Homer and His World

What can be known about Homer, how his poetry works, and how the poems meet other Greek traditions. This section will grow as further English pages become available.

Were the Iliad and the Odyssey Composed by the Same Poet?What the similarities and differences between the poems can—and cannot—tell us about their composition. In Search of HomerWhat ancient testimony, later biography and oral tradition allow us to say about Homer — and what remains unknowable. Homer through Hesiod’s EyesWhat Hesiod makes visible when his poems are set beside Homer: work, sea, war, gods and the poet’s voice. Names and Places Before HomerWhat Linear B tablets can tell us about names, place-names and material evidence before the poems took shape. What Did Homer Know About the World He Described? I: Objects and TechniquesChariots, ships and weapons: what comparison between the poems and archaeology allows us to say, and what remains disputed. What Did Homer Know About the World He Described? II: Houses and Everyday LifeHomeric residences, the work of the oîkos, and the different periods gathered together in the poems. Homer and the DeadWhat the Iliad and the Odyssey say about death, shades and Hades.