Homer
801 BCE – 702 BCE Greek poet
The blind bard credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey, foundation stones of Western literature.
- Religion
- Greek polytheism, which fills his epics as a living pantheon. His own existence and dates are uncertain and much debated.
- Affiliations
- None known. A legendary figure who long predates any organized society.
Homer is the name attached to the two great epics that opened the Western literary tradition, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Whether one poet composed them or they grew from an oral tradition is still argued. Their shaping of heroism, fate, and human character echoed through every later age of European writing.