It is estimated that Homer was born somewhere on the coast of Asia Minor, between the 12th and 8th centuries BC. The name "Homer", an unusual name for that period, is thought to mean either "blind" or "captive".
Homer is called a bard because he performed and sang. He is thought to be blind and therefore also known as Homer the blind poet.
Estimates of his date of birth range from 750 BC to 1200 BC. Homer was a folk poet and a professional storyteller. The Greeks believed he was blind; probably because he mentioned a blind poet in one of his poems.
Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey are each about 12,000 lines long. It can take nights to read both poems from start to finish. For the ancients, listening to epic poetry was an exciting and enjoyable way to spend the night. These two poems describe the Trojan War and its results. The victory of the Greeks at Troy was both an important event for Greek civilization and accelerated the establishment of Rome. These epics became an integral part of Greek culture because the poems were centered around this very important historical event and Homer was a very talented storyteller. Even the Greeks It is said that they started teaching these works as lessons in schools around 400.
There are seven places claimed to be Homer's birthplace: Argos, Athens, Chios, Kolophon (between Izmir and Selcuk), Rhodes, Salamis Island, and Smyrna (Izmir). However, historians have yet to reach a consensus on his birthplace.
Homeric Myth
There are many theories claiming that Homer was not the sole author of the works attributed to him. Some researchers aren't even sure it really exists. One theory postulates that these poems were composed by many different people and that the resulting work was attributed to Homer. Other theories suggest that the first part of the Odyssey was written by Homer, but the rest was completed by one or more poets. There are also those who express the view that the person known as Homer never existed, that this name is only a general term used to describe all poets who wrote heroic lines. According to another theory, Homer is the name of the scribe who first wrote down these works. Since he signed under his name under the written texts, it was believed that he created these texts. In the early twentieth century, a researcher who suggested that the Odyssey was written by a woman surprised everyone.
So what is the reason for this skepticism? Homer's works have been studied for centuries. Comparing the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other poems attributed to Homer, researchers found significant differences between them. For example, some researchers believe that Homer's chosen topics and themes are too broad to be the product of a single mind. Others point out that although people typically speak only one dialect, different dialects are blended in Homer's works. The strong similarities between the poems in terms of style are attributed to the oral tradition they emerged from. Although the differences between Homer's works raise the question of who wrote them, whether "Homer" is a single person or many different authors, he laid the foundation of classical mythology.