The two great Ancient Greek epics « The Iliad » and « The Odyssey « are attributed to the poet Homer, who is thought to have lived in the 8th century BCE.
Both Homeric epics are related to the Trojan War, which is believed to have taken place in the 13th century BCE, in the Bronze Age.
Since the 8th century BCE, the success and the influence of Homer’s epics has been enormous. They have inspired countless poets in Ancient Greece, but also in Ancient Rome and therefore they have influenced the whole Western literature and created the epic genre.
Many stories about Homer’s life were told in the antiquity, the most popular was that Homer was a blind barb from Ionia which was part at that time of the Hellenistic world and now is in Modern Turkey.
The question of the author of the two monumental epics is still debated under the title of « The Homeric Question« :
“Who was Homer ?
A man ?
A genius ?
A group of poets ?
Are the two epics a creative work from Homer, is it a collection of poems which were transmitted orally through the generations ? “
As no one has any evidence to prove right any of these different theories, let’s quote Plato, one of the greatest philosopher of Ancient Greece who referred to Homer in the 4th century BCE as « The one who taught the Greeks « .