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The Trojan war lasted 10 years from start to finish.

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Trojan War - Definition, Summary & Hero | HISTORY

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Watch a brief video summarizing the Trojan War, the conflict recounted in Greek mythology between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece.

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He wrote a book called The Republic

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ancient greek  philosopher, student of socrates

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What was Plato's family like?

Plato, (born 428/427 bce, Athens, Greece-died 348/347, Athens), ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates (c. 470-399 bce), teacher of Aristotle (384-322 bce), and founder of the Academy, best known as the author of philosophical works of unparalleled influence.

Building on the demonstration by Socrates that those regarded as experts in ethical matters did not have the understanding necessary for a good human life, Plato introduced the idea that their mistakes were due to their not engaging properly with a class of entities he called forms, chief examples of which were Justice, Beauty, and Equality. Whereas other thinkers-and Plato himself in certain passages-used the term without any precise technical force, Plato in the course of his career came to devote specialized attention to these entities. As he conceived them, they were accessible not to the senses but to the mind alone, and they were the most important constituents of reality, underlying the existence of the sensible world and giving it what intelligibility it has. In metaphysics Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of the forms and their interrelations, starting with the most fundamental among them ( the Good, or the One); in ethics and moral psychology he developed the view that the good life requires not just a certain kind of knowledge (as Socrates had suggested) but also habituation to healthy emotional responses and therefore harmony between the three parts of the soul (according to Plato, reason, spirit, and appetite). His works also contain discussions in aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology, and the philosophy of language. His school fostered research not just in philosophy narrowly conceived but in a wide range of endeavours that today would be called mathematical or scientific.

Life

The son of Ariston (his father) and Perictione (his mother), Plato was born in the year after the death of the great Athenian statesman Pericles. His brothers Glaucon and Adeimantus are portrayed as interlocutors in Plato's masterpiece the Republic, and his half brother Antiphon figures in the Parmenides. Plato's family was aristocratic and distinguished: his father's side claimed descent from the god Poseidon, and his mother's side was related to the lawgiver Solon (c. 630-560 bce). Less creditably, his mother's close relatives Critias and Charmides were among the Thirty Tyrants who seized power in Athens and ruled briefly until the restoration of democracy in 403.

Plato as a young man was a member of the circle around Socrates. Since the latter wrote nothing, what is known of his characteristic activity of engaging his fellow citizens (and the occasional itinerant celebrity) in conversation derives wholly from the writings of others, most notably Plato himself. The works of Plato commonly referred to as "Socratic" represent the sort of thing the historical Socrates was doing. He would challenge men who supposedly had expertise about some facet of human excellence to give accounts of these matters-variously of courage, piety, and so on, or at times of the whole of "virtue"-and they typically failed to maintain their position. Resentment against Socrates grew, leading ultimately to his trial and execution on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth in 399. Plato was profoundly affected by both the life and the death of Socrates. The activity of the older man provided the starting point of Plato's philosophizing. Moreover, if Plato's Seventh Letter is to be believed (its authorship is disputed), the treatment of Socrates by both the oligarchy and the democracy made Plato wary of entering public life, as someone of his background would normally have done.

After the death of Socrates, Plato may have traveled extensively in Greece, Italy, and Egypt, though on such particulars the evidence is uncertain. The followers of Pythagoras (c. 580-c. 500 bce) seem to have influenced his philosophical program (they are criticized in the Phaedo and the Republic but receive respectful mention in the Philebus). It is thought that his three trips to Syracuse in Sicily (many of the Letters concern these, though their authenticity is controversial) led to a deep personal attachment to Dion (408-354 bce), brother-in-law of Dionysius the Elder (430-367 bce), the tyrant of Syracuse. Plato, at Dion's urging, apparently undertook to put into practice the ideal of the "philosopher-king" (described in the Republic) by educating Dionysius the Younger; the project was not a success, and in the ensuing instability Dion was murdered.

Plato's Academy, founded in the 380s, was the ultimate ancestor of the modern university (hence the English term academic); an influential centre of research and learning, it attracted many men of outstanding ability. The great mathematicians Theaetetus (417-369 bce) and Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 395-c. 342 bce) were associated with it. Although Plato was not a research mathematician, he was aware of the results of those who were, and he made use of them in his own work. For 20 years Aristotle was also a member of the Academy. He started his own school, the Lyceum, only after Plato's death, when he was passed over as Plato's successor at the Academy, probably because of his connections to the court of Macedonia.

Because Aristotle often discusses issues by contrasting his views with those of his teacher, it is easy to be impressed by the ways in which they diverge. Thus, whereas for Plato the crown of ethics is the good in general, or Goodness itself (the Good), for Aristotle it is the good for human beings; and whereas for Plato the genus to which a thing belongs possesses a greater reality than the thing itself, for Aristotle the opposite is true. Plato's emphasis on the ideal, and Aristotle's on the worldly, informs Raphael's depiction of the two philosophers in the School of Athens (1508-11). But if one considers the two philosophers not just in relation to each other but in the context of the whole of Western philosophy, it is clear how much Aristotle's program is continuous with that of his teacher. (Indeed, the painting may be said to represent this continuity by showing the two men conversing amicably.) In any case, the Academy did not impose a dogmatic orthodoxy and in fact seems to have fostered a spirit of independent inquiry; at a later time it took on a skeptical orientation.

Plato once delivered a public lecture, "On the Good," in which he mystified his audience by announcing, " the Good is one." He better gauged his readers in his dialogues, many of which are accessible, entertaining, and inviting. Although Plato is well known for his negative remarks about much great literature, in the Symposium he depicts literature and philosophy as the offspring of lovers, who gain a more lasting posterity than do parents of mortal children. His own literary and philosophical gifts ensure that something of Plato will live on for as long as readers engage with his works.

Dating, editing, translation

Plato's works are traditionally arranged in a manner deriving from Thrasyllus of Alexandria (flourished 1st century ce): 36 works (counting the Letters as one) are divided into nine groups of four. But the ordering of Thrasyllus makes no sense for a reader today. Unfortunately, the order of composition of Plato's works cannot be known. Conjecture regarding chronology has been based on two kinds of consideration: perceived development in content and "stylometry," or the study of special features of prose style, now executed with the aid of computers. By combining the two kinds of consideration, scholars have arrived at a widely used rough grouping of works, labeled with the traditional designations of early, middle, and late dialogues. These groups can also be thought of as the Socratic works (based on the activities of the historical Socrates), the literary masterpieces, and the technical studies ( see below Works individually described).

Each of Plato's dialogues has been transmitted substantially as he left it. However, it is important to be aware of the causal chain that connects modern readers to Greek authors of Plato's time. To survive until the era of printing, an ancient author's words had to be copied by hand, and the copies had to be copied, and so on over the course of centuries-by which time the original would have long perished. The copying process inevitably resulted in some corruption, which is often shown by disagreement between rival manuscript traditions.

Even if some Platonic "urtext" had survived, however, it would not be anything like what is published in a modern edition of Plato's works. Writing in Plato's time did not employ word divisions and punctuation or the present-day distinction between capital and lowercase letters. These features represent the contributions of scholars of many generations and countries, as does the ongoing attempt to correct for corruption. (Important variant readings and suggestions are commonly printed at the bottom of each page of text, forming the apparatus criticus.) In the great majority of cases only one decision is possible, but there are instances-some of crucial importance-where several courses can be adopted and where the resulting readings have widely differing import. Thus, the preparation of an edition of Plato's works involves an enormous interpretive component. The work of the translator imports another layer of similar judgments. Some Greek sentences admit of several fundamentally different grammatical construals with widely differing senses, and many ancient Greek words have no neat English equivalents.

A notable artifact of the work of translators and scholars is a device of selective capitalization sometimes employed in English. To mark the objects of Plato's special interest, the forms, some follow a convention in which one capitalizes the term Form (or Idea) as well as the names of particular forms, such as Justice, the Good, and so on. Others have employed a variant of this convention in which capitalization is used to indicate a special way in which Plato is supposed to have thought of the forms during a certain period (i.e., as "separate" from sensible particulars, the nature of this separation then being the subject of interpretative controversy). Still others do not use capital letters for any such purpose. Readers will do best to keep in mind that such devices are in any case only suggestions.

In recent centuries there have been some changes in the purpose and style of English translations of ancient philosophy. The great Plato translation by Benjamin Jowett (1817-93), for example, was not intended as a tool of scholarship; anyone who would undertake such a study already knew ancient Greek. Instead, it made Plato's corpus generally accessible in English prose of considerable merit. At the other extreme was a type of translation that aimed to be useful to serious students and professional philosophers who did not know Greek; its goal was to indicate as clearly as possible the philosophical potentialities of the text, however much readability suffered in consequence. Exemplars of this style, which was much in vogue in the second half of the 20th century, are the series published by the Clarendon Press and also, in a different tradition, the translations undertaken by followers of Leo Strauss (1899-1973). Except in a few cases, however, the gains envisioned by this notion of fidelity proved to be elusive.

Despite, but also because of, the many factors that mediate the contemporary reader's access to Plato's works, many dialogues are conveyed quite well in translation. This is particularly true of the short, Socratic dialogues. In the case of works that are large-scale literary masterpieces, such as the Phaedrus, a translation of course cannot match the artistry of the original. Finally, because translators of difficult technical studies such as the Parmenides and the Sophist must make basic interpretive decisions in order to render any English at all, reading their work is very far from reading Plato. In the case of these dialogues, familiarity with commentaries and other secondary literature and a knowledge of ancient Greek are highly desirable.

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Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher who produced works of unparalleled influence.

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Paris was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.

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asked the three goddesses to remove their clothes, but even so, he was unable to select the most beautiful of them, as they were all equal in beauty. That's when the goddesses decided to bribe him. told him that if he picked her, she would appoint him ruler of all Europe and Asia. told him he would be endowed with battle skills, wisdom and swordsmanship. said she would give him the most beautiful woman in the world. chose .

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asked the three goddesses to remove their clothes, but even so, he was unable to select the most beautiful of them, as they were all equal in beauty. That's when the goddesses decided to bribe him. told him that if he picked her, she would appoint him ruler of all Europe and Asia.

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Trojan War | Myth, Characters, & Significance

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Trojan War, legendary conflict between the early Greeks and the people of Troy in western Anatolia, dated by later Greek authors to the 12th or 13th century BCE. The war stirred the imagination of ancient Greeks more than any other event in their history and was celebrated in the Iliad and the Odyss…

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the Odyssey was written 400 years after the Trojan war.

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The Odyssey is Homer's epic of Odysseus' 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War. While Odysseus battles mystical creatures and faces the wrath of the gods, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus stave off suitors vying for Penelope's hand and Ithaca's throne long enough for Odysseus to return. The Odyssey ends as Odysseus wins a contest to prove his identity, slaughters the suitors, and retakes the throne of Ithaca.

Type of Work: epic poem

First Published: probably around 700 B.C.

Setting: The sea and Ithaca

Main Characters: Odysseus; Penelope; Telemachus; Athena (Pallas); Polyphemus (the Cyclops) and King Alcinous; Circe and Calypso

Major Thematic Topics: hospitality; loyalty; perseverance; vengeance; appearance versus reality; spiritual growth

Motifs: mythology; love; disguises

Major Symbols: Laertes' shroud; Odysseus' bow; the sea; Ithaca

The three most important aspects of The Odyssey:

The Odyssey is an epic, a very long poem on a single subject. Some epics were composed in order to be performed from memory, and so they include poetic devices to make them more memorable. And many epics, probably including The Odyssey, were written to be performed to musical accompaniment.

The journey of Odysseus from Troy to Ithaca takes ten years - the same amount of time that the Trojan War itself lasted. The extraordinary length of Odysseus' return trip, which should take a matter of weeks, is due to his many antagonists, including the god Poseidon, the many mythical creatures he encounters, and Odysseus' often greedy and lazy crewmen.

Odysseus's most memorable quality is not his bravery or strength - though he is brave and strong - but rather his cleverness. In fact, Homer refers to his protagonist throughout the epic as "wily Odysseus."

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The Odyssey is Homer's epic of Odysseus' 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War. While Odysseus battles mystical creatures and faces the wrath of the gods, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus stave off suitors vying for Penelope's hand and Ithaca's throne long enough for Odysseus to return.

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It was fought in the late Bronze Age.

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The Trojan War, fought between Greeks and the defenders of the city of Troy in Anatolia sometime in the late Bronze Age, has grabbed the imagination for millennia. A conflict between Mycenaeans and Hittites may well have occurred, but its representation in epic literature such as Homer's is almost certainly more myth than reality. Nevertheless, it has defined and shaped the way ancient Greek culture has been viewed right up to the 21st century CE. The story of gods and heroic warriors is perhaps one of the richest single surviving sources from antiquity and offers insights into the warfare, religion, customs, and attitudes of the ancient Greeks.

The main source for our knowledge of the Trojan War is Homer's Iliad (written sometime in the 8th century BCE) where he recounts 52 days during the final year of the ten-year conflict. The Greeks imagined the war to have occurred some time in the 13th century BCE. However, the war was also the subject of a long oral tradition prior to Homer's work, and this, combined with other sources such as the fragmentary Epic Cycle poems, give us a more complete picture of what exactly the Greeks thought of as the Trojan War.

The Trojan War, in Greek tradition, started as a way for Zeus to reduce the ever-increasing population of humanity and, more practically, as an expedition to reclaim Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta and brother of Agamemnon. Helen was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris (also known as Alexandros) and taken as his prize for choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess in a competition with Athena and Hera at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Menelaos and the Greeks wanted her back and to avenge Trojan impudence.

The Greek Army

The coalition of Greek forces (or Archaians as Homer often calls them) was led by King Agamemnon of Mycenae. Amongst the cities or regions represented were Boiotia, Phocia, Euboea, Athens, Argos, Corinth, Arcadia, Sparta, Kephalonia, Crete, Rhodes, Magnesia, and the Cyclades. Just how many men these totalled is unclear. Homer states an army of 'tens of thousands' or rather more poetically 'as many [men] as the leaves and flowers that come in springtime'.

The gods had their favourites amongst the men fighting down on the plains of Troy & they often protected them by deflecting spears.

Amongst the Greek warriors were some extra special heroes, leaders who were the greatest fighters and displayed the greatest courage on the battlefield. Also, they often had a divine mother or father whilst the other parent was a mortal, thereby creating a genealogical link between the gods and ordinary men. Amongst the most important were Achilles, Odysseus, Ajax, Diomedes, Patroklos, Antilokus, Menestheus, and Idomenus.

The Greeks were aided by several of the Olympian gods of Greek religion. Athena, Poseidon, Hera, Hephaistos, Hermes, and Thetis all gave direct or indirect help to the Greeks in Homer's account of the war. The gods had their favourites amongst the men fighting down on the plains of Troy and they often protected them by deflecting spears and even spiriting them away in the heat of battle to put them down somewhere safe, far from danger.

The Trojan Army

The Trojan army defending the great city of Troy, led by their king Priam, had assistance from a long list of allies. These included the Carians, Halizones, Kaukones, Kikones, Lycians, Maionians, Mysians, Paionians, Paphlagonians, Pelasgians, Phrygians, and Thracians.

The Trojans, too, had their semi-divine heroes and these included Hektor (son of Priam), Aeneas, Sarpedon, Glaukos, Phorkys, Poulydamas, and Rhesos. The Trojans also had help from the gods, receiving assistance during the battle from Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, and Leto.

Key Battles

Most of the Trojan War was in a fact a protracted siege, and the city was able to resist the invaders for so long principally because its fortifications were so magnificent. Indeed, in Greek mythology, the walls of Troy were said to have been built by Poseidon and Apollo who, after an act of impiety, were compelled by Zeus to serve the Trojan King Laomedon for one year. There were, though, battles outside the city where armies fought, sometimes with chariots, but mostly by men on foot using spears and swords and protected by a shield, helmet, and armour for the chest and legs. War waged back and forth across the plains of Troy over the years, but the really exciting battles seem to have been reserved for the final year of the siege and the following are a selection of the highlights.

Paris v Menelaus

Tiring of indecisive battles, Menelaus offered to fight Paris in single-combat and so settle the issue of the war. Agreeing to this, the two warriors drew lots to see who would have first throw with their spear. Paris won and threw first but his spear landed harmlessly in the shield of Menelaus. The Greek king then threw his weapon with tremendous force and the spear went through the shield of Paris and carried on through to pierce his armour. If Paris had not swayed at the last moment, he would surely have been killed outright. However, Menelaus was not finished and with his sword he struck a fearful blow on the Trojan prince's helmet. The sword shattered, though, and fell in pieces into the dust. Menelaus then grabbed Paris' helmet with his bare hands and proceeded to drag him from the field. Choking as his helmet strap wrapped around his neck, Paris was only saved through the intervention of Aphrodite who broke the helmet strap and, covering the prince in a thick mist, spirited her favourite back to the safety of his perfumed bedroom.

Hektor v Ajax

The meeting of the two great heroes echoes that of Menelaus and Paris. Each throw their spears but to no effect. Hektor then threw a large rock at the Greek, only for him to fend it off with his shield. Ajax then returned the favour with an even bigger rock, smashing Hektor's shield. They then drew their swords and closed for mortal combat but were each stopped by their comrades who called for an end to the fighting as night was approaching. Displaying the code of honour for which the good old days were famous, the two warriors even said goodbye on friendly terms by exchanging gifts, Hektor giving a silver-hilted sword and Ajax giving a splendid purple belt.

With the support of Apollo, an inspirational Hektor, in his finest hour, once more beat the Greeks back to their ships.

The Greek Ships Attacked

Following a tremendous day of fighting, Hektor led the Trojans in an attack on the very walls of the Greeks' camp. Breaking through the gates, the Trojans sent the Greeks fleeing in panic back to their ships. However, as Zeus was momentarily distracted by the charms of Hera, Poseidon stepped in to encourage the Greeks who rallied and forced the Trojans to retreat. Then the tide of battle changed again and, with the support of Apollo, an inspirational Hektor, in his finest hour, once more beat the Greeks back to their ships where he sought to set them ablaze.

Patroklos Falls

Invincible Achilles was quite simply the greatest warrior in Greece, or anywhere else for that matter. Much to the Greek's frustration, though, he sat out most of the final act of the war in a big sulk. Agamemnon had stolen his female war-booty Briseis and consequently, the hero refused to fight. Agamemnon at first doesn't seem to have been too bothered about losing his temperamental talisman but as the Trojans started to gain an upper hand in the war, it began to look like Achilles would be needed if the Achaians were to actually win the protracted conflict. Accordingly, an increasingly desperate Agamemnon sent an appeal to Achilles with promises of vast treasure if he would only re-join the conflict. These Achilles refused but with the Greek camp under attack, Patroklos appealed to his mentor and great friend Achilles to rejoin the conflict and, when he still refused, Patroklos asked for permission to wear Achilles' armour and lead the fearful Myrmidons himself. Achilles, on seeing one of the Greek ships already ablaze, reluctantly gave his consent but warned Patroklos to only repel the Trojans from the camp and not pursue them to the walls of Troy.

Achilles' New Armour

When Achilles discovered the death of his great friend Patroklos, he was overcome with grief and rage and he swore to take terrible revenge on the Trojans and Hektor in particular. After a suitable show of mourning, Achilles finally decided to enter the battlefield once more. It was a decision which would seal the fate of Troy.

Resplendent in his shining armour, Achilles, still mad with rage, predictably routed the Trojans.

Before he could enter the fighting, though, Achilles needed new armour and this was provided by his divine mother Thetis who had Hephaistos, the master craftsman of Olympus, make him the most magnificent set of armour ever seen. Using bronze, tin, silver, and gold, the god made a massive shield which depicted a myriad of earthly scenes and all the constellations. So too, he made a dazzling, gold-crested helmet for the hero. Resplendent in his shining armour, Achilles, still mad with rage, predictably routed the Trojans who fled in panic behind the safety of their city walls.

Hektor v Achilles

Hektor alone remained standing outside the walls but at the sight of the awesome Achilles on the rampage, even his nerve gave way and he made a run for safety. Achilles, however, gave chase and pursued the Trojan prince three times around the city walls. Finally catching him, Achilles killed his quarry with a vicious stab of his spear in Hektor's throat. Achilles then stripped the body of its fine armour and, tying Hektor by the ankles to his chariot, Achilles dragged the body back to the Greek camp in full view of Priam standing atop the fortifications of the city. This was a shockingly dishonourable act and against all the rules of ancient warfare.

Having avenged the death of Patroklos, Achilles arranged funeral games in his fallen friend's honour. Meanwhile, Priam entered the Greek camp in disguise and begged Achilles to return the body of his son that he might be given proper burial. Initially reluctant, the emotional pleas of the old man were finally heeded and Achilles consented to return the body. Here the Iliad ends but the war still had a few more twists of fate to turn.

The Trojan Horse & Victory

The war involved several more exciting episodes including Achilles' fight with and killing of the Ethiopian King Memnon and the Amazon Penthesilea who both came to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles was even said to have fallen in love with the beautiful Amazon just at the moment he killed her with his spear. Achilles himself met his destiny and was killed by an arrow to his only weak spot, his ankle, shot by Paris and guided by Apollo. Odysseus and Ajax squabbled over the hero's magnificent armour and Ajax went mad with disappointment when he lost out on the prize. Slaughtering a herd of sheep he thought were Greeks, he fell on his sword in a messy and pointless suicide. Philoktetes got revenge for Achilles by fatally shooting Paris with the legendary bow of Hercules. Finally, Odysseus even managed to get into the city in disguise and steal the sacred Palladion statue of Athena.

Troy was sacked & the population slaughtered or enslaved.

The final and decisive action was, though, the idea of the wooden horse. Odysseus, inspired by Athena, thought up the ruse to get a body of men inside the walls of Troy. First, the Greeks all sailed off into the sunset leaving a mysterious offering to the Trojans of a gigantic wooden horse which in reality concealed a group of warriors within. Just to make sure the Trojans took the horse within the city, Sinon was chosen to stay behind and tell a cock and bull story about the Greeks having given up and left a nice present. The Trojans did take the horse inside the city walls but whilst they were enjoying a drunken celebration of their victory, the Greeks climbed out of the horse, opened the city walls for the returning Greek army, and the city was sacked and the population slaughtered or enslaved. Helen was taken back to Argos and of the Trojan heroes only Aeneas escaped to eventually set up a new home in Italy.

Victory had its price though. Due to their pitiless ravaging of the city and its people and even worse, outrageous sacrilegious acts such as the rape of Kassandra, the gods punished the Greeks by sending storms to wreck their ships and those who did eventually return were made to endure a protracted and difficult voyage home. Even then, some of the Greeks who did make it back to their homeland only did so to face further misfortune and disaster.

Trojan War: Art & Literature

Troy and the Trojan War became a staple myth of Classical Greek and Roman literature and were revisited many times by writers in works such as Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Euripides' Trojan Women, and Virgil's Aenid. Also in pottery decoration and in sculpture, artists were captivated by the Trojan War. Scenes of the judgement of Paris, Achilles fighting Hektor, Achilles playing dice with Ajax, and Ajax falling on his sword were just some of the myriad scenes from the story that would appear in art again and again over the centuries. Perhaps more importantly, the Trojan War came to represent the struggle of Greeks against foreign powers and it told tales of a time when men were better, more able, and more honourable.

There has been much scholarly debate as to whether the mythical Troy actually existed and if so, whether the archaeological site discovered in Anatolia which revealed a city which had prospered over thousands of years of habitation was actually the same city; however, it is now almost universally accepted that the archaeological excavations have revealed the city of Homer's Iliad.

Of the several cities built on top of each other, Troy VI (c. 1750-1300 BCE) is the most likely candidate for the besieged city of Homer's Trojan War. Impressive fortification walls with several towers certainly fit the Homeric description of 'strong-built Troy'. The lower town covers an impressive 270,000 m² protected by an encircling rock-cut ditch and suggests a grand city like the Troy of tradition.

Troy VI was partially destroyed but the exact cause is not known beyond some evidence of fire. Intriguingly, bronze arrowheads, spear tips, and slingshots have been found at the site and even some embedded in the fortification walls, suggesting some sort of conflict. The dates of these (c. 1250 BCE) and the site destruction correlate with Herodotus' dates for the Trojan War. Conflicts over the centuries between the Mycenaean and Hittite civilizations are more than probable, colonial expansion and control of lucrative trade routes being prime motivators. However, such conflicts are unlikely to have been on the scale of Homer's war, but collectively they may well have been the origin of the epic tale of the Trojan War which has fascinated for centuries.

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The Trojan War, fought between Greeks and the defenders of the city of Troy in Anatolia sometime in the late Bronze Age, has grabbed the imagination for millennia. A conflict between Mycenaeans and Hittites may well have occurred, but its representation in epic literature such as Homer's is almost certainly more myth than reality.

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The Greeks believed in.Polytheistic, based on the assumption that there were many gods and goddesses

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Interesting Fact: The Greeks believed the gods and goddesses had human qualities.

Religion was important to the ancient Greeks because they believed that it would make their lives better while they were living. They also believed the gods would take care of them when they died.

The Ancient Greeks believed in many different gods and goddesses. The Greeks believed that these gods and goddesses controlled everything in their lives and the environment. There was a god for every aspect of their lives. It was important to please the gods; happy gods helped you, but unhappy gods punished you. People had special places in their homes where they could pray to the gods. There were also public shrines in all sorts of places where people could pray and leave presents.
Temples
The Greeks, to show the gods how important they were, built temples in every town for one god or goddess. The temples were not like modern places of worship, for ordinary people to pray in. They were homes for statues of gods, which were cared for by priests. Religious ceremonies and festivals went on outside the temple.
Priests
Priests were important people in the community. They were believed to have the power to talk to the gods and so were respected and trusted.

There were only two ways you could become a priest. Either your mother or father was a priest or you were made a priest by a dying priest.

A priest main job was to look after the temples and the visitors to the temples.
Greek Gods
The Ancient Greeks believed that all the gods came from Gaia (the Earth) and Uranos (the sky).They thought they were like adult humans - always falling in love, arguing, having children, playing music and partying. Like the Romans, the Greeks believed that different gods were responsible for different things.
Click here for a list of the Greek Gods Mount Olympus
The Greeks believed that twelve most important gods and goddesses lived at the top of Mount Olympus. They were a family and, just like a human family, they argued as well as looking after each other.

Mount Olympus, in northern Greece, is the highest mountain in the country. It was believed to be the home of the gods, because it was often so cloudy and no-one could see its summit.
Who was the ruler of the Greek gods?
The ruler of the gods was Zeus. His symbol was the thunderbolt.
Click here for a list of the Greek Gods

More Interesting Facts:

Many festivals were held in honour of the gods.

The Greeks built temples to be the gods and goddesses homes. The temples showed how wealthy and powerful the city was. Rich cities, like Athens, built temples of the best stone, and decorated them with paintings, statues and carvings.

People prayed and gave offerings to gods to grant their wishes; for a good harvest, a good journey, for their children to become beautiful etc

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Religion and Ancient Greece Gods for Kids

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Interesting Fact: The Greeks believed the gods and goddesses had human qualities. Religion was important to the ancient Greeks because they believed that it would make their lives better while they were living. They also believed the gods would take care of them when they died.

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Troy is now located in Turkey.

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The name Troy refers both to a place in legend and a real-life archaeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon. The reason for this "Trojan War" was, according to Homer's "Iliad," the abduction of Helen, a queen from Sparta. This abduction was done by Paris, the son of Troy's King Priam. Throughout the "Iliad" the gods constantly intervene in support of characters on both sides of the conflict.

Troy also refers to a real ancient city located on the northwest coast of Turkey which, since antiquity, has been identified by many as being the Troy discussed in the legend. Whether the Trojan War actually took place, and whether the site in northwest Turkey is the same Troy, is a matter of debate. The modern-day Turkish name for the site is Hisarlik.

The idea that the city was Troy goes back at least 2,700 years, when the ancient Greeks were colonizing the west coast of Turkey. In the 19th century, the idea again came to popular attention when a German businessman and early archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, conducted a series of excavations at Hisarlik and discovered treasures he claimed to be from King Priam.

The Trojan War is thought to have taken place near the end of the Bronze Age. That is around or before 1200 B.C. It took place around the time that a civilization that we call Mycenaean flourished in Greece. They built great palaces and developed a system of writing.

The earliest accounts of this war come from Homer, who lived around the eighth century B.C., several centuries after the events took place. They do not appear to have been written down until even later, likely during the sixth century B.C., when a tyrant named Peisistratus ruled Athens.

Homer's "Iliad" is set in the 10th year of the siege against Troy and tells of a series of events that appear to have taken place over a few weeks. The story makes clear that the siege had taken its toll on the Greek force sent to recover Helen. The "timbers of our ships have rotted away and the cables are broken and far away are our wives and our young children," the poem reads (translation by Richmond Lattimore).

The war had essentially become a stalemate with the Greeks unable to take the city and the Trojans unable to drive them back into the sea. We "sons of the Achaians [Greeks] outnumber the Trojans - those who live in the city; but there are companions from other cities in their numbers, wielders of the spear to help them," the "Iliad" reads.

A number of key events happen in the poem, including a duel between Menelaos or Menelaus), the king of Sparta and husband of Helen, against Paris. The winner is supposed to receive Helen as a prize, ending the war. However, the gods intervene to break up the duel before it is finished and the war continues.

Another important duel occurs nears the end of the poem between Achilleus (or Achilles) and a great Trojan warrior named Hektor (or Hector). The Trojan knows that he's no match for the Greek warrior and initially runs three laps around Troy, with Achilleus chasing him. Finally, the gods force him to face the Greek warrior and he is in turn killed.

Contrary to popular belief, the "Iliad" does not end with the destruction of Troy but with a temporary truce after which the fighting presumably continues. Another Homeric work called the "Odyssey" is set after the destruction of the city and features the Greek hero Odysseus trying to get home. That poem briefly references how the Greeks took Troy using the famous "Trojan Horse," a gift concealing warriors within.

"What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man wrought and endured in the carven horse, wherein all we chiefs of the Argives were sitting, bearing to the Trojans death and fate!" reads part of the poem (Translation by A.T. Murray through Perseus Digital Library).

The site of Hisarlik, in northwest Turkey, has been identified as being Troy since ancient times. Archaeological research shows that it was inhabited for almost 4,000 years starting around 3000 B.C. After one city was destroyed, a new city would be built on top of it, creating a human-made mound called a "tell."

"There is no one single Troy; there are at least 10, lying in layers on top of each other," writes University of Amsterdam researcher Gert Jan van Wijngaarden in a chapter of the book "Troy: City, Homer and Turkey" (University of Amsterdam, 2013).

Van Wijngaarden notes that archaeologists have to dig deep to find remains of the first settlement and from what they can tell it was a "small city surrounded by a defensive wall of unworked stone." Outside the largest gate was a stone with an image of a face, perhaps a deity welcoming visitors to the new city.

Troy took off in the period after 2550 B.C. The city "was considerably enlarged and furnished with a massive defensive wall made of cut blocks of stone and rectangular clay bricks," van Wijngaarden writes. He notes that on the settlement's citadel were houses of the "megaron" type, which contained "an elongated room with a hearth and open forecourt."

When Heinrich Schliemann excavated this level of Troy in 1873, he discovered a cache of treasure, which he believed belonged to King Priam. "The collection of weapons, gold, silver, electrum, copper and bronze vessels, gold jewellery, including thousands of gold rings, and a range of other objects made of precious materials apparently came to light close to the outer side of the city wall near the building which Schliemann designated as the royal palace," writes University of Queensland researcher Trevor Bryce in his book "The Trojans and their Neighbours" (Routledge, 2006).

Some researchers have speculated that these treasures were not found all in one hoard but were rather precious objects, from across the site, which Schliemann gathered over a number of weeks. While Schliemann believed he had found Priam's treasures, it became clear in the following decades that these were a millennium too early for Priam.

A stone block with Greek writing sits at the ruins of Troy, Turkey.

Credit: Alex Khripunov Shutterstock

The city that may have been the Troy mentioned by Homer belongs to two other phases that date between roughly 1700 B.C. and 1190 B.C. Bryce notes that its defenses were formidable.

"The walls, surmounted by mud-brick breastworks, once reached a height of nine meters (30 feet). Several watchtowers were built into these walls, the most imposing of which is the northeastern bastion, which served to reinforce the citadel's defences as well as offer a commanding view over the Trojan plain," he writes.

The exact size of the city is in dispute. Archaeologist Manfred Korfmann, who has led excavations at the site, writes in a paper in the book "Troy: From Homer's Iliad to Hollywood Epic" (Blackwell Publishing, 2007) that work at the site shows that there was a "lower city" beyond the citadel, bringing its total size to about 30 hectares (74 acres).

"This Troy had a large residential area below a strongly fortified citadel. As far as we know today, the citadel was unparalleled in its region and in all of southeastern Europe," he writes in the book chapter. The extent of the residential area is a topic of debate among scholars with some arguing that Korfmann is overestimating its extent.

A key problem with identifying this city as Homer's Troy is the way it ended. Cracks in its walls suggest that it was hit by an earthquake around 1300 B.C., possibly followed by an uprising or attack. "There are also some indications of fire, and slingstones in the destruction layer (suggesting) the possibility that there might have been some fighting," writes van Wijngaarden. "Nevertheless an earthquake appears to have caused the most damage." Additionally, he notes, the city was rebuilt after its destruction by the same population groups as before, rather than by a foreign Greek force.

While the city was attacked in 1190 B.C., there are, again, problems with the idea that it was carried out by a Greek force. By this time, Greece's Mycenaean civilization had collapsed, its great palaces reduced to ruins. Additionally, at Troy archaeologists have found ceramics and bronze axes from southeast Europe, suggesting that that people may have moved into the city from there.

The city was abandoned around 1000 B.C. and was reoccupied in eighth century B.C., around the time Homer lived. The Greeks called the reoccupied city "Ilion."

The "new settlers had no doubt that the place they were preparing to occupy was the fabled setting of the Trojan War," Bryce writes, and in later times its inhabitants took advantage of this to draw in political support and ancient tourists.

For its first few centuries, Ilion was a modest settlement. While many scholars believe that the people who resettled Troy after 1000 B.C. were Greek colonists this idea has recently been challenged. In 2014, research published by a team of scholars in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology revealed that the amphora at Troy that was thought to have been imported from Greece was actually locally made and that much of the other pottery found at Troy after 1,000 B.C. was also made locally and was not imported from Greece. This led the team to suggest that many of the people who reoccupied Troy may not have been Greek colonists but rather people who already lived in the area.

Xerxes, the Persian king on his way to conquer Greece, stopped to pay homage to Troy and, most notably, Alexander the Great would do the same in the fourth century B.C., granting it special status within his empire.

"It is said that the city of the present Ilians was for a time a mere village, having its temple of Athena, a small and cheap temple," wrote Strabo, who lived around 2,000 years ago. When "Alexander went up there after his victory at the Granicus River he adorned the temple with votive offerings, gave the village the title of city, and ordered those in charge to improve it with buildings, and that he adjudged it free and exempt from tribute; and that later, after the overthrow of the Persians, he sent down a kindly letter to the place, promising to make a great city of it..." (Translation by H.L. Jones, through Perseus Digital Library)

Troy's special status would continue into the period of Roman rule. The Romans believed that Aeneas, one of Troy's heroes, was an ancestor of Romulus and Remus, Rome's legendary founders. The city's inhabitants took advantage of this mythology, with it becoming a "popular destination for pilgrims and tourists," Bryce writes. He notes that in this phase of Troy's existence, when it became a popular tourism location, the city became larger than at any time before, including when the Trojan War was said to have taken place.

However, as the Middle Ages took hold, Troy fell into decline. By the 13th century, the city had been reduced to that of a modest farming community. Recent DNA research revealed the story of a woman who died 800 years ago of an infection that occurred while she was pregnant. Today, Troy is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a popular site for tourists to visit in Turkey.

A new museum is being constructed at Troy and the Turkish government has put forward repatriation requests for artifacts that were illegally removed from Troy in the 20th century to be returned to Turkey. A collection of gold jewelry in the Penn Museum that research reveals was taken from Troy in the 20th century has been returned to Turkey after lengthy negotiations, said C. Brian Rose, a professor of archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, in an article published in 2017 in the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies.

The big question researchers face is, was there ever a Trojan War? If there was, then is this really Troy?

Unfortunately, the only written remains found at Troy, that date before the eighth-century B.C. Greek occupation, is a seal written in a language called Luwian, the seal being perhaps brought to Troy from elsewhere in Turkey.

Scholars have noted that the topography of Troy as told in the legend does seem to generally match that of the real-life city and, as noted earlier, people as far back as Homer's time also believed this to be Troy.

Yet the archaeological remains still pose problems. Troy at the time of the Trojan War was apparently destroyed by earthquakes and later on may have received people from southeastern Europe rather than Greece.

These issues leave researchers with a mystery. "At one end of the spectrum of opinion is the conviction that there was indeed a war and that it was pretty much as the poet described it," send Bryce. "From that we pass through varying degrees of scepticism and agnosticism to the other end of the spectrum where the tradition is consigned wholly to the realm of fantasy."

Korfmann, the modern-day excavator of Hisarlik, believes the story of the Trojan War contains some truth. "According to the current state of our knowledge, the story told in the "Iliad" most likely contains a kernel of historical truth or, to put it differently a historical substrate," he writes. "Any future discussions about the historicity of the Trojan War only make sense if they ask what exactly we understand this kernel or substrate to be."

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The name Troy refers both to a place in legend and a real-life archaeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon. The reason for this "Trojan War" was, according to Homer's "Iliad," the abduction of Helen, a queen from Sparta.

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wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey

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Table of Contents

Why is Homer significant?

Read a brief summary of this topic

Homer, (flourished 9th or 8th century bce?, Ionia? [now in Turkey]), presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Although these two great epic poems of ancient Greece have always been attributed to the shadowy figure of Homer, little is known of him beyond the fact that his was the name attached in antiquity by the Greeks themselves to the poems. That there was an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping the Iliad and the Odyssey -so much may be said to be probable. If this assumption is accepted, then Homer must assuredly be one of the greatest of the world's literary artists.

He is also one of the most influential authors in the widest sense, for the two epics provided the basis of Greek education and culture throughout the Classical age and formed the backbone of humane education down to the time of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. Indirectly through the medium of Virgil's Aeneid (which was loosely molded after the patterns of the Iliad and the Odyssey), directly through their revival under Byzantine culture from the late 8th century ce onward, and subsequently through their passage into Italy with the Greek scholars who fled westward from the Ottomans, the Homeric epics had a profound impact on the Renaissance culture of Italy. Since then the proliferation of translations has helped to make them the most important poems of the Classical European tradition.

It was probably through their impact on Classical Greek culture itself that the Iliad and the Odyssey most subtly affected Western standards and ideas. The Greeks regarded the great epics as something more than works of literature; they knew much of them by heart, and they valued them not only as a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism but also as an ancient source of moral and even practical instruction.

Literary Favorites: Fact or Fiction?

Early references

Implicit references to Homer and quotations from the poems date to the middle of the 7th century bce. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, and Callinus in the 7th century and Sappho and others in the early 6th adapted Homeric phraseology and metre to their own purposes and rhythms. At the same time scenes from the epics became popular in works of art. The pseudo-Homeric "Hymn to Apollo of Delos," probably of late 7th-century composition, claimed to be the work of "a blind man who dwells in rugged Chios," a reference to a tradition about Homer himself. The idea that Homer had descendants known as "Homeridae," and that they had taken over the preservation and propagation of his poetry, goes back at least to the early 6th century bce. Indeed, it was not long before a kind of Homeric scholarship began: Theagenes of Rhegium in southern Italy toward the end of the same century wrote the first of many allegorizing interpretations. By the 5th century biographical fictions were well under way; the Pre-Socratic philosopher Heracleitus of Ephesus made use of a trivial legend of Homer's death-that it was caused by chagrin at not being able to solve some boys' riddle about catching lice-and the concept of a contest of quotations between Homer and Hesiod (after Homer the most ancient of Greek poets) may have been initiated in the Sophistic tradition. The historian Herodotus assigned the formulation of Greek theology to Homer and Hesiod and claimed that they could have lived no more than 400 years before his own time, the 5th century bce. This should be contrasted with the superficial assumption, popular in many circles throughout antiquity, that Homer must have lived not much later than the Trojan War about which he sang.

The general belief that Homer was a native of Ionia (the central part of the western seaboard of Asia Minor) seems a reasonable conjecture for the poems themselves are in predominantly Ionic dialect. Although Smyrna and Chios early began competing for the honour (the poet Pindar, early in the 5th century bce, associated Homer with both), and others joined in, no authenticated local memory survived anywhere of someone who, oral poet or not, must have been remarkable in his time. The absence of hard facts puzzled but did not deter the Greeks; the fictions that had begun even before the 5th century bce were developed in the Alexandrian era in the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce (when false scholarship as well as true abounded) into fantastic pseudobiographies, and these were further refined by derivative scholars under the Roman Empire. The longest to have survived purports to be by Herodotus himself; but it is quite devoid of objective truth.

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Homer, (flourished 9th or 8th century bce?, Ionia? [now in Turkey]), presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

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I learned that Plato is famous for his allegory of the cave and his book "The Republic." He was the student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle

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What was Plato's family like?

Plato, (born 428/427 bce, Athens, Greece-died 348/347, Athens), ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates (c. 470-399 bce), teacher of Aristotle (384-322 bce), and founder of the Academy, best known as the author of philosophical works of unparalleled influence.

Building on the demonstration by Socrates that those regarded as experts in ethical matters did not have the understanding necessary for a good human life, Plato introduced the idea that their mistakes were due to their not engaging properly with a class of entities he called forms, chief examples of which were Justice, Beauty, and Equality. Whereas other thinkers-and Plato himself in certain passages-used the term without any precise technical force, Plato in the course of his career came to devote specialized attention to these entities. As he conceived them, they were accessible not to the senses but to the mind alone, and they were the most important constituents of reality, underlying the existence of the sensible world and giving it what intelligibility it has. In metaphysics Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of the forms and their interrelations, starting with the most fundamental among them ( the Good, or the One); in ethics and moral psychology he developed the view that the good life requires not just a certain kind of knowledge (as Socrates had suggested) but also habituation to healthy emotional responses and therefore harmony between the three parts of the soul (according to Plato, reason, spirit, and appetite). His works also contain discussions in aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology, and the philosophy of language. His school fostered research not just in philosophy narrowly conceived but in a wide range of endeavours that today would be called mathematical or scientific.

Life

The son of Ariston (his father) and Perictione (his mother), Plato was born in the year after the death of the great Athenian statesman Pericles. His brothers Glaucon and Adeimantus are portrayed as interlocutors in Plato's masterpiece the Republic, and his half brother Antiphon figures in the Parmenides. Plato's family was aristocratic and distinguished: his father's side claimed descent from the god Poseidon, and his mother's side was related to the lawgiver Solon (c. 630-560 bce). Less creditably, his mother's close relatives Critias and Charmides were among the Thirty Tyrants who seized power in Athens and ruled briefly until the restoration of democracy in 403.

Plato as a young man was a member of the circle around Socrates. Since the latter wrote nothing, what is known of his characteristic activity of engaging his fellow citizens (and the occasional itinerant celebrity) in conversation derives wholly from the writings of others, most notably Plato himself. The works of Plato commonly referred to as "Socratic" represent the sort of thing the historical Socrates was doing. He would challenge men who supposedly had expertise about some facet of human excellence to give accounts of these matters-variously of courage, piety, and so on, or at times of the whole of "virtue"-and they typically failed to maintain their position. Resentment against Socrates grew, leading ultimately to his trial and execution on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth in 399. Plato was profoundly affected by both the life and the death of Socrates. The activity of the older man provided the starting point of Plato's philosophizing. Moreover, if Plato's Seventh Letter is to be believed (its authorship is disputed), the treatment of Socrates by both the oligarchy and the democracy made Plato wary of entering public life, as someone of his background would normally have done.

After the death of Socrates, Plato may have traveled extensively in Greece, Italy, and Egypt, though on such particulars the evidence is uncertain. The followers of Pythagoras (c. 580-c. 500 bce) seem to have influenced his philosophical program (they are criticized in the Phaedo and the Republic but receive respectful mention in the Philebus). It is thought that his three trips to Syracuse in Sicily (many of the Letters concern these, though their authenticity is controversial) led to a deep personal attachment to Dion (408-354 bce), brother-in-law of Dionysius the Elder (430-367 bce), the tyrant of Syracuse. Plato, at Dion's urging, apparently undertook to put into practice the ideal of the "philosopher-king" (described in the Republic) by educating Dionysius the Younger; the project was not a success, and in the ensuing instability Dion was murdered.

Plato's Academy, founded in the 380s, was the ultimate ancestor of the modern university (hence the English term academic); an influential centre of research and learning, it attracted many men of outstanding ability. The great mathematicians Theaetetus (417-369 bce) and Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 395-c. 342 bce) were associated with it. Although Plato was not a research mathematician, he was aware of the results of those who were, and he made use of them in his own work. For 20 years Aristotle was also a member of the Academy. He started his own school, the Lyceum, only after Plato's death, when he was passed over as Plato's successor at the Academy, probably because of his connections to the court of Macedonia.

Because Aristotle often discusses issues by contrasting his views with those of his teacher, it is easy to be impressed by the ways in which they diverge. Thus, whereas for Plato the crown of ethics is the good in general, or Goodness itself (the Good), for Aristotle it is the good for human beings; and whereas for Plato the genus to which a thing belongs possesses a greater reality than the thing itself, for Aristotle the opposite is true. Plato's emphasis on the ideal, and Aristotle's on the worldly, informs Raphael's depiction of the two philosophers in the School of Athens (1508-11). But if one considers the two philosophers not just in relation to each other but in the context of the whole of Western philosophy, it is clear how much Aristotle's program is continuous with that of his teacher. (Indeed, the painting may be said to represent this continuity by showing the two men conversing amicably.) In any case, the Academy did not impose a dogmatic orthodoxy and in fact seems to have fostered a spirit of independent inquiry; at a later time it took on a skeptical orientation.

Plato once delivered a public lecture, "On the Good," in which he mystified his audience by announcing, " the Good is one." He better gauged his readers in his dialogues, many of which are accessible, entertaining, and inviting. Although Plato is well known for his negative remarks about much great literature, in the Symposium he depicts literature and philosophy as the offspring of lovers, who gain a more lasting posterity than do parents of mortal children. His own literary and philosophical gifts ensure that something of Plato will live on for as long as readers engage with his works.

Dating, editing, translation

Plato's works are traditionally arranged in a manner deriving from Thrasyllus of Alexandria (flourished 1st century ce): 36 works (counting the Letters as one) are divided into nine groups of four. But the ordering of Thrasyllus makes no sense for a reader today. Unfortunately, the order of composition of Plato's works cannot be known. Conjecture regarding chronology has been based on two kinds of consideration: perceived development in content and "stylometry," or the study of special features of prose style, now executed with the aid of computers. By combining the two kinds of consideration, scholars have arrived at a widely used rough grouping of works, labeled with the traditional designations of early, middle, and late dialogues. These groups can also be thought of as the Socratic works (based on the activities of the historical Socrates), the literary masterpieces, and the technical studies ( see below Works individually described).

Each of Plato's dialogues has been transmitted substantially as he left it. However, it is important to be aware of the causal chain that connects modern readers to Greek authors of Plato's time. To survive until the era of printing, an ancient author's words had to be copied by hand, and the copies had to be copied, and so on over the course of centuries-by which time the original would have long perished. The copying process inevitably resulted in some corruption, which is often shown by disagreement between rival manuscript traditions.

Even if some Platonic "urtext" had survived, however, it would not be anything like what is published in a modern edition of Plato's works. Writing in Plato's time did not employ word divisions and punctuation or the present-day distinction between capital and lowercase letters. These features represent the contributions of scholars of many generations and countries, as does the ongoing attempt to correct for corruption. (Important variant readings and suggestions are commonly printed at the bottom of each page of text, forming the apparatus criticus.) In the great majority of cases only one decision is possible, but there are instances-some of crucial importance-where several courses can be adopted and where the resulting readings have widely differing import. Thus, the preparation of an edition of Plato's works involves an enormous interpretive component. The work of the translator imports another layer of similar judgments. Some Greek sentences admit of several fundamentally different grammatical construals with widely differing senses, and many ancient Greek words have no neat English equivalents.

A notable artifact of the work of translators and scholars is a device of selective capitalization sometimes employed in English. To mark the objects of Plato's special interest, the forms, some follow a convention in which one capitalizes the term Form (or Idea) as well as the names of particular forms, such as Justice, the Good, and so on. Others have employed a variant of this convention in which capitalization is used to indicate a special way in which Plato is supposed to have thought of the forms during a certain period (i.e., as "separate" from sensible particulars, the nature of this separation then being the subject of interpretative controversy). Still others do not use capital letters for any such purpose. Readers will do best to keep in mind that such devices are in any case only suggestions.

In recent centuries there have been some changes in the purpose and style of English translations of ancient philosophy. The great Plato translation by Benjamin Jowett (1817-93), for example, was not intended as a tool of scholarship; anyone who would undertake such a study already knew ancient Greek. Instead, it made Plato's corpus generally accessible in English prose of considerable merit. At the other extreme was a type of translation that aimed to be useful to serious students and professional philosophers who did not know Greek; its goal was to indicate as clearly as possible the philosophical potentialities of the text, however much readability suffered in consequence. Exemplars of this style, which was much in vogue in the second half of the 20th century, are the series published by the Clarendon Press and also, in a different tradition, the translations undertaken by followers of Leo Strauss (1899-1973). Except in a few cases, however, the gains envisioned by this notion of fidelity proved to be elusive.

Despite, but also because of, the many factors that mediate the contemporary reader's access to Plato's works, many dialogues are conveyed quite well in translation. This is particularly true of the short, Socratic dialogues. In the case of works that are large-scale literary masterpieces, such as the Phaedrus, a translation of course cannot match the artistry of the original. Finally, because translators of difficult technical studies such as the Parmenides and the Sophist must make basic interpretive decisions in order to render any English at all, reading their work is very far from reading Plato. In the case of these dialogues, familiarity with commentaries and other secondary literature and a knowledge of ancient Greek are highly desirable.

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Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher who produced works of unparalleled influence.

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He is famous for writing the Iliad and The Odyssey.

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Synopsis

The Greek poet Homer was born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, possibly somewhere on the coast of Asia Minor. He is famous for the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, which have had an enormous effect on Western culture, but very little is known about their alleged author.

The Mystery of Homer

Homer is a mystery. The Greek epic poet credited with the enduring epic tales of The Iliad and The Odyssey is an enigma insofar as actual facts of his life go. Some scholars believe him to be one man; others think these iconic stories were created by a group. A variation on the group idea stems from the fact that storytelling was an oral tradition and Homer compiled the stories, then recited them to memory.

Homer's style, whoever he was, falls more in the category of minstrel poet or balladeer, as opposed to a cultivated poet who is the product of a fervent literary moment, such as a Virgil or a Shakespeare. The stories have repetitive elements, almost like a chorus or refrain, which suggests a musical element. However, Homer's works are designated as epic rather than lyric poetry, which was originally recited with lyre in hand, much in the same vein as spoken-word performances.

All this speculation about who he was has inevitably led to what is known as the Homeric Question-whether he actually existed at all. This is often considered to be the greatest literary mystery.

When He Was Born

Much speculation surrounds when Homer was born, because of the dearth of real information about him. Guesses at his birth date range from 750 BC all the way back to 1200 BC, the latter because The Iliad encompasses the story of the Trojan War, so some scholars have thought it fit to put the poet and chronicler nearer to the time of that actual event. But others believe the poetic style of his work indicates a much later period. Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC), often called the father of history, placed Homer several centuries before himself, around 850 BC.

Part of the problem is that Homer lived before a chronological dating system was in place. The Olympic Games of classical Greece marked an epoch, with 776 BC as a starting point by which to measure out four-year periods for the event. In short, it is difficult to give someone a birth date when he was born before there was a calendar.

Where He Was Born

Once again, the exact location of Homer's birth cannot be pinpointed, although that doesn't stop scholars from trying. It has been identified as Ionia, Smyrna or, at any rate, on the coast of Asia Minor or the island of Chios. But seven cities lay claim to Homer as their native son.

There is some basis for some of these claims, however. The dialect that The Iliad and The Odyssey are written in is considered Asiatic Greek, specifically Ionic. That fact, paired with frequent mentions of local phenomena such as strong winds blowing from the northwest from the direction of Thrace, suggests, scholars feel, a familiarity with that region that could only mean Homer came from there.

The dialect helps narrow down his lifespan by coinciding it with the development and usage of language in general, but The Iliad and The Odyssey were so popular that this particular dialect became the norm for much of Greek literature going forward.

What He Was Like

Virtually every biographical aspect ascribed to Homer is derived entirely from his poems. Homer is thought to have been blind, based solely on a character in The Odyssey, a blind poet/minstrel called Demodokos. A long disquisition on how Demodokos was welcomed into a gathering and regaled the audience with music and epic tales of conflict and heroes to much praise has been interpreted as Homer's hint as to what his own life was like. As a result, many busts and statues have been carved of Homer with thick curly hair and beard and sightless eyes.

"Homer and Sophocles saw clearly, felt keenly, and refrained from much," wrote Lane Cooper in The Greek Genius and Its Influence: Select Essays and Extracts in 1917, ascribing an emotional life to the writer. But he wasn't the first, nor was he the last. Countless attempts to recreate the life and personality of the author from the content of his epic poems have occupied writers for centuries.

The Iliad and The Odyssey

Homer's two epic poems have become archetypal road maps in world mythology. The stories provide an important insight into early human society, and illustrate, in some aspects, how little has changed. Even if The Iliad itself seems unfamiliar, the story of the siege of Troy, the Trojan War and Paris' kidnapping of Helen, the world's most beautiful woman, are all familiar characters or scenarios. Some scholars insist that Homer was personally familiar with the plain of Troy, due to the geographical accuracy in the poem.

The Odyssey picks up after the fall of Troy. Further controversy about authorship springs from the differing styles of the two long narrative poems, indicating they were composed a century apart, while other historians claim only decades -the more formal structure of The Iliad is attributed to a poet at the height of his powers, whereas the more colloquial, novelistic approach in The Odyssey is attributed to an elderly Homer.

Homer enriched his descriptive story with liberal use of simile and metaphor, which has inspired a long path of writers behind him. His structuring device was to start in the middle- in medias res - and then fill in the missing information via remembrances.

The two narrative poems pop up throughout modern literature: Homer's The Odyssey has parallels in James Joyce's Ulysses, and his tale of Achilles in The Iliad is echoed in J.R.R. Tolkein's The Fall of Gondolin. Even the Coen Brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou? makes use of The Odyssey.

Other works have been attributed to Homer over the centuries, most notably the Homeric Hymns, but in the end only the two epic works remain enduringly his.

Legacy

"Plato tells us that in his time many believed that Homer was the educator of all Greece. Since then, Homer's influence has spread far beyond the frontiers of Hellas [Greece]...." wrote Werner Jaeger in Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. He was right. The Iliad and The Odyssey have provided not only seeds but fertilizer for almost all the other arts and sciences in Western culture. For the Greeks, Homer was a godfather of their national culture, chronicling its mythology and collective memory in rich rhythmic tales that have permeated the collective imagination.

Homer's real life may remain a mystery, but the very real impact of his works continues to illuminate our world today.

Fact Check

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Although very little is known about the life of Greek poet Homer, credited with being the first to write down the epic stories of The Iliad and The Odyssey, the impact of his tales continue to reverberate through Western culture.

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A poem about a god called Aeneas who travelled to Italy and became the ancestor of the Romans.

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A short summary of Virgil's The Aeneid. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Aeneid.

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he Odyssey is homer's epic of odyssey 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War

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The Odyssey is Homer's epic of Odysseus' 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War. While Odysseus battles mystical creatures and faces the wrath of the gods, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus stave off suitors vying for Penelope's hand and Ithaca's throne long enough for Odysseus to return. The Odyssey ends as Odysseus wins a contest to prove his identity, slaughters the suitors, and retakes the throne of Ithaca.

Type of Work: epic poem

First Published: probably around 700 B.C.

Setting: The sea and Ithaca

Main Characters: Odysseus; Penelope; Telemachus; Athena (Pallas); Polyphemus (the Cyclops) and King Alcinous; Circe and Calypso

Major Thematic Topics: hospitality; loyalty; perseverance; vengeance; appearance versus reality; spiritual growth

Motifs: mythology; love; disguises

Major Symbols: Laertes' shroud; Odysseus' bow; the sea; Ithaca

The three most important aspects of The Odyssey:

The Odyssey is an epic, a very long poem on a single subject. Some epics were composed in order to be performed from memory, and so they include poetic devices to make them more memorable. And many epics, probably including The Odyssey, were written to be performed to musical accompaniment.

The journey of Odysseus from Troy to Ithaca takes ten years - the same amount of time that the Trojan War itself lasted. The extraordinary length of Odysseus' return trip, which should take a matter of weeks, is due to his many antagonists, including the god Poseidon, the many mythical creatures he encounters, and Odysseus' often greedy and lazy crewmen.

Odysseus's most memorable quality is not his bravery or strength - though he is brave and strong - but rather his cleverness. In fact, Homer refers to his protagonist throughout the epic as "wily Odysseus."

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The Odyssey is Homer's epic of Odysseus' 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War. While Odysseus battles mystical creatures and faces the wrath of the gods, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus stave off suitors vying for Penelope's hand and Ithaca's throne long enough for Odysseus to return.

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a long journey from the Trojan War

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Table of Contents

How was the Odyssey originally performed?

What are the most popular English-language translations of the Odyssey from the 20th century?

Odyssey, epic poem in 24 books traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer. The poem is the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who wanders for 10 years (although the action of the poem covers only the final six weeks) trying to get home after the Trojan War. On his return, he is recognized only by his faithful dog and a nurse. With the help of his son, Telemachus, Odysseus destroys the insistent suitors of his faithful wife, Penelope, and several of her maids who had fraternized with the suitors and reestablishes himself in his kingdom.

The story

The Odyssey does not follow a linear chronology. The reader begins in the middle of the tale, learning about previous events only through Odysseus's retelling. The first four books set the scene in Ithaca. Penelope, Odysseus's wife, and their young son, Telemachus, are powerless before her arrogant suitors as they despair of Odysseus's return from the siege of Troy. Telemachus is searching for news of his father, who has not been heard from since he left for war nearly 20 years earlier. He journeys secretly to the Peloponnese and seeks out two men who fought with Odysseus in the war at Troy, Nestor and Menelaus, and discovers that his father is indeed still alive.

The second four books (V-VIII) introduce the main character, Odysseus, as he is being released from captivity by the nymph Calypso on the island of Ogygia. He suffers a shipwreck and lands on the shore of Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians. In Books IX-XII Odysseus tells the Phaeacians of the harrowing journey he and his crew endured as they tried to find their way home-including their encounters with the lotus-eaters, Laestrygonians, and the sorceress Circe, their narrow escape from the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, their ordeal navigating between Scylla and Charybdis, and the final shipwreck in which Odysseus is washed ashore on Ogygia alone.

Finally, Books XIII-XXIV, the second half of the poem, find Odysseus back in Ithaca, facing unexpected obstacles and danger. He meets with his protector-goddess Athena and reveals himself first to his faithful swineherd Eumaeus and then to Telemachus before developing a complicated plan to dispose of the suitors. During Odysseus's absence, Penelope resisted the importuning of more than a hundred suitors-who have stayed in Odysseus's house, eating, drinking, and carousing while waiting for her to decide among them. In order to reunite with his wife, Odysseus kills them all, with the aid of Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius (a servant and cowherd).

Composition and early translations

Scholars date the writing of the Odyssey to about 725-675 bce. The poem was intended for oral performance. It was composed of 12,109 lines written in dactylic hexameter (sometimes referred to as "Homeric hexameter")-that is, each line consisted of six feet, or metrical units, and each foot consisted of a dactyl (a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables). The original work may not have been constructed into the 24 books known to the contemporary reader, and the parts were certainly not in codex form. In the ancient world, the poem was likely written in columns on rolls made from papyrus, or possibly some kind of animal skin (such as vellum and parchment). Given its extraordinary length, the poem may have actually occupied 24 individual rolls. Homer's role in the writing of the poem and whether he was literate have been a source for rich scholarly debate, commonly referred to as the "Homeric Question."

Until the 15th century all volumes of the Odyssey in circulation were in handwritten Greek. In 1488 the first printed version (still in Greek) was produced in Florence. The earliest vernacular translations of the Odyssey from its original Ionic Greek dialect began to appear in Europe during the 16th century. Applying the ancient Greek metre to contemporary vernaculars, especially to words meant to be spoken aloud rather than read privately, posed a particular challenge, forcing translators to add and invent words in order to make the metre work. Some have translated it into prose and some into verse.

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Odyssey | Summary, Characters, Meaning, & Facts

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Odyssey, epic poem in 24 books traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer. The poem is the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who wanders for 10 years (although the action of the poem covers only the final six weeks) trying to get home after the Trojan War.

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A Homeric poem, and the highest achievement of the Old english Literature and the earliest European Vernacular Epic.

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Beowulf, heroic poem, the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic. The work deals with events of the early 6th century, and, while the date of its composition is uncertain, some scholars believe that it was written in the 8th century. Although originally untitled, the poem was later named after the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, whose exploits and character provide its connecting theme. There is no evidence of a historical Beowulf, but some characters, sites, and events in the poem can be historically verified. The poem did not appear in print until 1815. It is preserved in a single manuscript that dates to circa 1000 and is known as the Beowulf manuscript (Cotton MS Vitellius A XV).

Plot

Beowulf falls into two parts. It opens in Denmark, where King Hrothgar has a splendid mead hall known as Heorot, a place of celebration and much merriment. However, the joyous noise angers Grendel, an evil monster living in a nearby swamp. For 12 years the creature terrorizes Heorot with nightly visits in which he carries off Hrothgar's warriors and devours them.

After learning of the Danes' trouble, young Beowulf, a prince of the Geats in what is now southern Sweden, arrives with a small band of retainers and offers to rid Heorot of its monster. Hrothgar is astonished at the little-known hero's daring but welcomes him. After an evening of feasting, much courtesy, and some discourtesy-at one point, one of Hrothgar's men insults Beowulf-the king retires, leaving Beowulf in charge. During the night, Grendel comes from the moors, rips open the heavy doors, and devours one of the sleeping Geats. He then grapples with Beowulf, who refuses to use a weapon. Beowulf grips one of Grendel's hands with such force that the monster finally wrenches himself free only when his arm is torn off at the shoulder. Mortally wounded, Grendel returns to his swamp and dies. Beowulf then displays the monster's arm in Heorot for all to see.

The next day is one of rejoicing in Heorot, and a feast is thrown in Beowulf's honour. However, as the warriors sleep that night, Grendel's mother, another swamp monster, comes to avenge her son's death, and she kills one of Hrothgar's men. In the morning Beowulf dives into her mere (lake) to search for her, and she attacks him. They struggle in her dry cave at the mere's bottom, and Beowulf finally kills her with a sword. In the cave, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse, whose head he cuts off and takes back to Heorot. The Danes rejoice once more. Hrothgar makes a farewell speech about the character of the true hero, and Beowulf, enriched with honours and princely gifts, returns home to King Hygelac of the Geats.

The second part passes rapidly over Hygelac's subsequent death in a battle (of historical record), the death of his son, and Beowulf's succession to the kingship and his peaceful rule of 50 years. However, the tranquility ends when a fire-breathing dragon becomes enraged after a man steals from its treasure-filled lair. The creature begins ravaging Geatland, and the brave but aging Beowulf decides to engage it, despite knowing that he will likely die. The fight is long and terrible-a painful contrast to the battles of his youth. Painful too is the desertion of all his retainers except for his young kinsman Wiglaf, who comes to his aid. They ultimately kill the venomous dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded from a bite in the neck. Before he dies, he names Wiglaf his successor. Beowulf is cremated on a funeral pyre, and his remains are buried in a barrow built by the sea. As his people mourn his death, they also express the fear that, without Beowulf, Geatland will be invaded by nearby tribes.

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Beowulf | Summary, Poem, Characters, Monster, Analysis, & Facts

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Beowulf, heroic poem, the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic. It deals with events of the early 6th century and is believed by some to have been composed in the 8th century. Learn more about Beowulf in this article.

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Poseidon's name means husband of the earth.

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Poseidon, in ancient Greek religion, god of the sea (and of water generally), earthquakes, and horses. He is distinguished from Pontus, the personification of the sea and the oldest Greek divinity of the waters. The name Poseidon means either "husband of the earth" or "lord of the earth." Traditionally, he was a son of Cronus (the youngest of the 12 Titans) and of Cronus's sister and consort Rhea, a fertility goddess. Poseidon was a brother of Zeus, the sky god and chief deity of ancient Greece, and of Hades, god of the underworld. When the three brothers deposed their father, the kingdom of the sea fell by lot to Poseidon. His weapon and main symbol was the trident, perhaps once a fish spear. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, Poseidon's trident, like Zeus's thunderbolt and Hades' helmet, was fashioned by the three Cyclopes.

As the god of earthquakes, Poseidon was also connected to dry land, and many of his oldest places of worship in Greece were inland, though these were sometimes centred on pools and streams or otherwise associated with water. In this aspect, he was known as enosichthon and ennosigaios ("earth-shaker") and was worshipped as asphalios ("stabilizer"). As the god of horses, Poseidon is thought likely to have been introduced to Greece by the earliest Hellenes, who also introduced the first horses to the country about the 2nd century bce. Poseidon himself fathered many horses, best known of which was the winged horse Pegasus by the Gorgon Medusa.

Poseidon came into conflict with a variety of figures in land disputes. Notable among these was a contest for sovereignty over Attica, which he lost to the goddess Athena. Despite losing, Poseidon was also worshipped there, particularly at Colonus (as hippios, "of horses").

Poseidon's offspring were myriad. He was the father of Pelias and Neleus by Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus, and thus became the divine ancestor of the royal families of Thessaly and Messenia. Many of his sons became rulers in other parts of the ancient Greek world. Otherwise he had many monstrous offspring, including giants and savage creatures, such as Orion, Antaeus, and Polyphemus. Progenitor of many, with several consorts, Poseidon also was married to the Oceanid Amphitrite, with whom he also had multiple offspring, including the sea creature Triton.

The chief festival in Poseidon's honour was the Isthmia, the scene of famous athletic contests (including horse races), celebrated in alternate years near the Isthmus of Corinth. His character as a sea god eventually became his most prominent in art, and he was represented with the attributes of the trident, the dolphin, and the tuna. The Romans, ignoring his other aspects, identified him with Neptune as sea god.

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Poseidon, in ancient Greek religion, god of the sea (and of water generally), earthquakes, and horses. He is distinguished from Pontus, the personification of the sea and the oldest Greek divinity of the waters. The name Poseidon means either "husband of the earth" or "lord of the earth."

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The Iliad was about the Trojan war and about the city of Troy.

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god of the sea and earthquakes

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Poseidon, in ancient Greek religion, god of the sea (and of water generally), earthquakes, and horses. He is distinguished from Pontus, the personification of the sea and the oldest Greek divinity of the waters. The name Poseidon means either "husband of the earth" or "lord of the earth." Traditionally, he was a son of Cronus (the youngest of the 12 Titans) and of Cronus's sister and consort Rhea, a fertility goddess. Poseidon was a brother of Zeus, the sky god and chief deity of ancient Greece, and of Hades, god of the underworld. When the three brothers deposed their father, the kingdom of the sea fell by lot to Poseidon. His weapon and main symbol was the trident, perhaps once a fish spear. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, Poseidon's trident, like Zeus's thunderbolt and Hades' helmet, was fashioned by the three Cyclopes.

As the god of earthquakes, Poseidon was also connected to dry land, and many of his oldest places of worship in Greece were inland, though these were sometimes centred on pools and streams or otherwise associated with water. In this aspect, he was known as enosichthon and ennosigaios ("earth-shaker") and was worshipped as asphalios ("stabilizer"). As the god of horses, Poseidon is thought likely to have been introduced to Greece by the earliest Hellenes, who also introduced the first horses to the country about the 2nd century bce. Poseidon himself fathered many horses, best known of which was the winged horse Pegasus by the Gorgon Medusa.

Poseidon came into conflict with a variety of figures in land disputes. Notable among these was a contest for sovereignty over Attica, which he lost to the goddess Athena. Despite losing, Poseidon was also worshipped there, particularly at Colonus (as hippios, "of horses").

Poseidon's offspring were myriad. He was the father of Pelias and Neleus by Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus, and thus became the divine ancestor of the royal families of Thessaly and Messenia. Many of his sons became rulers in other parts of the ancient Greek world. Otherwise he had many monstrous offspring, including giants and savage creatures, such as Orion, Antaeus, and Polyphemus. Progenitor of many, with several consorts, Poseidon also was married to the Oceanid Amphitrite, with whom he also had multiple offspring, including the sea creature Triton.

The chief festival in Poseidon's honour was the Isthmia, the scene of famous athletic contests (including horse races), celebrated in alternate years near the Isthmus of Corinth. His character as a sea god eventually became his most prominent in art, and he was represented with the attributes of the trident, the dolphin, and the tuna. The Romans, ignoring his other aspects, identified him with Neptune as sea god.

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Poseidon, in ancient Greek religion, god of the sea (and of water generally), earthquakes, and horses. He is distinguished from Pontus, the personification of the sea and the oldest Greek divinity of the waters. The name Poseidon means either "husband of the earth" or "lord of the earth."

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Poseidon was the god of seas and rivers, he also created storms and earthquakes.

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Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea and rivers, creator of storms and floods, and the bringer of earthquakes and destruction. He was perhaps the most disruptive of all the ancient gods but he was not always a negative force. He was a protector to mariners and, as a tamer of horses, the patron of that animal and horse breeding. To the Romans, he was known as Neptune.

Origins & Family

Cults to Poseidon date as far back as the late Bronze Age and the Mycenaean civilization (at its peak from the 15th to 12th century BCE), as attested by Linear B inscriptions found at Pylos in the Peloponnese and Knossos on Crete. Indeed, the god seems to have been one of the most important Mycenaean deities, perhaps no surprise given the culture's obvious seafaring skills. It may be that Poseidon was a mix of an indigenous but pre-Greek god with Potis, an Indo-European deity. Pylos, we know, had Poseidon as its main god with a priestess as the head of his cult.

In later Greek mythology, Poseidon was the son of Kronos and Rhea, and brother of Zeus and Hades. He was a key figure in the battles for control of the universe between the Titans, the Giants, and the Olympians. On their victory, the three brothers drew lots to decide which domain they would reign over, and Poseidon gained the seas. The god dwelled in magnificent golden mansions beneath the sea, beautifully adorned with coral and sea flowers. Traditionally, this undersea palace, which included the god's stables of fine white horses, was located near Aegae in Euboea. Seemingly not content with the seas alone, Poseidon often interfered in the plans of Zeus, and once even attempted to overthrow his brother with the aid of Hera and Athena. It was as punishment for this treachery that Poseidon was made to build the magnificent walls of Troy.

Poseidon's wife was the Nereid Amphitrite although she had proved a little difficult during the courting process and once fled to the Atlas mountains. Fortunately, the sea god was helped by the dolphin Delphinus who persuaded Amphitrite to return and marry Poseidon. In gratitude, Poseidon ensured that Delphinus was remembered for all time by making a constellation in her likeness which still carries her name.

The god was particularly revered at Corinth & was the focus of the Panhellenic Isthmian games.

The god's most famous son with Amphitrite was Triton, who was half-man, half-fish. Two other children were Rhode and Benthesicyme. However, as with the other divinities, Poseidon fathered many other offspring with various partners. Most notable are Theseus (with Aithra), Polyphemus the Cyclops (whom Odysseus famously encountered on his lengthy return from the Trojan War), Orion the hunter (with the daughter of Minos), the flying horse Pegasus (after the rape of Medusa), the wild horse Arion, and Charybdis (with Gaia), the ship-eating sea monster which created terrible whirlpools. Perhaps justifiably jealous of all these affairs, Poseidon's infatuation with Scylla, the daughter of the sea god Phorcys, led Amphitrite to cast some magic herbs in the girl's bath which turned her into a raging monster with twelve feet and six heads. Both Scylla and Charybdis would menace mariners who passed the Straits of Messina between Sicily and mainland Italy.

Poseidon was himself responsible for another terrible creature - the Minotaur. Minos' failure to sacrifice the bull given as a gift by the god resulted in Poseidon bewitching Minos' wife Pasiphae into falling in love with the bull; and the fruit of their amorous relationship was the half-man, half-bull creature which inhabited the labyrinth of Knossos.

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The god is a major protagonist in the Trojan War of Homer's, where he supports the Greeks and gives them either encouragement with rousing speeches, often in disguise as various Achaean personalities, or actually leads them in battle with flashing sword. However, he does also give aid to the Trojan hero Aeneas in order to escape from the fearsome Achilles. Poseidon also features in Homer's as the nemesis of Odysseus. In revenge for the blinding of his son Polyphemus, he cursed Odysseus to wander the sea for ten years. Poseidon is most often described by both Homer and Hesiod as 'deep sounding Earth-shaker', the 'dark-haired one' and 'encircler of the earth.' The latter title reminds that many ancients believed that all waterways were connected and that the land floated on water. For this reason, it made sense that one god looked after all these waterways which encircled the earth (even if many rivers and springs had their own specific personifications in mythology).

Worship & Sacred Sites

In the Greek religion, Poseidon was said to hold the Isthmus of Corinth in special regard; probably as it was an important sea route. The god was particularly revered here and was the focus of horse races and other events at the Panhellenic Isthmian games which were held in his honour near Corinth. The games were held every two years in the spring and, like the Olympic Games, athletes, charioteers, and horse racers competed for prizes, in this case, a prestigious crown of first pine and then, in the Classical period, of dry celery. Corinth was also one of the earliest cities to connect Poseidon to maritime trade and navigation as indicated by votive clay plaques dating to the Archaic period. Sounion was another strategic site close to the god, and his 5th-century BCE temple still stands on the promontory which overlooks ships entering the Saronic gulf. The god was honoured by boat races held at the cape once every four years.

In the legendary competition with Athena to win the patronage of Athens, Poseidon offered to the city the gifts of a saltwater spring and a horse. However, Athena's gift of an olive tree gained greater favour, and it was she who would become the patron of the great city. Still, the god was honoured by the annual Posideai festival - which perhaps had more to do with agriculture than the sea - and the mid-winter month of Posideon carried his name.

As a protector during earthquakes (despite the fact he was also seen as their cause), the god was often appealed to as Poseidon Asphaleios, and a temple to the god was built on Rhodes for just that purpose. Poseidon had an oracle at Taenarum in Laconia and important sanctuaries at the small island of Calauria off Troezen and Onchestus in Boeatia. Onchestus had a curious ceremony whereby horses pulled a riderless chariot through the site, and if it crashed, then the chariot was dedicated to the god. Many coastal settlements across the Mediterranean bore his name (for example, Posidonia/ Paestum), and mariners and fishermen everywhere made votive offerings to Poseidon for protection. His cult worshippers most frequently sacrificed bulls, stallions, and male sheep. Finally, the god was also credited as being the father of at least 30 different semi-historical city-founders and several major tribes across Greece, likely reflecting the importance the god had in the Mycenaean period.

Representation in Art

Poseidon is most commonly depicted in ancient Greek art as mature and bearded. He often brandishes his trident, fashioned by the Cyclopes, with which he would create earthquakes by striking it to the ground. He is also frequently portrayed riding his golden chariot pulled by hippocamps - half-horse and half-serpent creatures with fishtails - or gold-shod horses, of which he was patron. Dolphins, seahorses, and tuna fish are additional marine animals frequently seen in the god's company in art.

The god appears with Athena in their competition to become the patron of Athens on the west pediment of the Parthenon (447-432 BCE). Poseidon appeared on coinage, perhaps most strikingly the silver tetradrachms of ancient Macedon (306-283 BCE) where he seems about to hurl his trident. Perhaps the most celebrated representation of Poseidon is the 2 metre-high bronze statue (c. 460 BCE) from Cape Artemisium (although such is the similarity in the depiction of Poseidon and Zeus in ancient Greek art, it may well represent the latter). The statue was recovered from a shipwreck in the 1920s CE, and the magnificent striding figure now dominates one of the rooms of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

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Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea and rivers, creator of storms and floods, and the bringer of earthquakes and destruction. He was perhaps the most disruptive of all the ancient gods but he was not always a negative force.

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When reading about travel, I realized its not like travel today. There were no designated ships specifically for travel. You had to pay a merchant and persuade him to make room for you amongst his cargo.

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Travel opportunities within the ancient Greek world largely depended on status and profession; nevertheless, a significant proportion of the population could, and did, travel across the Mediterranean to sell their wares, skills, go on religious pilgrimage, see sporting events or even travel simply for the pleasure of seeing the magnificent sights of the ancient world. Travel was not always glamorous, though, and three other significant groups who also travelled far from their homeland, usually against their will, were political envoys, slaves, and soldiers, especially mercenaries.

Celebrating Travel

Travel seems to have always been held in high regard by the Greeks, which is no surprise for a civilization famous for its curiosity and innovation. In the earliest oral traditions of Greek mythology, many of the tales, such as Jason and the Golden Fleece, celebrated the benefits to be gained from travelling whilst others, such as the myth of Charybdis, warned of the possible risks of voyaging into the unknown. In the earliest works of Greek literature in the 8th century BCE, both Homer and Hesiod describe traders, in particular, as great travellers. Works such as the illustrated that the authors themselves had clearly travelled or at least spoken to those who had, and one might say that Odysseus ' epic journey home to Ithaca was itself a celebration of the adventures inherent in travel.

Artefacts and literature indicate that at least some portion of the population was relatively mobile across the Greek world.

The idea that the Greeks did travel widely is evidenced in the archaeological record which shows such tangible and measurable indicators of contact between peoples as finds of trade goods and coinage, uniformity in artistic styles and cultural practices, and the spread of disease. Literature too, for example, scholarly works, plays, and histories, all indicate that at least some portion of the population was relatively mobile across the Greek world. In addition, trends came back the other direction and new ideas could influence the home cities and regions; one important example of this two-way exchange was the influence of eastern tastes in clothes, food, and architecture on Greek city-life.

As the following quote from Plato's Crito illustrates, travel was widely considered a useful activity, and the Athenian philosopher Socrates is here criticised for not thinking so:

You never went out from the city to a festival, or anywhere else, except on military service, and you never made any other journey, as other people do and you had no wish to know any other city or other law, but you were contented with us and our city. (52b)

Practicalities

Travel on land meant using carriages and horses for the better off or beasts of burden and plain old walking for everybody else. Greece had an extensive road network connecting even the most remote settlements; however, the easiest and most comfortable way to travel was by sea, especially as the vast majority of the more important urban centres were located either on or very near the coast. There were no ships dedicated only for travellers, though, and the would-be tourist had to persuade a sea-trader to make room amongst his cargo.

Maps, at least those covering larger areas, seem to have been the reserve of scholars rather than everyday travellers. No doubt primitive roads, natural landmarks (mountains, rivers and springs) and settlements were used to guide a visitor new to a particular area. Regarding sea travel, ship's captains commonly kept logs ( periploi) describing landmarks along coastlines and sometimes even records of land distances and routes ( stadiasmoi) relevant to their ports of call.

Travel could be an expensive business, though, and if undertaken over long distances, required baggage porters and other attendants. Hospitality was usually provided by social peers for free (at least for the higher classes) but there were specific enterprises set up to provide basic food and accommodation, especially in the larger cities and great 'attractions' of the Panhellenic religious sanctuaries. At ports like the Piraeus, secondary businesses also sprang up to capture the money of the passing traveller, for example, shops, laundries, barbers and prostitutes.

The dangers of travel in the Archaic period included the legal problem of being in the territory of another state without permission whilst trying to arrive at one's destination, unreliable transport, robbery and even abduction; the latter two were a particular danger when travelling by sea, where pirates operated. By the Classical period relations between states became more regularised and systems of communication improved, but travel remained a risky business. In addition, with the ever-increasing size and complexity of urban-centres, the need for resources, skills and slaves meant that warfare could very often result in the forced movement of people and even whole populations.

Commercial Travellers

Traders ( emporos), highly skilled craftsmen (especially metalworkers, gem-carvers, potters, stonemasons and glassworkers) and technical experts such as actors, writers, philosophers, and practitioners of medicine, commonly travelled around the Mediterranean offering their goods and services to those who could pay. Examples include the doctors Demokedes of Kroton and Apollonides of Kos (who both served the Persian royal court), the architect Mandrokles of Samos and the sculptor Telephanes. Many of these specialists and artisans made permanent moves and set up their workshops to spread their knowledge and artistic styles far from their original place of invention.

Traders also gathered at the busy commercial centres like the Piraeus to sell their goods which would, in turn, travel across the Mediterranean. Colonists ( apoikoi) established hundreds of new cities across the Mediterranean, and these were usually developed from basic trading posts. In addition, there were centres which were exclusively set up for the purposes of trade, for example, Naucratis on the Nile Delta and Al Mina in present-day southern Turkey. Consequently, in the summer season, traders continuously criss-crossed the Mediterranean in search of goods and business, and in so doing they provided a means for non-commercial travellers to reach far-flung destinations.

The Greeks, as with any other civilization, also had their share of that most intrepid of all travellers, the explorer. Perhaps motivated more by commercial opportunities rather than pure knowledge expansion, Greeks did occasionally go beyond the confines of the Mediterranean and explore the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Northern Africa. Perhaps the most famous explorers were Herodotus of Halikarnassos and Pytheas, who travelled as far as the south-west of England and possibly even made it to Iceland and the Baltic coast around 340 BCE.

Religious Travellers

Religious pilgrimages were also a common activity, the most popular destinations being the sanctuaries of Delphi and Delos. Here the visitors could not only admire some of the greatest buildings of Greek architecture but also great works of art in the form of statues, relief sculpture and fountains. They could leave dedicatory offerings of all kinds from simple clay figures to huge bronze statues or even entire buildings, offered in honour of the gods and usually in the hope of some kind of divine intervention in ordinary lives. Those seeking medical cures could also travel to centres such as Epidaurus where Asklepius, the god of medicine, could advise them on the best course of treatment. Also in the category of religious travel could be placed those who journeyed to see sites made famous by mythology such as caves where a god was said to have been born or a temple built where a god was said to have directly intervened in human affairs.

Festivals such as the Panathenaia and City Dionysia of Athens and those festivals which included the first showings of plays by the famous playwrights attracted visitors from far and wide. Indeed cities saw the financial and public relations benefits of welcoming visitors, for as the Athenian statesman Pericles stated in his famous funeral oration:

We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing... (Boys-Stones, 394).

Travelling For Culture

Sports fans were also great travellers, especially those who wished to see the great athletic events of the Panhellenic games at Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia and Nemea. Due to the sacred nature of these games there was even a period of truce declared across Greece to allow safe travel for those who wished to attend.

Just as people travelled from rural areas to participate in life in the city and the opportunities offered there, people also travelled for their education to famous centres such as Plato's Academy in Athens or the scientific schools in Asia Minor, a phenomenon which only increased in Hellenistic times and expanded to artistic schools of drama and sculpture, for example. Similarly, scholars and sophists travelled around to find students or people willing to pay in order to learn such skills as music, philosophy, or public speaking.

Tourists were those who travelled for no other reason than to see for themselves the cultural sights made famous by literature, theatre, story-telling, warfare and even coinage. Especially popular were the large urban centres such as Athens and Sparta and Egypt, too, with its impressive ancient monuments. As one 5th century BCE comic poet put it:

If you've never seen Athens, your brain's a morass
If you've seen it and weren't entranced, you're an ass,
If you left without regrets, your head's solid brass!
(Boys-Stones, 395)

By the 3rd century BCE, literature, too, sprang up which described the great sights to be seen, with some of the earliest texts being On the Cities in Greece (of which only fragments survive) by Heraclides Criticus and the Epidēmiai by the poet Ion of Chios, one of the most celebrated travellers of the 5th century BCE. These texts usually restricted themselves to descriptions of famous works of art and monuments, rarely mentioning topography and never the practicalities of travel. They could also be highly selective, subjective and even prone to exaggeration but they do, nevertheless, illustrate the thirst amongst the Greeks to know more about the wider world.

Travel in the Greek world, then, just as today, was considered an important way to broaden the mind, learn about other, older civilizations or contemporary cultures and see for oneself the places made so famous by literature; to finally see first-hand the exciting and exotic places one has read and heard so much about since childhood.

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Travel opportunities within the ancient Greek world largely depended on status and profession; nevertheless, a significant proportion of the population could, and did, travel across the Mediterranean to sell their wares, skills, go on religious pilgrimage, see sporting events or even travel simply for the pleasure of seeing the magnificent sights of the ancient world.

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It took place 9 years after the Trojan War.

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A short summary of Homer's The Iliad. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Iliad.

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The Olympian God of the Sun and light, music and poetry, healing and plagues, prophecy and knowledge, order and beauty, archery and agriculture

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☀ Apollo :: Greek God of Music and Light

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Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, twin brother of Artemis. He was the god of music, and he is often depicted playing a golden lyre. He was also kno…

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War started when the Queen of Sparta was stolen by the Trojan price Paris.

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Trojan War - Definition, Summary & Hero | HISTORY

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Watch a brief video summarizing the Trojan War, the conflict recounted in Greek mythology between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece.

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Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war in Greek mythology. She is also one of the most wisest gods.

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Goddess of wisdom, war and the crafts, and favourite daughter of Zeus, Athena was, perhaps, the wisest, most courageous, and certainly the most resourceful of the Olympian gods.

Zeus was told that his son would take his throne from him, just as he had taken power from his father Cronus. Accordingly, when Metis was pregnant, he swallowed her and Athena was born from Zeus' head, wearing armour and fully grown. A popular theme in ancient Greek art, Hephaistos is often depicted in the role of midwife, splitting Zeus' head with an axe.

Epithets of Athena include Pallas (girl) and Parthenos (virgin), living up to which, she is conspicuous amongst the gods of Greek mythology for not indulging in illicit relationships with other divinities, demigods, or mortals. Other epithets were Promachos (of war) - perhaps referring to more patriotic, defensive, and strategic warfare, rather than attacking warfare, in contrast to her more aggressive, conflict-loving brother Ares, Ergane (of the crafts), and (victory).

Athena was not to be trifled with as her transformation of Medusa into a Gorgon demonstrates.

The goddess was not to be trifled with as her transformation of Medusa into a Gorgon demonstrates, and her sense of justice was such that acts of impiety were swiftly avenged, as with the Archaean heroes following their capture of Troy and desecration of the goddess' sanctuary.

Athena is also associated with household crafts, giving mortals the gifts of cooking and sewing. She is said to have invented the but on seeing her reflection and her puffed cheeks when playing these pipes, she threw them away, to be picked up by the satyr Marsyas.

She is closely associated with Athens, the city named in her honour after the people of Attica chose her as their patron following her gift of the olive tree, symbol of peace and plenty. The 5th century BCE temple of the Parthenon, which continues to this day to dominate the acropolis of the city, was built in her honour. Her adopted son Erichthonios, one of the first kings of Athens, is traditionally credited with inaugurating the Panathenaic festival, held every four years to honour the goddess. The festival included a magnificent procession through the city, the presentation to Athena of a specially woven peplos (depicting the Gigantomachy), and athletic games. Prizes for the games were amphorae painted with a figure of Athena and contained prime olive oil. In her role as protector, she was also revered in many other major cities, notably as patron of Sparta, as the founder of Thebes in Boeotia, and at Corinth where she appeared on the city's coins.

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Protector of Hercules, Athena often aids him in his twelve labours, for example, by helping him hold the world as Atlas searches for the sacred apples of the Hesperides. Perseus was another favourite and was given a shield to protect himself in his quest to kill Medusa. Achilles is helped to kill Hector, and Odysseus too was often given the benefit of Athena's wisdom, for example the idea to dress as a beggar on his return to Ithaca, and he is also protected from the arrows of his rivals when he clears the palace of the interlopers. Jason was yet another hero who benefitted from Athena's resourcefulness when she encouraged Argo to build the first Greek longship which would carry his name and the fame of the Argonauts.

Athena was a major protagonist in Homer's account of the Trojan War in the where she supports the Achaeans and their heroes, especially Achilles, to whom she gives encouragement and wise counsel, Menelaos, who is saved from the arrow of Pandaros, and Diomedes, whose spear, in one notable episode, is diverted to injure Ares himself. Aphrodite was another divinity who came off second best when she clashed with Athena. She also gave protection to Odysseus and is credited with giving him the idea of the Wooden Horse. Both Homer and Hesiod refer to Athena as 'bright-eyed' and 'Tritogeneia'. She is also frequently called 'goddess of spoil', the 'lovely-haired goddess', and 'Alalkomenaian Athena'.

Objects associated with the goddess include an owl - symbol of wisdom - and the olive tree. She is often depicted in art with armour, a golden helmet, a shield, and holding a spear. Her armour is the aegis made, in some accounts, from the skin of a Giant, hung with tassels of gold, and featuring the head of the Gorgon given to her by Perseus. The most famous representation of Athena in the ancient world was undoubtedly the monumental gold and ivory statue of the goddess by Pheidias which resided in the Parthenon of Athens and was over 12 m high. The statue has been lost but survives in the form of smaller Roman copies and shows Athena standing majestic, fully armed, holding Nike in her right hand and with a shield in her left depicting scenes from the Battles of the Amazons and the Giants. On her helmet were a sphinx and two griffins. Celebrated surviving depictions of Athena include friezes from the Parthenon and metopes from the temple of Zeus at Olympia.

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Goddess of wisdom, war and the crafts, and favourite daughter of Zeus, Athena was, perhaps, the wisest, most courageous, and certainly the most resourceful of the Olympian gods. Zeus was told that his son would take his throne from him, just as he had taken power from his father Cronus.

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Boys in school studied Homer's books to see what to act like and what they wanted to do when they grow up.

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Table of Contents

Why is Homer significant?

Read a brief summary of this topic

Homer, (flourished 9th or 8th century bce?, Ionia? [now in Turkey]), presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Although these two great epic poems of ancient Greece have always been attributed to the shadowy figure of Homer, little is known of him beyond the fact that his was the name attached in antiquity by the Greeks themselves to the poems. That there was an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping the Iliad and the Odyssey -so much may be said to be probable. If this assumption is accepted, then Homer must assuredly be one of the greatest of the world's literary artists.

He is also one of the most influential authors in the widest sense, for the two epics provided the basis of Greek education and culture throughout the Classical age and formed the backbone of humane education down to the time of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. Indirectly through the medium of Virgil's Aeneid (which was loosely molded after the patterns of the Iliad and the Odyssey), directly through their revival under Byzantine culture from the late 8th century ce onward, and subsequently through their passage into Italy with the Greek scholars who fled westward from the Ottomans, the Homeric epics had a profound impact on the Renaissance culture of Italy. Since then the proliferation of translations has helped to make them the most important poems of the Classical European tradition.

It was probably through their impact on Classical Greek culture itself that the Iliad and the Odyssey most subtly affected Western standards and ideas. The Greeks regarded the great epics as something more than works of literature; they knew much of them by heart, and they valued them not only as a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism but also as an ancient source of moral and even practical instruction.

Literary Favorites: Fact or Fiction?

Early references

Implicit references to Homer and quotations from the poems date to the middle of the 7th century bce. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, and Callinus in the 7th century and Sappho and others in the early 6th adapted Homeric phraseology and metre to their own purposes and rhythms. At the same time scenes from the epics became popular in works of art. The pseudo-Homeric "Hymn to Apollo of Delos," probably of late 7th-century composition, claimed to be the work of "a blind man who dwells in rugged Chios," a reference to a tradition about Homer himself. The idea that Homer had descendants known as "Homeridae," and that they had taken over the preservation and propagation of his poetry, goes back at least to the early 6th century bce. Indeed, it was not long before a kind of Homeric scholarship began: Theagenes of Rhegium in southern Italy toward the end of the same century wrote the first of many allegorizing interpretations. By the 5th century biographical fictions were well under way; the Pre-Socratic philosopher Heracleitus of Ephesus made use of a trivial legend of Homer's death-that it was caused by chagrin at not being able to solve some boys' riddle about catching lice-and the concept of a contest of quotations between Homer and Hesiod (after Homer the most ancient of Greek poets) may have been initiated in the Sophistic tradition. The historian Herodotus assigned the formulation of Greek theology to Homer and Hesiod and claimed that they could have lived no more than 400 years before his own time, the 5th century bce. This should be contrasted with the superficial assumption, popular in many circles throughout antiquity, that Homer must have lived not much later than the Trojan War about which he sang.

The general belief that Homer was a native of Ionia (the central part of the western seaboard of Asia Minor) seems a reasonable conjecture for the poems themselves are in predominantly Ionic dialect. Although Smyrna and Chios early began competing for the honour (the poet Pindar, early in the 5th century bce, associated Homer with both), and others joined in, no authenticated local memory survived anywhere of someone who, oral poet or not, must have been remarkable in his time. The absence of hard facts puzzled but did not deter the Greeks; the fictions that had begun even before the 5th century bce were developed in the Alexandrian era in the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce (when false scholarship as well as true abounded) into fantastic pseudobiographies, and these were further refined by derivative scholars under the Roman Empire. The longest to have survived purports to be by Herodotus himself; but it is quite devoid of objective truth.

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Homer, (flourished 9th or 8th century bce?, Ionia? [now in Turkey]), presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

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Civilized Greek people only ate fresh meat if it had been sacrifice to a god

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Sacrifice and Greek food

Food, for people in Ancient Greece, was what separated people from animals, and from the gods. Gods didn't need to eat, and people did. Animals ate their food raw, but people cooked their food and were civilized. Civilized Greek people only ate fresh meat if it had been sacrificed to a god, or had been hunted in the wild. Like other Mediterranean people, though, Greek people ate a lot of fish and shellfish, octopus and squid (none of which had to be sacrificed to a god).

Bread, wine, Dionysos and Persephone

People thought of the god Dionysos as being part of the wine they drank, and they thought of Persephone as being part of their bread.

Bread and wine, with olive oil, and fish and shellfish, made up most of what people ate in Ancient Greece. They liked cheese when they could get it.

Did ancient Greek food include vegetables?

Yes, people also ate a lot of vegetables, especially lentils, chickpeas, green peas, and other beans. They also ate cabbage, parsnips and onions, garlic and leeks. They ate apples, figs, and almonds.

Chickens come to Greece

Greek people probably didn't have chickens, or chicken eggs, until around 500 BC - so when Socrates says to sacrifice a rooster to Asclepius, he's thinking of something new and cool. Greek people started to import black pepper from India about the same time.

Desserts in ancient Greece

Most people only had meat on holidays. But people still liked cakes with honey, and yogurt with honey and walnuts in it, for dessert. They also ate a lot of figs, apples, and pears, both fresh and dried.

Did you find out what you needed about ancient Greek food? Let us know in the comments!

Bibliography and further reading about food in ancient Greece:

Food and Feasts in Ancient Greece, by Imogen Dawson (1995). - both a general discussion of how food was used in Ancient Greece, and some recipes.

Spend the Day in Ancient Greece : Projects and Activities that Bring the Past to Life, by Linda Honan (1998). Also for kids, with recipes for a Greek feast.

Food in the Ancient World A-Z, by Andrew Dalby (2003). Not a kids' book, but pretty easy going.

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Ancient Greek food - History of Food - Ancient Greece

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Ancient Greek food depended a lot on fish and bread, olive oil and wine. Greek people thought food separated people from gods: people cooked their food and ate it, but gods lived on smoke and nectar from sacrifices. Find out more about the history of food in ancient Greece.

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He was a Greek poet who wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey.

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Synopsis

The Greek poet Homer was born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, possibly somewhere on the coast of Asia Minor. He is famous for the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, which have had an enormous effect on Western culture, but very little is known about their alleged author.

The Mystery of Homer

Homer is a mystery. The Greek epic poet credited with the enduring epic tales of The Iliad and The Odyssey is an enigma insofar as actual facts of his life go. Some scholars believe him to be one man; others think these iconic stories were created by a group. A variation on the group idea stems from the fact that storytelling was an oral tradition and Homer compiled the stories, then recited them to memory.

Homer's style, whoever he was, falls more in the category of minstrel poet or balladeer, as opposed to a cultivated poet who is the product of a fervent literary moment, such as a Virgil or a Shakespeare. The stories have repetitive elements, almost like a chorus or refrain, which suggests a musical element. However, Homer's works are designated as epic rather than lyric poetry, which was originally recited with lyre in hand, much in the same vein as spoken-word performances.

All this speculation about who he was has inevitably led to what is known as the Homeric Question-whether he actually existed at all. This is often considered to be the greatest literary mystery.

When He Was Born

Much speculation surrounds when Homer was born, because of the dearth of real information about him. Guesses at his birth date range from 750 BC all the way back to 1200 BC, the latter because The Iliad encompasses the story of the Trojan War, so some scholars have thought it fit to put the poet and chronicler nearer to the time of that actual event. But others believe the poetic style of his work indicates a much later period. Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC), often called the father of history, placed Homer several centuries before himself, around 850 BC.

Part of the problem is that Homer lived before a chronological dating system was in place. The Olympic Games of classical Greece marked an epoch, with 776 BC as a starting point by which to measure out four-year periods for the event. In short, it is difficult to give someone a birth date when he was born before there was a calendar.

Where He Was Born

Once again, the exact location of Homer's birth cannot be pinpointed, although that doesn't stop scholars from trying. It has been identified as Ionia, Smyrna or, at any rate, on the coast of Asia Minor or the island of Chios. But seven cities lay claim to Homer as their native son.

There is some basis for some of these claims, however. The dialect that The Iliad and The Odyssey are written in is considered Asiatic Greek, specifically Ionic. That fact, paired with frequent mentions of local phenomena such as strong winds blowing from the northwest from the direction of Thrace, suggests, scholars feel, a familiarity with that region that could only mean Homer came from there.

The dialect helps narrow down his lifespan by coinciding it with the development and usage of language in general, but The Iliad and The Odyssey were so popular that this particular dialect became the norm for much of Greek literature going forward.

What He Was Like

Virtually every biographical aspect ascribed to Homer is derived entirely from his poems. Homer is thought to have been blind, based solely on a character in The Odyssey, a blind poet/minstrel called Demodokos. A long disquisition on how Demodokos was welcomed into a gathering and regaled the audience with music and epic tales of conflict and heroes to much praise has been interpreted as Homer's hint as to what his own life was like. As a result, many busts and statues have been carved of Homer with thick curly hair and beard and sightless eyes.

"Homer and Sophocles saw clearly, felt keenly, and refrained from much," wrote Lane Cooper in The Greek Genius and Its Influence: Select Essays and Extracts in 1917, ascribing an emotional life to the writer. But he wasn't the first, nor was he the last. Countless attempts to recreate the life and personality of the author from the content of his epic poems have occupied writers for centuries.

The Iliad and The Odyssey

Homer's two epic poems have become archetypal road maps in world mythology. The stories provide an important insight into early human society, and illustrate, in some aspects, how little has changed. Even if The Iliad itself seems unfamiliar, the story of the siege of Troy, the Trojan War and Paris' kidnapping of Helen, the world's most beautiful woman, are all familiar characters or scenarios. Some scholars insist that Homer was personally familiar with the plain of Troy, due to the geographical accuracy in the poem.

The Odyssey picks up after the fall of Troy. Further controversy about authorship springs from the differing styles of the two long narrative poems, indicating they were composed a century apart, while other historians claim only decades -the more formal structure of The Iliad is attributed to a poet at the height of his powers, whereas the more colloquial, novelistic approach in The Odyssey is attributed to an elderly Homer.

Homer enriched his descriptive story with liberal use of simile and metaphor, which has inspired a long path of writers behind him. His structuring device was to start in the middle- in medias res - and then fill in the missing information via remembrances.

The two narrative poems pop up throughout modern literature: Homer's The Odyssey has parallels in James Joyce's Ulysses, and his tale of Achilles in The Iliad is echoed in J.R.R. Tolkein's The Fall of Gondolin. Even the Coen Brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou? makes use of The Odyssey.

Other works have been attributed to Homer over the centuries, most notably the Homeric Hymns, but in the end only the two epic works remain enduringly his.

Legacy

"Plato tells us that in his time many believed that Homer was the educator of all Greece. Since then, Homer's influence has spread far beyond the frontiers of Hellas [Greece]...." wrote Werner Jaeger in Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. He was right. The Iliad and The Odyssey have provided not only seeds but fertilizer for almost all the other arts and sciences in Western culture. For the Greeks, Homer was a godfather of their national culture, chronicling its mythology and collective memory in rich rhythmic tales that have permeated the collective imagination.

Homer's real life may remain a mystery, but the very real impact of his works continues to illuminate our world today.

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Although very little is known about the life of Greek poet Homer, credited with being the first to write down the epic stories of The Iliad and The Odyssey, the impact of his tales continue to reverberate through Western culture.

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The Odyssey is about the return home after the Trojan War

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The Odyssey is Homer's epic of Odysseus' 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War. While Odysseus battles mystical creatures and faces the wrath of the gods, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus stave off suitors vying for Penelope's hand and Ithaca's throne long enough for Odysseus to return. The Odyssey ends as Odysseus wins a contest to prove his identity, slaughters the suitors, and retakes the throne of Ithaca.

Type of Work: epic poem

First Published: probably around 700 B.C.

Setting: The sea and Ithaca

Main Characters: Odysseus; Penelope; Telemachus; Athena (Pallas); Polyphemus (the Cyclops) and King Alcinous; Circe and Calypso

Major Thematic Topics: hospitality; loyalty; perseverance; vengeance; appearance versus reality; spiritual growth

Motifs: mythology; love; disguises

Major Symbols: Laertes' shroud; Odysseus' bow; the sea; Ithaca

The three most important aspects of The Odyssey:

The Odyssey is an epic, a very long poem on a single subject. Some epics were composed in order to be performed from memory, and so they include poetic devices to make them more memorable. And many epics, probably including The Odyssey, were written to be performed to musical accompaniment.

The journey of Odysseus from Troy to Ithaca takes ten years - the same amount of time that the Trojan War itself lasted. The extraordinary length of Odysseus' return trip, which should take a matter of weeks, is due to his many antagonists, including the god Poseidon, the many mythical creatures he encounters, and Odysseus' often greedy and lazy crewmen.

Odysseus's most memorable quality is not his bravery or strength - though he is brave and strong - but rather his cleverness. In fact, Homer refers to his protagonist throughout the epic as "wily Odysseus."

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The Odyssey is Homer's epic of Odysseus' 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War. While Odysseus battles mystical creatures and faces the wrath of the gods, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus stave off suitors vying for Penelope's hand and Ithaca's throne long enough for Odysseus to return.

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He is best known for his National Epic, the Aeneid. He was regarded by the Romans as their Greatest Poet.

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Where did Virgil grow up?

What was Virgil's education?

Virgil, also spelled Vergil, Latin in full Publius Vergilius Maro, (born October 15, 70 bce, Andes, near Mantua [Italy]-died September 21, 19 bce, Brundisium), Roman poet, best known for his national epic, the Aeneid (from c. 30 bce; unfinished at his death).

Virgil was regarded by the Romans as their greatest poet, an estimation that subsequent generations have upheld. His fame rests chiefly upon the Aeneid, which tells the story of Rome's legendary founder and proclaims the Roman mission to civilize the world under divine guidance. His reputation as a poet endures not only for the music and diction of his verse and for his skill in constructing an intricate work on the grand scale but also because he embodied in his poetry aspects of experience and behaviour of permanent significance.

Virgil was born of peasant stock, and his love of the Italian countryside and of the people who cultivated it colours all his poetry. He was educated at Cremona, at Milan, and finally at Rome, acquiring a thorough knowledge of Greek and Roman authors, especially of the poets, and receiving a detailed training in rhetoric and philosophy. It is known that one of his teachers was the Epicurean Siro, and the Epicurean philosophy is substantially reflected in his early poetry but gradually gives way to attitudes more akin to Stoicism.

Political background

During Virgil's youth, as the Roman Republic neared its end, the political and military situation in Italy was confused and often calamitous. The civil war between Marius and Sulla had been succeeded by conflict between Pompey and Julius Caesar for supreme power. When Virgil was 20, Caesar with his armies swooped south from Gaul, crossed the Rubicon, and began the series of civil wars that were not to end until Augustus' victory at Actium in 31 bce. Hatred and fear of civil war is powerfully expressed by both Virgil and his contemporary Horace. The key to a proper understanding of the Augustan Age and its poets lies, indeed, in a proper understanding of the turmoil that had preceded the Augustan peace.

Virgil's life was devoted entirely to his poetry and to studies connected with it; his health was never robust, and he played no part in military or political life. It is said that he spoke once in the lawcourts without distinction and that his shy and retiring nature caused him to give up any ideas he might have had of taking part in the world of affairs. He never married, and the first half of his life was that of a scholar and near recluse. But, as his poetry won him fame, he gradually won the friendship of many important men in the Roman world. Gradually, also, he became a Roman as well as a provincial. (The area in which he had spent his youth, the area around the Po River known as the province of Cisalpine Gaul, was not finally incorporated into Italy until 42 bce. Thus Virgil came, as it were, to Rome from the outside. The enthusiasm of a provincial for Rome is seen in the first eclogue, one of his earliest poems, in which the shepherd Tityrus tells of his recent visit to the capital and his amazement at its splendours.)

Literary career

Some of Virgil's earliest poetry may have survived in a collection of poems attributed to him and known as the Appendix Vergiliana, but it is unlikely that many of these are genuine. His earliest certain work is the Eclogues, a collection of 10 pastoral poems composed between 42 and 37 bce. Some of them are escapist, literary excursions to the idyllic pastoral world of Arcadia based on the Greek poet Theocritus (flourished c. 280 bce) but more unreal and stylized. They convey in liquid song the idealized situations of an imaginary world in which shepherds sing in the sunshine of their simple joys and mute their sorrows (whether for unhappy love or untimely death) in a formalized pathos. But some bring the pastoral mode into touch with the real world, either directly or by means of allegory, and thus gave a new direction to the genre. The fifth eclogue, on the death of Daphnis, king of the shepherds, clearly has some relationship with the recent death of Julius Caesar; the 10th brings Gallus, a fellow poet who also held high office as a statesman, into the pastoral world; the first and ninth are lamentations over the expulsion of shepherds from their farms. (It was widely believed in antiquity that these poems expressed allegorically Virgil's own loss of his family farm when the veteran soldiers of Antony and Octavian-later the emperor Augustus-were resettled after the Battle of Philippi in 42 bce. It was thought that he subsequently recovered his property through the intervention of his powerful friends. However that may be, it is certain that the poems are based on Virgil's own experience, whether in connection with his own farm or with those of his friends; and they express, with a poignant pathos that has come to be regarded as specially Virgilian, the sorrow of the dispossessed.)

But one eclogue in particular stands out as having relevance to the contemporary situation, and this is the fourth (sometimes called the Messianic, because it was later regarded as prophetic of Christianity). It is an elevated poem, prophesying in sonorous and mystic terms the birth of a child who will bring back the Golden Age, banish sin, and restore peace. It was clearly written at a time when the clouds of civil war seemed to be lifting; it can be dated firmly to 41-40 bce, and it seems most likely that Virgil refers to an expected child of the triumvir Antony and his wife Octavia, sister of Octavian. But, though a specific occasion may be allocated to the poem, it goes beyond the particular and, in symbolic terms, presents a vision of world harmony, which was, to some extent, destined to be realized under Augustus.

One of the most disastrous effects of the civil wars-and one of which Virgil, as a countryman, would be most intensely aware-was the depopulation of rural Italy. The farmers had been obliged to go to the war, and their farms fell into neglect and ruin as a result. The Georgics, composed between 37 and 30 bce (the final period of the civil wars), is a superb plea for the restoration of the traditional agricultural life of Italy. In form it is didactic, but, as Seneca later said, it was written "not to instruct farmers but to delight readers." The practical instruction (about plowing, growing trees, tending cattle, and keeping bees) is presented with vivid insight into nature, and it is interspersed with highly wrought poetical digressions on such topics as the beauty of the Italian countryside (Book II. line 136 ff.) and the joy of the farmer when all is gathered in (II.458 ff.).

The Georgics is dedicated (at the beginning of each book) to Maecenas, one of the chief of Augustus' ministers, who was also the leading patron of the arts. By this time Virgil was a member of what might be called the court circle, and his desire to see his beloved Italy restored to its former glories coincided with the national requirement of resettling the land and diminishing the pressure on the cities. It would be wrong to think of Virgil as writing political propaganda; but equally it would be wrong to regard his poetry as unconnected with the major currents of political and social needs of the time. Virgil was personally committed to the same ideals as the government.

In the year 31 bce, when Virgil was 38, Augustus (still known as Octavian) won the final battle of the civil wars at Actium against the forces of Antony and Cleopatra and from that time dates the Augustan Age. Virgil, like many of his contemporaries, felt a great sense of relief that the senseless civil strife was at last over and was deeply grateful to the man who had made it possible. Augustus was anxious to preserve the traditions of the republic and its constitutional forms, but he was in fact sole ruler of the Roman world. He used his power to establish a period of peace and stability and endeavoured to reawaken in the Romans a sense of national pride and a new enthusiasm for their ancestral religion and their traditional moral values, those of bravery, parsimony, duty, responsibility, and family devotion. Virgil, too, as a countryman at heart, felt a deep attachment to the simple virtues and religious traditions of the Italian people. All his life he had been preparing himself to write an epic poem (regarded then as the highest form of poetic achievement), and he now set out to embody his ideal Rome in the Aeneid, the story of the foundation of the first settlement in Italy, from which Rome was to spring, by an exiled Trojan prince after the destruction of Troy by the Greeks in the 12th century bce. The theme he chose gave him two great advantages: one was that its date and subject were very close to those of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, so that he could remodel episodes and characters from his great Greek predecessor; and the other was that it could be brought into relationship with his contemporary Augustan world by presenting Aeneas as the prototype of the Roman way of life (the last of the Trojans and the first of the Romans). Moreover, by the use of prophecies and visions and devices such as the description of the pictures on Aeneas' shield or of the origins of contemporary customs and institutions, it could foreshadow the real events of Roman history. The poem, then, operates on a double time scale; it is heroic and yet Augustan.

The enthusiasm that Virgil felt for the reborn Rome promised by Augustus' regime is often reflected in the poem. The sonorous and awe-inspiring prophecy by Jupiter (I.257 ff.), giving a picture of Rome's divinely inspired destiny, has a moving patriotic impact: "To these I set no bounds in space or time-I have given them rule without end" (278-279); and again, under Augustus, "Then shall the harsh generations be softened, and wars shall be laid aside" (291). The speech ends with a memorable image depicting the personified figure of Frenzy in chains, gnashing its bloodstained teeth in vain. At the end of the sixth book, Aeneas visits the underworld, and there pass before his eyes the figures of heroes from Roman history, waiting to be born. The ghost of his father ( Anchises) describes them to him and ends by defining the Roman mission as one concerned with government and civilization (compared with the Greek achievement in art and literature and theoretical science). "Rule the people with your sway, spare the conquered, and war down the proud": this is the vision of Rome's destiny that the emperor Augustus and the poet Virgil had before them-that Rome was divinely appointed first to conquer the world in war and then to spread civilization and the rule of law among the peoples. As Horace told the Romans in one of his odes, "Because you are servants of the gods, you are masters on earth."

The vision of Rome that the Aeneid expresses is a noble one, but the real greatness of the poem is due to Virgil's awareness of the private, as well as the public, aspects of human life. The Aeneid is no panegyric; it sets the achievements and aspirations of the giant organization of Roman governmental rule in tension with the frustrated hopes and sufferings of individuals. The most memorable figure in the poem-and, it has been said, the only character to be created by a Roman poet that has passed into world literature-is Dido, queen of Carthage, opponent of the Roman way of life. In a mere panegyric of Rome, she could have been presented in such a way that Aeneas' rejection of her would have been a victory to applaud; but, in fact, in the fourth book she wins so much sympathy that the reader wonders whether Rome should be bought at this price. Again, Turnus, who opposes Aeneas when he lands in Italy, resists the invader who has come to steal his bride. It is clear that Turnus is a less civilized character than Aeneas-but in his defeat Virgil allows him to win much sympathy. These are two examples of the tension against Roman optimism; in many other ways, too, Virgil throughout the poem explores the problems of suffering and the pathos of the human situation. Yet in the end, Aeneas endures and continues to his goal; his devotion to duty ( pietas) prevails, and the Roman reader would feel that this should be. "So great a task it was to found the Roman nation" (I.33).

The Aeneid occupied Virgil for 11 years and, at his death, had not yet received its final revision. In 19 bce, planning to spend a further three years on his poem, he set out for Greece-doubtless to obtain local colour for the revision of those parts of the Aeneid set in Greek waters. On the voyage he caught a fever and returned to Italy but died soon after arrival at Brundisium. Whether the Aeneid would have undergone major changes cannot be guessed; the story goes that Virgil's dying wish was for his poem to be burned, but that this request was countermanded by the order of Augustus. As it stands, the poem is a major monument both to the national achievements and ideals of the Augustan Age of Rome and to the sensitive and lonely voice of the poet who knew the "tears in things" as well as the glory.

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Virgil, also spelled Vergil, Latin in full Publius Vergilius Maro, (born October 15, 70 bce, Andes, near Mantua [Italy]-died September 21, 19 bce, Brundisium), Roman poet, best known for his national epic, the Aeneid (from c. 30 bce; unfinished at his death).

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The Greeks called themselves Hellenes and their land was Hellas. The name ‘Greeks’ was given to the people of Greece later by the Romans.

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People have been living in Greece for over 40,000 years . The earliest settlers mostly lived a simple hunter-gatherer or farming lifestyle.

The were the first great Greek civilisation. They didn't live on mainland Greece but on the nearby island of Crete , between 2200BC and 1450BC. They were known as the Minoans after their legendary king, Minos.

After the Minoans came the Mycenaean civilisation , from mainland Greece. They were fine builders and traders, but they were also great soldiers. They famously fought in the battle of Troy. , an important Greek writer, told stories of the Mycenaean age in his books and The Odyssey.

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People have been living in Greece for over 40,000 years . The earliest settlers mostly lived a simple hunter-gatherer or farming lifestyle. The were the first great Greek civilisation. They didn't live on mainland Greece but on the nearby island of Crete , between 2200BC and 1450BC.

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Greek god of sky and King of all gods.

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⚡️Zeus ⚡️• Facts and Information on Greek God of the Sky

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Zeus facts, information and stories from ancient Greek mythology. Learn about the Greek god of the sky and king of the gods, Zeus.

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Zeus was the first of the gods and a very imposing figure.

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⚡️Zeus ⚡️• Facts and Information on Greek God of the Sky

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Zeus facts, information and stories from ancient Greek mythology. Learn about the Greek god of the sky and king of the gods, Zeus.

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Homer wrote the Ilaid and the Odyssey, and he wrote about the Trojan war and how a guy named Odyssey made a long travel

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Table of Contents

Why is Homer significant?

Read a brief summary of this topic

Homer, (flourished 9th or 8th century bce?, Ionia? [now in Turkey]), presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Although these two great epic poems of ancient Greece have always been attributed to the shadowy figure of Homer, little is known of him beyond the fact that his was the name attached in antiquity by the Greeks themselves to the poems. That there was an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping the Iliad and the Odyssey -so much may be said to be probable. If this assumption is accepted, then Homer must assuredly be one of the greatest of the world's literary artists.

He is also one of the most influential authors in the widest sense, for the two epics provided the basis of Greek education and culture throughout the Classical age and formed the backbone of humane education down to the time of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. Indirectly through the medium of Virgil's Aeneid (which was loosely molded after the patterns of the Iliad and the Odyssey), directly through their revival under Byzantine culture from the late 8th century ce onward, and subsequently through their passage into Italy with the Greek scholars who fled westward from the Ottomans, the Homeric epics had a profound impact on the Renaissance culture of Italy. Since then the proliferation of translations has helped to make them the most important poems of the Classical European tradition.

It was probably through their impact on Classical Greek culture itself that the Iliad and the Odyssey most subtly affected Western standards and ideas. The Greeks regarded the great epics as something more than works of literature; they knew much of them by heart, and they valued them not only as a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism but also as an ancient source of moral and even practical instruction.

Literary Favorites: Fact or Fiction?

Early references

Implicit references to Homer and quotations from the poems date to the middle of the 7th century bce. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, and Callinus in the 7th century and Sappho and others in the early 6th adapted Homeric phraseology and metre to their own purposes and rhythms. At the same time scenes from the epics became popular in works of art. The pseudo-Homeric "Hymn to Apollo of Delos," probably of late 7th-century composition, claimed to be the work of "a blind man who dwells in rugged Chios," a reference to a tradition about Homer himself. The idea that Homer had descendants known as "Homeridae," and that they had taken over the preservation and propagation of his poetry, goes back at least to the early 6th century bce. Indeed, it was not long before a kind of Homeric scholarship began: Theagenes of Rhegium in southern Italy toward the end of the same century wrote the first of many allegorizing interpretations. By the 5th century biographical fictions were well under way; the Pre-Socratic philosopher Heracleitus of Ephesus made use of a trivial legend of Homer's death-that it was caused by chagrin at not being able to solve some boys' riddle about catching lice-and the concept of a contest of quotations between Homer and Hesiod (after Homer the most ancient of Greek poets) may have been initiated in the Sophistic tradition. The historian Herodotus assigned the formulation of Greek theology to Homer and Hesiod and claimed that they could have lived no more than 400 years before his own time, the 5th century bce. This should be contrasted with the superficial assumption, popular in many circles throughout antiquity, that Homer must have lived not much later than the Trojan War about which he sang.

The general belief that Homer was a native of Ionia (the central part of the western seaboard of Asia Minor) seems a reasonable conjecture for the poems themselves are in predominantly Ionic dialect. Although Smyrna and Chios early began competing for the honour (the poet Pindar, early in the 5th century bce, associated Homer with both), and others joined in, no authenticated local memory survived anywhere of someone who, oral poet or not, must have been remarkable in his time. The absence of hard facts puzzled but did not deter the Greeks; the fictions that had begun even before the 5th century bce were developed in the Alexandrian era in the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce (when false scholarship as well as true abounded) into fantastic pseudobiographies, and these were further refined by derivative scholars under the Roman Empire. The longest to have survived purports to be by Herodotus himself; but it is quite devoid of objective truth.

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Homer, (flourished 9th or 8th century bce?, Ionia? [now in Turkey]), presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

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The Odyssey is about the 10 year journey it took Odysseus to return home after the Trojan war.

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Table of Contents

How was the Odyssey originally performed?

What are the most popular English-language translations of the Odyssey from the 20th century?

Odyssey, epic poem in 24 books traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer. The poem is the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who wanders for 10 years (although the action of the poem covers only the final six weeks) trying to get home after the Trojan War. On his return, he is recognized only by his faithful dog and a nurse. With the help of his son, Telemachus, Odysseus destroys the insistent suitors of his faithful wife, Penelope, and several of her maids who had fraternized with the suitors and reestablishes himself in his kingdom.

The story

The Odyssey does not follow a linear chronology. The reader begins in the middle of the tale, learning about previous events only through Odysseus's retelling. The first four books set the scene in Ithaca. Penelope, Odysseus's wife, and their young son, Telemachus, are powerless before her arrogant suitors as they despair of Odysseus's return from the siege of Troy. Telemachus is searching for news of his father, who has not been heard from since he left for war nearly 20 years earlier. He journeys secretly to the Peloponnese and seeks out two men who fought with Odysseus in the war at Troy, Nestor and Menelaus, and discovers that his father is indeed still alive.

The second four books (V-VIII) introduce the main character, Odysseus, as he is being released from captivity by the nymph Calypso on the island of Ogygia. He suffers a shipwreck and lands on the shore of Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians. In Books IX-XII Odysseus tells the Phaeacians of the harrowing journey he and his crew endured as they tried to find their way home-including their encounters with the lotus-eaters, Laestrygonians, and the sorceress Circe, their narrow escape from the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus, their ordeal navigating between Scylla and Charybdis, and the final shipwreck in which Odysseus is washed ashore on Ogygia alone.

Finally, Books XIII-XXIV, the second half of the poem, find Odysseus back in Ithaca, facing unexpected obstacles and danger. He meets with his protector-goddess Athena and reveals himself first to his faithful swineherd Eumaeus and then to Telemachus before developing a complicated plan to dispose of the suitors. During Odysseus's absence, Penelope resisted the importuning of more than a hundred suitors-who have stayed in Odysseus's house, eating, drinking, and carousing while waiting for her to decide among them. In order to reunite with his wife, Odysseus kills them all, with the aid of Telemachus, Eumaeus, and Philoetius (a servant and cowherd).

Composition and early translations

Scholars date the writing of the Odyssey to about 725-675 bce. The poem was intended for oral performance. It was composed of 12,109 lines written in dactylic hexameter (sometimes referred to as "Homeric hexameter")-that is, each line consisted of six feet, or metrical units, and each foot consisted of a dactyl (a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables). The original work may not have been constructed into the 24 books known to the contemporary reader, and the parts were certainly not in codex form. In the ancient world, the poem was likely written in columns on rolls made from papyrus, or possibly some kind of animal skin (such as vellum and parchment). Given its extraordinary length, the poem may have actually occupied 24 individual rolls. Homer's role in the writing of the poem and whether he was literate have been a source for rich scholarly debate, commonly referred to as the "Homeric Question."

Until the 15th century all volumes of the Odyssey in circulation were in handwritten Greek. In 1488 the first printed version (still in Greek) was produced in Florence. The earliest vernacular translations of the Odyssey from its original Ionic Greek dialect began to appear in Europe during the 16th century. Applying the ancient Greek metre to contemporary vernaculars, especially to words meant to be spoken aloud rather than read privately, posed a particular challenge, forcing translators to add and invent words in order to make the metre work. Some have translated it into prose and some into verse.

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Odyssey | Summary, Characters, Meaning, & Facts

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Odyssey, epic poem in 24 books traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer. The poem is the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who wanders for 10 years (although the action of the poem covers only the final six weeks) trying to get home after the Trojan War.

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There are 13 Gods and Goddeses that ancient Greece believed in.

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In the ancient Greek world, religion was personal, direct, and present in all areas of life. With formal rituals which included animal sacrifices and libations, myths to explain the origins of mankind and give the gods a human face, temples which dominated the urban landscape, city festivals and national sporting and artistic competitions, religion was never far from the mind of an ancient Greek. Whilst the individual may have made up their own mind on the degree of their religious belief and some may have been completely sceptical, certain fundamentals must have been sufficiently widespread in order for Greek government and society to function: the gods existed, they could influence human affairs, and they welcomed and responded to acts of piety and worship.

The Olympian Gods

Polytheistic Greek religion encompassed a myriad of gods, each representing a certain facet of the human condition, and even abstract ideas such as justice and wisdom could have their own personification. The most important gods, though, were the Olympian gods led by Zeus:

These Olympian gods were believed to reside on Mt. Olympus and would have been recognised across Greece, albeit, with some local variations and perhaps particular attributes and associations.

In the Greek imagination, literature & art, the gods were given human bodies & characters - both good & bad.

In the Greek imagination, literature, and art, the gods were given human bodies and characters - both good and bad - and just as ordinary men and women, they married, had children (often through illicit affairs), fought, and in the stories of Greek mythology they directly intervened in human affairs. These traditions were first recounted only orally as there was no sacred text in Greek religion and later, attempts were made to put in writing this oral tradition, notably by Hesiod in his and more indirectly in the works of Homer.

Temples, Rituals & Priests

Gods became patrons of cities, for example, Aphrodite for Corinth and Helios for Rhodes, and were called upon for help in particular situations, for example, Ares during war and Hera for weddings. Some gods were imported from abroad, for example, Adonis, and incorporated into the Greek pantheon whilst rivers and springs could take on a very localised personified form such as the nymphs.

The temple ( naos - meaning dwelling place in reference to the belief that the god dwelt in that place, or at least temporarily visited during rituals) was the place where, on special occasions, religion took on a more formal tone. Gods were worshipped at sacred sites and temples in all major Greek communities in ceremonies carried out by priests and their attendants.

At first, sacred sites were merely a simple altar in a designated area, but over time massive temples came to be built in honour of a particular god and these usually housed a cult statue of the deity, most famously the huge statue of Athena in the Parthenon of Athens or Zeus at Olympia. In time, a whole complex of temples to lesser gods could spring up around the main temple, creating a large sacred complex, often built on an acropolis dominating a city or surrounding area. This sacred area ( temenos) was separated from the rest of the community by a symbolic gate or propylon, and in fact, it was believed that this area belonged to the particular deity in question. Sacred sites also received financial donations and dedications of statues, fountains and even buildings from the faithful, often to celebrate a great military victory and give thanks to the gods, and larger sanctuaries also had permanent caretakers ( neokoroi) who were responsible for the upkeep of the site.

The animals sacrificed were usually pigs, sheep, goats or cows & always the same sex as the god which was being honoured.

The temple itself, though, was not used during religious practices as these were carried out at a designated altar outside the temple. Ancient authors often show a reluctance to go into explicit details of religious ceremonies and rites as if these were too sacred to be publicised in the written word. What we do know is that the most common religious practices were sacrifice and the pouring of libations, all to the accompaniment of prayers in honour of the god. The animals sacrificed were usually pigs, sheep, goats or cows and always the same sex as the god which was being honoured. The meat was then either burnt completely or cooked, with part offered to the god and the rest eaten by some or all of the worshippers or taken away to be eaten later. The actual killing of the animal was carried out by a butcher or cook ( megeiras) whilst a young girl sprinkled seeds onto the animals head, perhaps symbolic of life and regeneration at the moment of the animal's death. Other such rituals included examining the entrails of sacrificed animals to ascertain signs which could help predict future events.

Priests then, orchestrated the religious ceremonies and delivered prayers. The position was generally open to all and once assuming the role, particularly when wearing the sacred headband, the body of the priest became inviolate. Priests served a specific god but they were not necessarily religious experts. For theological questions, a citizen could consult an exegetes, a state official, who was knowledgeable in religious affairs. Women could also be priests, which is perhaps surprising given their lack of any other public role in Greek society. Often, but not always, the priest was the same sex as the god they represented. Priestesses did have the added restriction that they were most often selected because they were virgins or beyond menopause. Worshippers, on the other hand, could be both sexes and those rituals with restrictions could exclude either men or women.

Mysteries & Oracles

In addition to the formal and public religious ceremonies there were also many rites which were open to and known only by the initiated who performed them, the most famous example being the Mysteries of Eleusis. In these closed groups, members believed that certain activities gave spiritual benefits, amongst them a better after-life.

Places could also acquire a divine connection; the great oracles such as that of Apollo at Delphi and Zeus at Dodona may well have begun as places considered particularly good to receive signs from the gods. Such places became hugely important centres with their priest oracles consulted by both individuals and city-states so that the rather vague and ambiguous proclamations might help guide their future conduct.

Festivals & Games

Athletic Games and competitions in music (especially playing the kithara and lyre) and theatre (both tragedy and comedy) were held during festivals such as the City Dionysia of Athens and the Panhellenic games at the most important sacred sites of Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and Isthmia to honour a particular god. These events were attended by visitors from all over Greece and the experience was perhaps more akin to a pilgrimage rather than that of a mere sports fan. Illustrating their sacred status, warfare was prohibited during these events and pilgrims were guaranteed free-passage across Greece. However, there were also much smaller festivals, sometimes only attended by a very select number of individuals, for example, the Arrhephoria in Athens, where only priestesses and a maximum of four young girls participated.

Personal Religion

Although the historical record reveals much about formal religious occasions and ceremony, we should remember that Greek religion was in fact practised anywhere, at any time, by private individuals in a very personal way. Not only temples but also the hearth in private homes was regarded as sacred, for example. Individuals could also visit a temple anytime they wanted to and it was customary to say a prayer even when just passing them in the street. People left offerings such as incense, flowers, and food, no doubt with a hopeful prayer or in gratitude for a past deed. Individuals could also organise their own private sacrifice if they had the means to do so, and these have been commemorated in thousands of stone relief markers found at sacred sites. In addition, temples were often visited in order to seek healing, especially at those sites associated with Asclepius the god of medicine, notably at Epidaurus.

People also looked for signs from the gods in everyday life and to interpret these signs as indicators of future events. Such signs could be birds in the sky or a spoken word between friends said at a particular moment or even a simple sneeze which might be interpreted as an auspicious or inauspicious omen.

Such beliefs and, indeed, certain aspects of religion such as the immorality of the gods as portrayed in the arts, were severely criticised by intellectuals, artists, and philosophers from the 5th century BCE, but these may or may not reflect the commonly held views of the wider populace, and it is difficult to believe from the wealth of archaeological and written records that religion was anything but a fundamental part of life for the ordinary inhabitants of the ancient Greek world.

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In the ancient Greek world, religion was personal, direct, and present in all areas of life. With formal rituals which included animal sacrifices and libations, myths to explain the origins of mankind and give the gods a human face, temples which dominated the urban landscape, city festivals and national sporting and artistic competitions, religion was never far from the mind of an ancient Greek.

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greeks believed that the gods had control over every part of there lives

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Myths are stories created to teach people about something important and meaningful. They were often used to teach people about events that they could not always understand, such as illness and death, or earthquakes and floods. Legends are like myths, but they are slightly different. While myths are completely made up, legends are based on events that really happened.

The Greeks believed in gods and goddesses who, they thought, had control over every part of people's lives. The Ancient Greeks believed that they had to pray to the gods for help and protection, because if the gods were unhappy with someone, then they would punish them. They made special places in their homes and temples where they could pray to statues of the gods and leave presents for them.

The Greeks had a different god for almost everything. They imagined that the gods lived together, as a family, up on the top of Mount Olympus. They did not see them as perfect, but just like people. In the Greek myths the gods argue, fall in love, get jealous of each other and make mistakes.

Some of the most important Greek gods were:

Zeus, the leader of the gods, in charge of rain and the sky

Hera, Zeus's wife, was the goddess of marriage and childbirth

Poseidon, the god of the sea

Aphrodite, the goddess of love

Hades, the god of the Underworld, where the dead lived

Ares, god of war and battle

There are many famous Greek myths and legends. Some of them are reused in stories and films today!

In one, a woman called Pandora opens up a box full of all the bad things in the world, and lets them out.

Theseus and the Minotaur tells the story of a prince who chases a monster through a labyrinth to save the woman he loves.

In another tale, two inventors called Icarus and Daedalus try to build wings so they can fly away from prison.

Perhaps the most exciting is Perseus and the Gorgon in which a man called Perseus has to kill a woman who can turn people to stone just by looking at them!

Discussion Ideas

If you were to become a Greek God, what would you want to be the 'god' of and why?

Why do you think the Ancient Greeks needed myths?

Do you already know the stories of any Greek myths? Can you describe them?

Activity Ideas

Imagine you have become a Greek god or goddess. Sometimes in statues and pictures, gods are shown holding objects or wearing things to represent their powers. Draw a picture of yourself as a god/goddess, taking care to show your power through the clothes you are wearing and the objects around you.

Create your own myth: Myths often include: an interesting setting, a mythical beast, a journey or a trial, a captivating ending. Why don't you have a go at writing your own with these four key 'ingredients'?

Download the story of Perseus and the Gorgon, then play the 'Follow Me' game to test your knowledge.

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Ancient Greeks: Everyday Life, Beliefs and Myths

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Myths are stories created to teach people about something important and meaningful. They were often used to teach people about events that they could not always understand, such as illness and death, or earthquakes and floods. Legends are like myths, but they are slightly different.

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The early Greeks traveled a lot and they traveled by boat most of the time.

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Travel opportunities within the ancient Greek world largely depended on status and profession; nevertheless, a significant proportion of the population could, and did, travel across the Mediterranean to sell their wares, skills, go on religious pilgrimage, see sporting events or even travel simply for the pleasure of seeing the magnificent sights of the ancient world. Travel was not always glamorous, though, and three other significant groups who also travelled far from their homeland, usually against their will, were political envoys, slaves, and soldiers, especially mercenaries.

Celebrating Travel

Travel seems to have always been held in high regard by the Greeks, which is no surprise for a civilization famous for its curiosity and innovation. In the earliest oral traditions of Greek mythology, many of the tales, such as Jason and the Golden Fleece, celebrated the benefits to be gained from travelling whilst others, such as the myth of Charybdis, warned of the possible risks of voyaging into the unknown. In the earliest works of Greek literature in the 8th century BCE, both Homer and Hesiod describe traders, in particular, as great travellers. Works such as the illustrated that the authors themselves had clearly travelled or at least spoken to those who had, and one might say that Odysseus ' epic journey home to Ithaca was itself a celebration of the adventures inherent in travel.

Artefacts and literature indicate that at least some portion of the population was relatively mobile across the Greek world.

The idea that the Greeks did travel widely is evidenced in the archaeological record which shows such tangible and measurable indicators of contact between peoples as finds of trade goods and coinage, uniformity in artistic styles and cultural practices, and the spread of disease. Literature too, for example, scholarly works, plays, and histories, all indicate that at least some portion of the population was relatively mobile across the Greek world. In addition, trends came back the other direction and new ideas could influence the home cities and regions; one important example of this two-way exchange was the influence of eastern tastes in clothes, food, and architecture on Greek city-life.

As the following quote from Plato's Crito illustrates, travel was widely considered a useful activity, and the Athenian philosopher Socrates is here criticised for not thinking so:

You never went out from the city to a festival, or anywhere else, except on military service, and you never made any other journey, as other people do and you had no wish to know any other city or other law, but you were contented with us and our city. (52b)

Practicalities

Travel on land meant using carriages and horses for the better off or beasts of burden and plain old walking for everybody else. Greece had an extensive road network connecting even the most remote settlements; however, the easiest and most comfortable way to travel was by sea, especially as the vast majority of the more important urban centres were located either on or very near the coast. There were no ships dedicated only for travellers, though, and the would-be tourist had to persuade a sea-trader to make room amongst his cargo.

Maps, at least those covering larger areas, seem to have been the reserve of scholars rather than everyday travellers. No doubt primitive roads, natural landmarks (mountains, rivers and springs) and settlements were used to guide a visitor new to a particular area. Regarding sea travel, ship's captains commonly kept logs ( periploi) describing landmarks along coastlines and sometimes even records of land distances and routes ( stadiasmoi) relevant to their ports of call.

Travel could be an expensive business, though, and if undertaken over long distances, required baggage porters and other attendants. Hospitality was usually provided by social peers for free (at least for the higher classes) but there were specific enterprises set up to provide basic food and accommodation, especially in the larger cities and great 'attractions' of the Panhellenic religious sanctuaries. At ports like the Piraeus, secondary businesses also sprang up to capture the money of the passing traveller, for example, shops, laundries, barbers and prostitutes.

The dangers of travel in the Archaic period included the legal problem of being in the territory of another state without permission whilst trying to arrive at one's destination, unreliable transport, robbery and even abduction; the latter two were a particular danger when travelling by sea, where pirates operated. By the Classical period relations between states became more regularised and systems of communication improved, but travel remained a risky business. In addition, with the ever-increasing size and complexity of urban-centres, the need for resources, skills and slaves meant that warfare could very often result in the forced movement of people and even whole populations.

Commercial Travellers

Traders ( emporos), highly skilled craftsmen (especially metalworkers, gem-carvers, potters, stonemasons and glassworkers) and technical experts such as actors, writers, philosophers, and practitioners of medicine, commonly travelled around the Mediterranean offering their goods and services to those who could pay. Examples include the doctors Demokedes of Kroton and Apollonides of Kos (who both served the Persian royal court), the architect Mandrokles of Samos and the sculptor Telephanes. Many of these specialists and artisans made permanent moves and set up their workshops to spread their knowledge and artistic styles far from their original place of invention.

Traders also gathered at the busy commercial centres like the Piraeus to sell their goods which would, in turn, travel across the Mediterranean. Colonists ( apoikoi) established hundreds of new cities across the Mediterranean, and these were usually developed from basic trading posts. In addition, there were centres which were exclusively set up for the purposes of trade, for example, Naucratis on the Nile Delta and Al Mina in present-day southern Turkey. Consequently, in the summer season, traders continuously criss-crossed the Mediterranean in search of goods and business, and in so doing they provided a means for non-commercial travellers to reach far-flung destinations.

The Greeks, as with any other civilization, also had their share of that most intrepid of all travellers, the explorer. Perhaps motivated more by commercial opportunities rather than pure knowledge expansion, Greeks did occasionally go beyond the confines of the Mediterranean and explore the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Northern Africa. Perhaps the most famous explorers were Herodotus of Halikarnassos and Pytheas, who travelled as far as the south-west of England and possibly even made it to Iceland and the Baltic coast around 340 BCE.

Religious Travellers

Religious pilgrimages were also a common activity, the most popular destinations being the sanctuaries of Delphi and Delos. Here the visitors could not only admire some of the greatest buildings of Greek architecture but also great works of art in the form of statues, relief sculpture and fountains. They could leave dedicatory offerings of all kinds from simple clay figures to huge bronze statues or even entire buildings, offered in honour of the gods and usually in the hope of some kind of divine intervention in ordinary lives. Those seeking medical cures could also travel to centres such as Epidaurus where Asklepius, the god of medicine, could advise them on the best course of treatment. Also in the category of religious travel could be placed those who journeyed to see sites made famous by mythology such as caves where a god was said to have been born or a temple built where a god was said to have directly intervened in human affairs.

Festivals such as the Panathenaia and City Dionysia of Athens and those festivals which included the first showings of plays by the famous playwrights attracted visitors from far and wide. Indeed cities saw the financial and public relations benefits of welcoming visitors, for as the Athenian statesman Pericles stated in his famous funeral oration:

We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing... (Boys-Stones, 394).

Travelling For Culture

Sports fans were also great travellers, especially those who wished to see the great athletic events of the Panhellenic games at Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia and Nemea. Due to the sacred nature of these games there was even a period of truce declared across Greece to allow safe travel for those who wished to attend.

Just as people travelled from rural areas to participate in life in the city and the opportunities offered there, people also travelled for their education to famous centres such as Plato's Academy in Athens or the scientific schools in Asia Minor, a phenomenon which only increased in Hellenistic times and expanded to artistic schools of drama and sculpture, for example. Similarly, scholars and sophists travelled around to find students or people willing to pay in order to learn such skills as music, philosophy, or public speaking.

Tourists were those who travelled for no other reason than to see for themselves the cultural sights made famous by literature, theatre, story-telling, warfare and even coinage. Especially popular were the large urban centres such as Athens and Sparta and Egypt, too, with its impressive ancient monuments. As one 5th century BCE comic poet put it:

If you've never seen Athens, your brain's a morass
If you've seen it and weren't entranced, you're an ass,
If you left without regrets, your head's solid brass!
(Boys-Stones, 395)

By the 3rd century BCE, literature, too, sprang up which described the great sights to be seen, with some of the earliest texts being On the Cities in Greece (of which only fragments survive) by Heraclides Criticus and the Epidēmiai by the poet Ion of Chios, one of the most celebrated travellers of the 5th century BCE. These texts usually restricted themselves to descriptions of famous works of art and monuments, rarely mentioning topography and never the practicalities of travel. They could also be highly selective, subjective and even prone to exaggeration but they do, nevertheless, illustrate the thirst amongst the Greeks to know more about the wider world.

Travel in the Greek world, then, just as today, was considered an important way to broaden the mind, learn about other, older civilizations or contemporary cultures and see for oneself the places made so famous by literature; to finally see first-hand the exciting and exotic places one has read and heard so much about since childhood.

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Travel opportunities within the ancient Greek world largely depended on status and profession; nevertheless, a significant proportion of the population could, and did, travel across the Mediterranean to sell their wares, skills, go on religious pilgrimage, see sporting events or even travel simply for the pleasure of seeing the magnificent sights of the ancient world.

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The Greek God of sky and thunder, and the ruler of all other gods and mortals. Zeus means "bright".

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Christian Orthodox was mainly used (98%) in Greece and and the Greek Islands. The religion for the rest of the population was muslims, Catholic, and Jewish.

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Religion in Greece: History of Orthodoxy - Greeka.com

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Information about Christian Orthodox religion in Greece: the founders, the schism, its importance in everydays life and other religions.

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Food in Ancient Greek consisted of grains, wheat, barley, fruit, vegetables, breads, and cakes.

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The Greek diet was very healthy. Food in Ancient Greece consisted of grains, wheat, barley, fruit, vegetables, breads, and cake.

The Ancient Greeks grew olives, grapes, figs and wheat and kept goats, for milk and cheese. They ate lots of bread, beans and olives.

In the Summer months there were plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to eat and in the winter they ate dried fruit and food they had stored like apples and lentils. As most of the Greeks lived very near the sea, they also ate a lot of fish, squid and shellfish.

fish

The soil by the sea was not so rich as on the plains so the Greeks used irrigation and crop rotation to keep the soil relatively fertile.

In some of the larger Greek city-states, meat could be purchased in cook shops. Meat was rarely eaten as the Greeks felt that just killing and eating a domesticated animal (like goats) was wrong. The Greeks would often sacrifice the meat to the gods first and then might eat some of the meat.

Meat

The Greeks loved their wine which was made from the grapes they grew.

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The Greek diet was very healthy. Food in Ancient Greece consisted of grains, wheat, barley, fruit, vegetables, breads, and cake. The Ancient Greeks grew olives, grapes, figs and wheat and kept goats, for milk and cheese. They ate lots of bread, beans and olives.

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Ancient Greek diets consisted of a lot of wine, barley, and olives.

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Learn more about the history and origins of cooking, food and the culinary arts.