The Odyssey by Homer | Author Biography

Even though he's almost universally regarded as ancient Greece's most significant and prolific poet, very little is actually known about the Odyssey's author, Homer. Some think he was a blind man writing in 8th century BCE. Some actually think that he wasn't a man at all, but a woman. And there are even some who think that Homer was in fact many different authors reiterating, retelling, and recasting the Odyssey over many generations as they went. To understand the Odyssey and its prequel, the Iliad, is to understand the very nature of storytelling itself. Both come from what you'll hear historians refer to as an oral tradition, meaning that these are never written down, but told from generation to generation out loud in communities, among friends and family, and the stories passed from generation to generation being recast, retold, and sometimes translated to fit different contexts or purposes. The Odyssey has influenced storytelling since its inception. Think about themes like a hero's quest, father and son relationships, reuniting with your family, saving some main family member or central female character, things like Star Wars, The Lion King, even Super Mario Brothers, characters overcoming supernatural odds with their own combinations of natural talents and a little help from forces beyond their control, coming into their own. The epic quest, and anything like it, owes a debt of gratitude to the Odyssey. Now the Odyssey didn't just speak to epic storytelling and massive interesting quests, but it actually spoke to the nuances of storytelling and language, literary devices like similes and metaphors that went on to have a tremendous impact on the way we share information with each other. And also, from a historical perspective, the Odyssey actually offered many glimpses into what life was like in ancient Greece. You can see that this is a book that not only speaks to mythology, creativity, and epic, but also a book that speaks to history and understanding a context of a life long in our past.