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
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, Agamemnon was a Greek hero of the Trojan wars, son of Atreus, king of Mycenae, and brother of Menelaus. He married Clytemnestra, and their children included Electra, Iphigenia, and Orestes. He sacrificed Iphigenia in order to secure favourable winds for the Greek expedition against Troy and after a ten years' siege sacked the city, receiving Priam's daughter Cassandra as a prize. On his return home, he and Cassandra were murdered by Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. His children Orestes and Electra later killed the guilty couple. Research Agamemnon
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, Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, King of Troy. Her prophecies were never believed, because she had rejected the love of the god Apollo. She was murdered with Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra, having been awarded as a prize to the Greek hero on his sacking of Troy. Research Cassandra
In Greek mythology, Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon. With the help of her lover Aegisthus, she murdered her husband and his paramour Cassandra on his return from the Trojan War, and was in turn killed by her son Orestes. Research Clytemnestra
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
In Greek mythology, Iphigenia was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. She was sacrificed by her father at Aulis to secure favourable winds for the Greek fleet in the expedition against Troy, on instructions from the prophetCalchas. According to some accounts, she was saved by the goddess Artemis, and made her priestess. Research Iphigenia
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Cowper Coles
