africa or near the Black Sea. The tribe contained no men, the men living in an adjoining nation where the boy children were sent to live with their father. The women allegedly had their right breast burned off (hence the name Amazon, meaning 'deprived of a pap') so that they might use the bow more easily - this legend arose from the Greeks supposing the name was from a, not , mazos, breast. It is probably from a, together, and mazos, breast, the name meaning therefore sisters and the idea of removing a breast false. Their queen, Penthesilea, was killed by Achilles at the siege of Troy. The Amazons attacked Theseus and besieged him at Athens, but were defeated, and Theseus took the Amazon Hippolyte captive; she later gave birth to Hippolytus. Research Amazon
In Greek mythology, Glaucus was a sea-god, the son of Anthedon and Alcyone or else Poseidon and Nais. In Greek mythology, Glaucus was the son of Sisyphus and Merope. He owned a team of mares which he kept high spirited by depriving them of the company of stallions. When he lost the chariot-race at Pelias' funeral games the mares became so angry that they killed and ate Glaucus, whose ghost subsequently haunted the stadium of the Isthmian Games near Corinth scaring horses. In Greek mythology Glaucus was the son of Minos. As a child he fell into a jar of honey and drowned, only to be brought back to life by the seer Polyidus using a herb. In Greek mythology Glaucus was son of Hippolochus, a Lycian and together with Sarpedon, the commander of the Lycian forces allied with Priam in the Trojan War. He was killed by Aias while they were fighting over the corpse of Achilles. Research Glaucus
In Greek mythology, Hector was a Trojan prince, son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy; husband of Andromache. During the Trojan war, Hector led the forces of Troy and no one could stand against him, he killed nineteen Greek leaders and wounded the heroesAgamemnon, Ajax, Diomedes and Odysseus until he was killed by Achilles - who was assisted with a gift of armour from the gods. Research Hector
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