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Who was Homer?

The only answer I can give you is I have no idea and neither does anyone else!  What we do know is that someone (or a group of people) wrote down two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the earliest surviving texts written in ancient Greek.  The first of the two epics, the Iliad, tells the tale of the war of Troy, ten-year struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans over the Menelaus' beautiful wife, who was stolen and brought to Troy by Paris.  The Odyssey follows the Greek hero, Odysseus, as he tries for ten years to find his way home, to the island of Ithaca, from distant Troy.

What is Troy?

In the nineteenth century Heinrich Schliemann discovered the site of ancient Troy in what is modern Turkey (find it on this map).  The site that visitors see today is only not one city, but rather, nine cities built after the other, for more than a millennium.  The Troy from Homer's is believed to be one of the ones in the middle, rather than the oldest one (which was Schliemann's original theory).  The links below offer a good (and relatively concise) history of the excavations as well as a biography of Schliemann and his partner, Calvert.

Links about Troy:
Wilfred E. Major's great site on Troy
Galen R Frysinger's interesting page on his travels to Troy

Questions, comments, suggestions? E-mail me:
lzlatic04@sidwell.edu

Last Updated: October 13, 2003

*The background image is a view of Pergamum (source)*