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Was Homer Real?
Greek Reporter ^ | March 8, 2023 | Caleb Howells

Posted on 03/13/2023 2:40:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway

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To: nickcarraway
Was Homer Real?

Yes.

21 posted on 03/13/2023 3:48:54 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (The nation of france was named after a hedgehog... The hedgehog's name was Kevin... Don't ask)
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To: nickcarraway

The argument used to be that there was more evidence for Jesus than Homer, and yet no one questioned that Homer existed but did for Jesus.


22 posted on 03/13/2023 3:51:17 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: PIF

“Back in the day, we were taught that Homer wrote down existing oral stories - that he is believed to have actually written them is new to me.”

I was taught he used existing, time honored plots and combined them with using his own muse.


23 posted on 03/13/2023 4:16:45 PM PDT by odawg
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To: AnAmericanMother

—”Consider the low quality of the Suitors, and that they were only after her money!”

Clearly, he took care of the suitors, hangers-on, and unfaithful maids...

Then Tennyson says Ulysses (AKA Odysseus) put the band back together and headed out...

“We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

As a septuagenarian, I can dream with the guys.

The Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey was so good, I could not stop reading it! And I knew the ending.
Try it, you will like it.


24 posted on 03/13/2023 4:40:30 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ( "The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last messa)
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To: gundog

25 posted on 03/13/2023 4:49:27 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: gundog

Real!


26 posted on 03/13/2023 4:56:17 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: PIF
Back in the day, we were taught that Homer wrote down existing oral stories

Yup. And there is a very great deal of evidence - specific memory markers such as repetitions of "rosy-fingered dawn" for example - that both poems are exactly that. The controversy these days mostly centers around the question "Were there two Homers?", based on subtle differences between the Greek dialect used in the oldest available copies of the respective works. That's way outside my paygrade but my last Classics professor said he thinks there's a good chance there probably were.

27 posted on 03/13/2023 5:01:20 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: 17th Miss Regt
You don’t believe in Homer? You are a Homerphobe!


28 posted on 03/13/2023 5:15:31 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: Billthedrill

Obviously Homer did not write the two epic poems.

.

.

.

.

It was William Shakespeare.


29 posted on 03/13/2023 5:42:48 PM PDT by KC Burke (Once the architecture for suppression of liberty is in place it is only a matter of time before gove)
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To: KC Burke

Obviously Homer did not write the two epic poems.

.

.

.

.

It was William Shakespeare.

*********

Lol

Well played 👍


30 posted on 03/13/2023 6:06:02 PM PDT by unclebankster ( Globalism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.)
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To: gundog

Damn right!
Is Marge real? Bart?

Pretty soon everything is called into question...


31 posted on 03/13/2023 6:07:46 PM PDT by Adder (ALL Democrats are the enemy. NO QUARTER!!)
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To: PIF
Never heard of Adam Nicolson before. 1000 years before the commonly estimated date of Homer would be before the Trojan War.

Whoever wrote this piece seems unaware of all the work that has been done on oral poetry since the 1920s by Milman Parry, Albert Bates Lord and many other scholars. Homer would have been illiterate. Whether the same poet created the Iliad and the Odyssey is still debated.

There were performers of epic poetry called Homeridae who claimed to be descendants of Homer but whether he really existed is unknown.

Archilochus of Paros was active in the mid-600s and we know something about him. If Homer was as late as the 7th century we probably would know something definite about him.

32 posted on 03/13/2023 6:15:39 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: ETCM
This reads like something written by ChatGPT.

I agree. It has that halting, abrupt, spasmodic style common to AI.

33 posted on 03/13/2023 6:21:29 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: PIF
back when they actually taught history

The transition was in the late 60's to early 70's. My older high school teachers taught ancient, medieval and modern European history as one would expect using well established texts.

For American histroy we got some bright spark of a young genius out of one of our well-known Ivy League schools who taught us that American history is the history of immagrants. End of story. Nothing more to know. We learned nothing. And within 40 years the rot has spread everywhere and corrupted everything.

34 posted on 03/13/2023 7:15:08 PM PDT by AndyJackson (.)
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To: Verginius Rufus

If Herodotus said that Homer did not write any of the other Epic Cycle poems, would that not point to Homer’s authorship of the two attributed to him?


35 posted on 03/13/2023 7:39:38 PM PDT by nicollo ("I said no!")
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To: odawg

I was taught he used existing, time honored plots and combined them with using his own muse.


That was after the teaching of classics and history were changed by know-nothing teachers.


36 posted on 03/14/2023 4:36:23 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: SunkenCiv

Once his stories and plays became popular, and made money, his name was plagiarized by many of Joe Biden’s ancestors..............


37 posted on 03/14/2023 5:19:58 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: nicollo

Why would Herodotus, or any other Greek of the fifth century, know anything for sure about Homer’s authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey? Greeks of the classical period thought they knew many things about the Bronze Age which are now considered unproven legends. Thucydides thought he could use details in Homer as historical evidence.


38 posted on 03/14/2023 6:26:00 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: AnAmericanMother

that’s good! where is it from?


39 posted on 03/14/2023 7:53:22 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare)
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To: nickcarraway

Hey! Go kipple somewhere else!


40 posted on 03/14/2023 7:54:10 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare)
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