Understanding Homer

Homer whose life has always been questionable is the father of poetry and literature. Homer has been the cultural intersection point of the common and the elite in the ancient world, the owner of the first words every new born baby heard in the Aegean coasts in ancient times, the author of the first work that every prospective archeologist or everyone interested in archaeology takes in her/his hand while entering this world.

Discussions about him began just after the years generally accepted as his death time (towards 7th century BC.). Homer has been subject to the thorough investigations of Homeric studies and many complicated questions that mostly have remained unanswered about his birth and death place and the origins of his oeuvre and the authorship issues.

"As everyone has learnt Homer since the beginning…"

It is not appropriate to describe a man who has classified the religion and beliefs in the Greek society as well as the gods and their tasks merely as a poet. It will be a misnomer, however, to label him as a prophet or a theologian. One may also call him a geographer since the archaeologists and the adventurers traveled, Homer’s poetry in their hands, to search for ancient cities for centuries. The first known cooking recipe was also given in his verses. “A soldier only could write such a work” said Napoleon.

A bundle of the world in the 8th century B.C may be the simplest definition of Homer’s oeuvre. Social relationships between people, what they valued, what they laughed at and what they got angry at have been presented through astonishing details. “And they smiled crookedly” says Homer and Egon Friedell finds out first data on psychology in Homer. Meticulously depicted human portraits place the reader at the heart of these times’ world. When compared to modern historical movies and contemporary historical novels, Homer’s deities pretend to be real, their verisimilitude is astonishing. There is no single fictional error in the narration and the past is portrayed in its own simplicity and exaggeration. While the flashbacks and reversals in time contribute to the dynamism of the work, images suddenly stop and focus on a character. The reader (or listener) is taken from a battlefield into a love story. Diverse flowers and animals, the flora and fauna surrounding human beings fully come to life. However, roosters, for instance, are not mentioned in Homer’s works since there were no poultry animals in the Aegean world of these times. Homer makes a single reference to Dionysus for he was a newly created god in these times and he was mostly stranger to Homer as he was to other people. Not only things Homer mentioned in his works but also what he did not have been of great value for those interested in this ancient world. The fact that we will never know for sure whether he actually lived or not, has been one of the world’s biggest ironies.

After His Death

After Homer’s speculative death time, a family who called themselves The Son of Homer on the island of Chios monopolized the recitation of Homer’s poetry and they began to recite the Homeric epic poems in the flourishing Ionian festivals.

In those years when the cities of Western Anatolia were dotting the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region with their colonies, Homer’s epic poetry as well as all other Greek customs expanded to faraway lands. The poet himself also became a legendary personality as time passed by. In 550 BC, in Athens, his complete oeuvre was collected and transcribed. His works were taught in schools that were attended by children of the elite class (gymnasion). Homer’s style and words were thought to be mystical melodies which might be interpreted through acrostics and anagrams. The oracles tried to interpret his poetry in order to help divine before important battles, commanders and kings visited Troia and its surroundings to offer votives and sacrifices, they identified themselves as the heroes of the Trojan War. As the years passed by Troia became the turning point for the struggle between civilizations and cultures, a defining moment or rather a utopia revealing the origins of the peoples of the East and the West. During their struggles against the Greeks, Persians pretended to be the descendants of and the heir to the Trojans considering themselves the protectors of the Asian peoples. The Greek commander Agesilaos who fought against the Persians identified himself to Agamemnon, the King of the Achaeans. Alexander the Great tended to compare himself to the well- known Achaean hero Achilles.

Homer’s song began to be recited in the 8th century BC and deeply influenced every aspect of Greek life for five centuries. The Homeric traces might be seen on both written and unwritten materials through different interpretations. The study of Homer has been one of the oldest topics in scholarship, dating back to antiquity. The first systematic study and scholarly discussions on Homer started in the Hellenistic period (4th – 1 th cent. BC). The speculations about the date Homer’s poetry was written down, his native city have continued for centuries. Even whether he actually lived or not has been speculated through these discussions.

A great number of the cities in the ancient Greek world pretended to be the birthplace of Homer. Nothing definite was known of him; yet rich traditions grew up purporting to give details of his birthplace and background. The first seeds of philology emerged through the meticulous works of the scholars in the Hellenistic Period.

In the 4th century BC an independent field of study focusing exclusively on Homer flourished. The Iliad was divided into chapters and was produced with introductions and glossaries added to the text. This was a complete novelty as far as the conventions of the period are concerned. It is generally accepted that Homer’s poetry was written down for the first time in 550 BC. However, in the Hellenistic period, scholars and scribes changed their attitudes towards Homeric poetry which was traditionally thought to be a kind of scripture. After this change in perception, Homer’s oeuvre was interpreted and contextualized by newly emerging editors and literary critics (Diaskeuastai). Systematic studies on the history of scholarly endeavor and literature emerged. Numerous volumes on Homer and Homer’s biography were written in the libraries of Alexandria and Pergamon. These studies constituted the first systematic research in the scholarly world consecutively engendering the first scholarly discussions.

Although "Homer" is a Greek name, attested in Aeolic-speaking areas, nothing definite is known of him. Many speculations on the details of his birthplace and background were made. His name “homeros” meaning “blind” in the Aeolian dialect made people think that he was blind and he was from the Aeolian region. Others claimed that he was from Ionia since “homeros” meant “hostage or slave” in the Ionian dialect .

A group called “khorizont” claimed that it was not Homer who actually wrote these poems . While others claimed that he only wrote The Iliad, other people asserted that some passages in the poems were not written by Homer himself but were added in later periods. Lucian, a contemporary satirist, probably bored of these speculations, parodied and criticized the discussions in his own manner.

"After two days, I encountered Homer, the poet. Being two independent individuals, I had the opportunity to ask him numerous questions intriguing my mind. I asked him where he was born. I explained him that it was still a very hot discussion topic among us. Homer told me that different experts suggested Chios, Symyrna and Colophon as his birthplace but he pointed out that he was actually born in Babylon which is generally known as Tigranes by many, but he was sold to the Greeks as a slave (homeros) and he was named after. I also asked other questions. “Did you actually write these verses that editors claimed to be rather anonymous? I asked. He said that all verses belonged to him. Then, I told Homer all the scholarly ravings of Aristarch and Zenodotus’ schools. Then, I asked the reason why he opened the Iliad by Achilles’ fury. He said that he did not choose it intentionally; he rather began the story the way he liked it. I finally asked him whether he wrote the Odyssey first or not. He clearly replied “No, I first wrote the Iliad and then the Odyssey. Since I could see with my own eyes that he was not blind, I did not need to ask him whether he was blind or not."

The Origin of Homer

It is nearly impossible to cite any Greek city that did not claim Homer to be its own citizen. The Romans followed a similar line in later years. The fact that the earliest documents on Homer were contemporary to the introduction of writing in the Western world may illustrate the deep rooted aspect of the issue. The earliest documents which are dated to the 7th and 6th century have mentioned Homer as “the man who lived in the past” and discussions have continued for centuries without any solid agreements on his birthplace, life story, works, death place or whether he actually lived/died or not?

The Suidas dictionary written in the 10th century AD stated that "the suspicions about this great poet, for instance whether he was a mortal or not, brought about similar doubts about the exact location of his birthplace. Numerous experts claimed that Homer was born in Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Ios , Kyme or Kenkherai in Troas. There were also others claiming that his birthplace was Lydia, Ithaca, Athens, Cyprus, Salamis, Knossos, Mycenae, Egypt, Thesselia, Italy, Lukiana, Gryneia, Rome or the Rhodes Island"

Besides a great number of works which mentioned Homer, there were sources, ancient vitae more or less equivalent to modern biographies, which exclusively focused on Homer. There are seven surviving Greek vitae along with several Roman ones. As far as the earliest documents are taken into consideration, it is possible to diminish the list to seven cities: Chios, Smyrna, Kyme, Colophon, Athens, Ios and Argos.

“I am Peisistratos, the statesman who became tyrant three times. I am the tyrant who was exiled three times to return to rule. I am Peisistratos who collected Homer’s poetry. As Smyrna was founded by the Athenians, the great poet was also our citizen.”

The statement above by Peisistratos, the tyrant of Athena, demonstrates that the Athenians’ claim was based on the postulate of Homer’s Smyrnaean origin and the kinship between the Athenian and Smyrnaean peoples.

In the story about the Ios Island, a young girl from the Ios Island impregnated by a deity or a foreigner, was sold as a slave to Smyrna by her family who was ashamed of her situation. The slave girl gave birth to Homer in Smyrna. This story seems to strengthen the claims about Smyrna as the actual birthplace.

The claim of Argos seems to be refuted at the very beginning because of the different dialects, that which was spoken in Argos and that of Homer. According to G. Thompson, these claims were based on the traditional music festivals held in Argos in honor of Apollo and Homer, on the old oral traditions and on the popularity of Homer’s poetry in this political center.

There is no clear evidence on Colophon’s assertions and the claims seem to be tendentious since all of the claimers were from Colophon. Those that remain, the island of Chios, Kyme and Smyrna may be seen as stronger candidates. These three cities located on a triangle in the basin of the Hermos River was an intersection zone between two regions: Aeolis, where the last days of the weakened kingdom were challenging for survival and Ionia where a new cultural and social development was flourishing step by step. A similar intersection of both dialects is also observable in Homer’s poetry.

It is proper to think that Homer’s poetry was born under the hospitability of the Aeolian rulers and grew in the Ionian festivals. After the decay in the feudal structure and the weakening of rulers’ and kings’ patronage, Delos and the festivals held in honor of Apollo became the most important center for poets and poetry. As Zeno describes people who were singing with all his heart were defined by a well-known expression "they were singing as they were to go to Delos".

Epic poetry developed in a world where the nobility of the past was praised within the framework of a feudal structure through the memoirs of old glorious days. For Egon Friedel "These poems fully blossomed in Ionia at the very heart of trade, politics and science. The conditions there were unequalled"

The lands that gave birth to Homer, must have been surely a cultural milieu near Smyrna, the island of Chios was also in this cultural region. Surely, there is always the possibility of mistake. When one is dealing with epic poetry, a poet and a world, the reasons behind its creation has always been something much more deeper, a larger cultural climate, an universal cultural value